by Dr. Yossef Ben-Meir
In terms of human development potential, Morocco is a nation of immense promise, where gifted fortunes of nature such as wide-ranging organic agricultural products come together with dynamic social development frameworks. This could launch the country into a haven for community-managed projects and change in Africa and the Near East.
In particular, Morocco’s Frameworks for Development provide a comprehensive blueprint for fostering sustainable development in the country. Among the many existing frameworks, there are three in particular that have set out to structurally guide local and national growth:
- The Municipal Charter, amended in 2010, which requires the creation of multi-year community development plans that are formed by public participation;
- The National Initiative for Human Development, launched in 2005, which aims to provide access to sub-nationally managed funding for multidimensional development projects; and
- The Decentralization Roadmap, first unveiled in 2008, which innovatively synthesizes three approaches–delegation, deconcentration, and devolution–to empower regions in development.
Sadly, for the majority of people, the application of the country’s combined initiatives for development is not proving fruitful. The problem is that Morocco’s programs for national growth and development through public participation are not being orchestrated together. Integrating these programs would enable their mutual reinforcement to promote accelerated growth and success of development initiatives. Thus, the implementation of these development frameworks requires a major reevaluation and overhaul.
How then can these three frameworks better fulfill their individual purposes, and, more importantly, how can they intersect with each other to foster human development that is sustained by local beneficiaries?
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