{"id":21990,"date":"2021-09-16T12:25:09","date_gmt":"2021-09-16T12:25:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/highatlasfoundation.org\/?p=21990"},"modified":"2021-12-09T12:50:50","modified_gmt":"2021-12-09T12:50:50","slug":"moroccan-decentralization-towards-community-development-and-national-solidarity","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/wordpress-haf.ddev.site\/moroccan-decentralization-towards-community-development-and-national-solidarity\/","title":{"rendered":"Moroccan Decentralization: Towards Community Development and National Solidarity"},"content":{"rendered":"
Moroccan Decentralization: Towards Community Development and National Solidarity<\/a>,\u00a0Sais review sais Johns Hopkins.<\/strong><\/p>\n <\/p>\n Dr. Yossef Ben-Meir first introduced us to development and decentralization in Morocco in\u00a02018<\/a>. In this new piece, he re-examines and updates Morocco\u2019s progress towards sustainable development.<\/em><\/p>\n Decentralization in the Kingdom of Morocco\u2014aiming to make unprecedented strides for people\u2019s development and for an enduring reconciliation of the conflict involving the Western Sahara\u2014grows from successful charters and programs that concentrate on participatory democratic approaches to social actions. Morocco has created for itself guiding pathways toward sustainable development that, if successful, could become a replicable model for other nations\u2019 decisions on socio-economic and environmental change.<\/p>\n Morocco\u2019s commitments to decentralization through localized development, expansion of women\u2019s rights and liberation, cultural plurality, and a number of other participatory democratic guarantees make the stakes extremely high. If its practical vision for change works, the nation will further its goal to mobilize tens of thousands of villages and neighborhoods for critical life enhancements with commitments through sustainable, localized development; \u00a0but if its implementation fails, then these humanistic and inclusive approaches to social growth may become a historic loss for the Moroccan people and considered less replicable by countries elsewhere.<\/p>\n The recent US recognition of Moroccan sovereignty over the Western Sahara is an implicit indication that decentralization could provide the long-term basis for national stability and shared growth. The final, autonomous status of the Western Sahara, the Southern Provinces within a sovereign Morocco, can accommodate the interests of self-determination and national unity, especially when sealed by locally and regionally conceived and life-enhancing development.<\/p>\n For Morocco to make important strides toward sustainable development, decentralization is the key framework to which it has constitutionally committed, as well as to other frameworks for local community actions. However, while decentralization is the cornerstone for sustainable growth, as noted by Morocco\u2019s Special Commission Report, The New Development Model,[1]<\/sup><\/a>\u00a0submitted to the government last April, it has not taken hold in meaningful ways. The immense challenge lies in that decentralization\u2019s vibrant manifestation is dependent upon the effectiveness of Morocco\u2019s other national development initiatives and policies that will be discussed.<\/p>\n Morocco\u2019s New Development Model is a guide toward sustainable and shared prosperity and, as stated in the Report, is to be propelled by the nation\u2019s historically multifaceted identity. The solidarity of the diversity of people not only ought to carry forward the immense responsibility and opportunity for the growth that they seek, but it is also the defining feature for success and distinction. In a direct sense, the public rediscovering through participatory community dialogue the local and national narratives of their multidimensional Moroccan identity as it relates to religions and ethnicities can lead to their collective planning and action for broad-based development and real transformational possibilities.<\/p>\n Decentralization arrangements grow as a reflection of identifying and creating projects from the people, and such beneficial systems cannot emerge if people are not given the opportunities to determine, design, and implement their most deeply felt priorities. Thus, Moroccan decentralization will come into fruition only when the Municipal Charter[2]<\/sup><\/a>\u00a0of the nation is fulfilled. Further, financing to implement development projects is essential to upholding the statutes of the Municipal Charter, which necessitates the linking of those projects to the National Initiative for Human Development (NIHD),[3]<\/sup><\/a>\u00a0a key mechanism for distributing public funds for local projects.<\/p>\n On a national level, Morocco appears to be guided by two seemingly incongruent frameworks for advancing decentralized management. However, the Moroccan government, through an official of the Ministry of Interior, explains them as two legs of the same body. The first approach, the \u201cRoadmap\u201d fashioned from public statements delivered by King Mohammed VI of Morocco since 2007,[4]<\/sup><\/a>\u00a0describes a system where local communities identify and pursue priority development projects. These initiatives are supported by subnational intersectoral partnerships along with engaged and contributive national level ministries. As a matter of fact, this framework makes complementary three broad approaches to decentralization, which had been mostly thought of as stand-alone pathways in cases around the world. These structural approaches include (1) community control over their own project planning and management; (2) collaboration among the public and private sectors at the various levels below the national to advance development; and (3) financial, technical, and advisory resources for growth provided by the central government. Moroccan decentralization of this integrated sort emphasizes the municipality\u2014the administrative tier closest to the people\u2014as the catalyst for community project participation, supported by entities within every sector and tier of society.<\/p>\n Since the formulation of the Decentralization Roadmap,[5]<\/sup><\/a>\u00a0its enactment has not yet had an appreciable impact on people\u2019s lives. This decentralization, which can be historic and trajectory-altering for a country, necessitates facilitation and ongoing local community movements 8through continuous development project cycles, though challenging to achieve in any nation.<\/p>\n The second national decentralization arrangement, explained in the 2019 Charter, does not mention the municipal level, but rather explains the relationship between the central level at Rabat and the twelve regional capitals, as well as their respective responsibilities. The Roadmap and Charter focus on different administrative levels, and they are intended to be combined to cover the core functions of the whole public management structure. However, the Charter should explicitly state the regional responsibility for ensuring the formation of inter- and intra-tier partnerships that assist local projects and engage communities in creating the change they most need. In the decentralization project, guidance is necessary as to the role and goals of each administrative level.<\/p>\n In Morocco\u2019s intended decentralized organization, the provinces\u2014the tier between the region and the municipality and the place where governors sit\u2014are left without explicit guidance. Vibrant provincial administrations are needed because many provinces individually contain dozens of municipalities. A singular decentralization framework is still necessary to designate the critical functions and guiding principles that govern all administrative level, particularly between the subnational tiers. Thus, combining the Roadmap and the Charter into a singular document with more explicit explanation and roles could inform and strengthen Morocco\u2019s decentralization system over time.<\/p>\n Decentralization constitutes a central part of Morocco\u2019s sustainable development agenda. With the launch of the NIHD in 2005, the Decentralization Roadmap, the Municipal Charter\u2019s participatory development amendments, the ratification of a new Constitution in 2011, and 2019\u2019s yet-unratified Decentralization Charter, Morocco has committed to concentrate decision-making at subnational levels on a range of human affairs.<\/p>\n The ratification of the Constitution, which was backed by a public referendum, enshrined the rights of citizens to participate in decision-making and administration. As a result, the twelve regions of the country are gradually becoming more distinct autonomous governing bodies adhering to and fulfilling public law. In 2015, the Constitution was amended to promote the procedures and vibrancy of local democracy through measures such as public referenda on municipal decisions, publicly-shared budgets, ensuring equal access of citizens, and participatory arrangements in open forums.[6]<\/sup><\/a>,[7]<\/a><\/sup><\/p>\n Morocco has set the stage for community-managed development to be carried forward through subnational partnerships and democratic and decentralization parameters. This approach encourages replication and scale, making the Moroccan experience, policies, and model globally informative.<\/p>\n Morocco\u2019s Municipal Charter requires local representatives to create development plans based on community input through public meetings and forums. It is described as entrusting municipalities with engaging a wide range of key services that require greater capacities to effectively deliver, including the provision of electricity, water and sanitation, roads, urban transport, and solid waste management.[8]<\/sup><\/a><\/p>\n The Municipal Charter could act as a gateway for development and decentralization to become a reality. However, a constant challenge is that elected municipal council members, who are responsible for facilitating project identification with local residents, are often untrained in applying the participatory activities that generate the needed technical, qualitative, and feasibility-related information. In order to effectively fulfill their responsibilities to the Charter, representatives and community members need to develop practical skills, which can be achieved through applied learning workshops organized by government, civil society, universities, and socially responsible businesses.<\/p>\n The National Initiative for Human Development\u00a0<\/strong>(NIHD) provides access to public funding for local projects such as infrastructure, capacity-building, and income-generating activities. Each successful community project incorporating multi-sectoral partnerships advances decentralized management arrangements in some measure. Such an administrative system that promotes decentralized development is made operational by agencies of the public and private sectors working together to assist creating local initiatives\u2014along with national-level support that includes a multi-billion-dollar annual budget for NIHD. Morocco\u2019s framework to promote decentralized arrangements is intended to cultivate these public-private collaborations.<\/p>\n The NIHD\u2019s primary role should be to assist with supporting community-determined projects designed consistently with the participatory requirements of the Municipal Charter. Indeed, the NIHD and the Municipal Charter can achieve their individual best satisfaction by working in tandem. The application of development planning assisted by locally elected officials, as called for in the Municipal Charter, is intended to produce new local enterprises designed through community meetings, i.e., the kinds of projects to be targeted for NIHD funding.<\/p>\n The participatory premise is that communities drive the overall development process by being engaged in every step, from evaluating challenges to finding innovative solutions, managing projects, monitoring results, and finally reaping the shared benefits. This approach involves partners from all sectors in ensuring equity for rural and urban disadvantaged groups through financial, technical, and other resources. In this methodology, resulting initiatives directly satisfy communities\u2019 needs and are adapted to social and environmental conditions.<\/p>\n Unfortunately, this is not happening to the extent needed in Morocco. Conversations with local, provincial, and national officials since 2010 have made it clear to the author that the vast majority of them are not trained in facilitating democratic procedures for development planning. The NIHD should invest in experiential training for such action planning with local government and civil society members. Equipping teachers, technicians, and interested citizens with the ability to coordinate participatory dialogue would be a powerful driver of projects.<\/p>\n Additionally, the NIHD will significantly advance growth if it is allowed to fund the range of projects that communities decide are most important. The NIHD criteria regarding preferred project types have often changed while rural community priorities have remained consistent: building water systems, preschools, and agricultural enterprises. Furthermore, according to most current and potential beneficiaries of the NIHD whom met with the author, the requirement that they co-invest invest thirty percent of the total project costs themselves is a major barrier to people\u2019s participation in this program. Therefore, the amount of co-investment should be reduced to no more than ten percent, which still achieves the buy-in incentive. Finally, NIHD proposal submission timelines are not consistent year to year, often with a short window following the public call for proposals. This further disenfranchises people, particularly rural residents, whose literacy and ability to access the intricate application format are often limited. NIHD can expand its level of access by also co-creating proposals with local applicants in the communities where they live.<\/p>\n The Decentralization Roadmap,\u00a0<\/strong>established by the King of Morocco through public statements, integrates three pillars to empower regions and municipalities: devolution, de-concentration, and delegation. The aim of ongoing national-level engagement along with subnational partnerships for implementing projects rallies the different administrative tiers to achieve development projects identified at the community level.<\/p>\n Moroccan decentralized systems become institutionalized when communities analyze their needs, create enterprises based on personal and collective interests, and build partnerships between the public, private, and civil sectors. Thus, the more that local-level participatory projects are brought about by communities utilizing multi-sectoral partnership, the more decentralization takes shape.<\/p>\n Furthermore, the organic evolution of the system continues to expand from the administrative tier closest to the people\u2014in Morocco, the municipality\u2014toward higher tiers\u2014provincial, regional, then national\u2014when community groups federate, motivated by shared interests and goals. There are positive instances of these occurrences in Morocco, but decentralization has yet to be systemically implemented. Building a decentralized system from the bottom-up takes constant facilitation of inter-sectoral collaboration, including between institutions at different administrative tiers.<\/p>\n Advancing decentralization too quickly, however, without focusing on equitable distribution of benefits has been observed elsewhere to create harmful consequences, such as further entrenching the local social stratification and power structures. To avoid this outcome, the Municipal Charter and NIHD should be genuinely implemented, leading to inclusive participatory development movements, whereby the construction of decentralized management is alternatively propelled by group decision making. Molding this kind of system requires greater support and practical experiences for communities and associations to guide projects that incorporate increasing personal and collective empowerment, including economic independence.<\/p>\n The productive translation of the premises of NIHD and the Municipal Charter can work in synergistic tandem in the agricultural sector and lead to decentralization formation. The fulfillment and integration of the agricultural value chain from nurseries to commercialization of processed products that are certified for domestic and global markets, including certifications that ensure a value beyond conventional prices, is the\u00a0sine qua non<\/em>\u00a0for alleviating rural poverty. This process depends, of course, on how it is managed. It is also the most effective guarantor of Morocco\u2019s biodiversity and environmental optimization, including the eradication of erosion and the maximizing of water efficiency, which the Special Commission Report identifies as critical lifelines for sustainable growth.<\/p>\n Integration of the value chain means that communities of growers are also builders of cooperatives and managers and processors of products, with capacity to directly engage markets and buyers well beyond the immediate locality. This is possible, essential, and, as also noted by the report, requiring of far more accessible and diversified sources of investment, which for the most part is seemingly inaccessible to rural farming families who constitute the majority of the people who experience poverty in the country. NIHD should more significantly emphasize community-based agricultural investments as they are sorely needed.<\/p>\n While the current practices of agriculture prevent people from realizing the sector\u2019s opportunities, if they were adaptively transformed, the sector could lift millions of people out of poverty and secure the environment and water availability for decades to come. The interfaith partnership where the Moroccan Jewish community freely lends land to farming communities to build their tree nurseries that utilize local seeds can play an indelible role for the nation to meet its enormous tree demand and is already a proven successful pilot that can be scaled to provide tens of millions of tree saplings annually.[9]<\/sup><\/a>\u00a0There are exemplary cases of rural women\u2019s groups being the primary recipients of lands from the public domain to build their cultivation projects and empowered futures for themselves and families.[10]<\/sup><\/a>\u00a0In sum, the precision and targeting of investment, ensuring that it is delivered to the communities and their associations and cooperatives, emphasizing when possible the agricultural sector, will achieve the accelerated and multiplied levels of financial returns that will uplift the nation\u2019s overall human development.<\/p>\n Morocco\u2019s regional public administrative centers often remain distant from the dispersed communities of their jurisdictions, slowing decision-making and leading to initiatives not well-enough adapted to local contexts. This in turn impedes civil society\u2019s ability to participate in decision-making that affects their everyday lives.<\/p>\n Pivoting from regionalization to further devolving power to the municipalities would improve the timelines and management of people-centered initiatives. However, devolution without commensurate people\u2019s participation could lead to further social stratification (gender, economic, age) at the local level. It could also create challenges with coordination or information sharing between the municipalities on common needs and best practices if not in accordance with regional guidelines.<\/p>\nBackground on Moroccan Decentralization<\/h2>\n
Morocco\u2019s Decentralization Design<\/h2>\n
Decentralization in Morocco \u2013 The Current State<\/h2>\n
Morocco\u2019s Municipal Charter<\/em><\/h3>\n
The National Initiative for Human Development<\/em><\/h3>\n
The Decentralization Roadmap<\/em><\/h3>\n
Making Agriculture the Flagship Sector for the New Model<\/h2>\n
From Regionalization to Municipalization<\/h2>\n