The Diputación de Málaga will support a project to promote resettlement.
The Diputación de Málaga will financially support a project of Cicerones Rurales, Arrabal and Acción contra el Hambre to promote population and employment in municipalities with less than 20,000 inhabitants in the province. Pueblos covid Free, una oportunidad para la repoblación will be developed in El Borge, Benarrabá and Tolox.
This initiative was presented this Thursday by the fourth vice-president of the Diputación de Málaga, Natacha Rivas, responsible for citizenship and depopulation, together with the deputy for the elderly, third sector and international cooperation, Francisco José Martín, the mayoress of Tolox, Francisca García, and Marina Gámez, from the organisation Cicerones Rurales.
Rivas stressed the support of the provincial institution to entities that contribute to improving the quality of life of the population, especially in rural areas, and recalled that this project, endowed with 17,900 euros. It is part of a set of initiatives funded by the Diputación de Málaga through the Delegation of the Elderly, Third Sector and International Cooperation, within the call for aid to the third sector.
The aim of the project is to promote the development of sustainable economic models through social innovation, with an emphasis on quality and safety, and taking into account the resources offered by the smaller municipalities of the province.
In this context, he highlighted the importance of investing in social innovation and social entrepreneurship as a tool to face the demographic challenge in the province. In addition to reducing the digital divide through training or creating social entrepreneurship through the sustainable valorisation of the natural resources of the territory.
The head of Cicerones Rurales, for her part, stressed that this initiative will serve to promote domestic tourism in the province and to promote employment among young people in rural communities and combat depopulation.
The actions to be carried out include communication actions to promote domestic tourism (dissemination of content through social networks, television and radio); advice on entrepreneurship and sustainable innovation for rural resettlement; webinars on business models and sustainable innovation for rural resettlement; and advice on communication based on tourism initiatives.
This year, the Provincial Council will allocate 846,000 euros to third sector entities to implement community care projects in municipalities with less than 20,000 inhabitants, in addition to half a million euros for the purchase of sanitation and hygiene supplies for Covid-19.
One of the worst affected areas is the Serranía de Ronda, where many municipalities are experiencing a further loss of population.
Support for a start-up ramp to encourage rural and social entrepreneurship in areas of Málaga
The project «Malaga activa en rural«, supported by La Noria and Asaja, offers training and will accompany the projects in the areas of business management, motivation, financing and environmental sustainability.
Businesses are also opening in rural and agricultural areas of the province. The Provincial Council’s La Noria Social Innovation Centre and the Agricultural Association of Young Farmers (Asaja) have set up a business creation centre that offers training and mentoring for social entrepreneurship in rural areas through the triple effect. Thus, the social, economic and environmental dimensions will be the ones that companies and entrepreneurs will have to evaluate and take into account when making strategic decisions. The project of the social entity «Málaga activa en rural» is part of a collaboration agreement between the provincial institution and the La Caixa Banking Foundation.
In a statement, Natacha Rivas, fourth vice-president and deputy for Social Innovation and Depopulation, explained that the institution «is committed to creating and promoting new opportunities and economic and social activities in rural areas through the sustainable enhancement of the natural resources offered by the province». Rivas added that «with this project, we seek to introduce activities in rural areas that promote the settlement of the population and prevent their departure».
The programme will offer distance or «e-learning» training provided by experts through «Campus Agrario» and will accompany the social entrepreneurship projects in areas such as business management, motivation, financing and environmental sustainability. You can register now via the La Noria website (www.malaga.es/lanoria). The activities are aimed primarily at young people and women entrepreneurs from rural areas, under 40 years of age, living in rural areas of Malaga, mainly in municipalities of less than 20,000 inhabitants, and who are motivated to start an economic activity in their own environment.
Training itinerary
The president of Asaja Málaga, Baldomero Bellido, for his part, assured that «the objective is for the participants to complete the entire training programme. This will improve the working environment and the atmosphere of self-employment, with the aim of strengthening the roots of the youngest inhabitants of rural areas and creating a real economic and productive structure that promotes social entrepreneurship,» he said.
The project is mainly based on a series of practical workshops that will provide guidance on the most important points in the implementation of the participants’ ideas, provide concepts on the knowledge and skills needed to master the environment and offer tools to integrate the triple bottom line into the project and to facilitate their personal development and activate their motivation.
Informative workshops and mentoring events will precede the online course, which will cover the topics covered in these sessions. Topics such as business management will be addressed with practical and useful content, delivered by professionals in the sector and in collaboration with social partners, fostering partnerships between actors.