Next weekend, the city of Cuenca will become a global meeting point in the fight against rural depopulation as it welcomes 16 international experts for the G30 meeting on Rural Proofing. Participants will arrive from Estonia, Ireland, Scotland, Germany, Canada, and Portugal, alongside a representative from the OECD.
Organized by the Regional Government of Castile-La Mancha, this event will take place on Saturday, May 10th, 2025, at the Iberia Building — the Provincial Delegation headquarters in Cuenca. It marks the first in-person working session of the G30 and is dedicated to creating a shared methodology for monitoring and evaluating the impact of public policies in rural areas.
A Full-Day Agenda Focused on Practical Outcomes
The day will begin at 9:00 AM with a welcome reception, followed by an opening dialogue between Vice President José Luis Martínez Guijarro and the attending G30 members. The morning and afternoon will be dedicated to collaborative workshops, where participants will work toward designing an adaptable and evidence-based framework for evaluating Rural Proofing processes across different countries and regions.
Two coffee breaks and a group lunch will offer opportunities for informal networking and exchange.
Castile-La Mancha as a European Reference in Rural Policy
This meeting coincides with the first intermediate evaluation of the Regional Strategy Against Depopulation, the main tool for implementing the region’s pioneering legislation on demographic sustainability.
Castile-La Mancha continues to strengthen its international leadership in rural affairs. In recent years, it has played a key role in major international forums such as the European Rural Pact Conference (2022), the Economic Forum in Poland (2023), an OECD workshop in Paris (2024), and the UN-Habitat World Urban Forum in Cairo (2024).
As a result of sustained and coordinated efforts, the region has recorded a positive rural migratory balance of over 15,000 people since 2021.
