Virtual Magazine of Morocco on the Web
Morocco Week in Review 
July 18, 2009

MCA allocates $ 2.4mln to plant trees in northern Morocco.
Taza

The Millennium Challenge Account (MCA) has allocated 19.6 million dirhams (2.4 million dollars) to plant 1,400 ha of olives in the northeastern province of Taza for the 2008-2009 crop year. This program was launched last march in the rural communes of Traiba (340 Ha), Msila (260 Ha), Jbarna (300 Ha) and Ouled Chrif (500 Ha).

The MCA program in Taza provides for planting fruit trees in mountainous areas on a total area of 22,700 ha, including 17,900 ha of olive trees, 3.800 ha of almond trees and 1,000 ha of fig trees. Managed by Morocco's Partnership Agency for Progress (APP), the MCA-Morocco program, worth 697.5 million dollars, seeks to spur the country's economic growth through increasing productivity and improving employment in the sectors of fruit tree productivity, coastal fishery, craft industry, as well as providing support for enterprises and financial services. http://www.map.ma/eng/sections/economy/mca_allocates__2.4m/view
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Morocco offers summer holiday camps for poor children.
By Sarah Touahri 12/07/09

The successful "Holidays for All" programme offers Moroccan children from low-income families a chance to get away for the summer season. More than 100,000 Moroccan children will enjoy the summer holidays, thanks to a government programme for low-income families. For the past seven years, "Holidays for All" has ensured that some of the nation's poorest children aren't left out. This year's activities run from July 1st through August 21st.

According to the Ministry of Youth and Sports, some 200,000 young people benefit from the programme when week-end and school holiday activities throughout the year are included. Organisers introduced a number of new features this year to make the events more enjoyable. The number of venues grew from 37 to 43, and the food allowance increased from 15 to 20 dirhams per child. The co-ordinating committee also recruited 10,600 supervisors this year - in addition to 500 others employed by the youth ministry - to boost safety for the young campers.

The aim of the programme, according to the organisers, is to build on previous successes and correct mistakes, in particular at holiday camps where there have been problems with the quality of infrastructure or teaching materials. The ministry also intends to ensure that summer camps benefit from social progress in terms of new information and communication technology. This year the ministry dropped establishments that lack adequate facilities, including youth clubs, women's hostels and non-boarding schools. The emphasis was placed on centres that can accommodate holidaymakers. The government seeks to create activities that balance fun with learning, which is why this year's theme is "Holiday Camps: Centres for Education and Fun". The aim is to teach children values such as civic awareness, solidarity, tolerance, and respect for diversity and pluralism.

Disadvantaged families eagerly wait for summer each year, so that they can give their children an enjoyable holiday in a supervised environment. Fatima, a cleaner from Temara, now looks back with great fondness on the ten days that her daughter Rajae spent away from home last year thanks to Holidays for All. "My daughter had never had the chance to travel before," she said. "After taking part in the programme, she came back home very happy. She learnt a lot of things such as discipline and respect for others. This year it will be he her younger brother's turn to have the same experience."

Twelve-year-old Selma is counting the days to the first week of August, when she will go on holiday. "It's the first time I've been chosen to have a nice time with children of the same age as me. My friend Kawtar has already been, and she had an unforgettable time," she said with satisfaction.

The programme will also welcome 1,120 children of Moroccans working abroad, as part of a joint effort with the Hassan II Foundation for Moroccans Residing Overseas at the Moulay Rachid youth complex in Bouznika. The pupils chosen to participate in the programme are those who have done best at school.
http://www.magharebia.com/cocoon/awi/xhtml1/en_GB/features/awi/features/2009/07/12/feature-01
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The dynamics of women in Morocco.

A new book, Gendering Religion and Politics, features a paper entitled ’Language, Gender and Power in Morocco’ written by Fatima Sadiqi. The book is edited by Hanna Herzog and Ann Braude of Harvard University, and is published by Palgrave Macmillan (July 2009).

Fatima is Professor of Linguistics and Gender Studies, Director of the Isis Centre for Women and Development, and a UN consultant. She is also known for her sterling work as Director General of the Fes Festival of World Sacred Music. She has this to say about her contribution to the book:

’This paper considers the complex interaction between language, gender and power centers, especially religion and politics, in Morocco. The argument I make is that languages in Morocco are tied to the social positions of women in relation to power centers, that women are learning the power of language and that they, according to their differentiated resources, manipulate it to their advantage. My main emphasis is on (i) the origins of multilingualism in Morocco, which stems from its religio-political history; and, as a result, (ii) women’s strategies and possible gains. On the basis of this argument and emphasis, I seek to highlight the fact that in Morocco language dynamics impact the triangle of women-religion-politics in significant ways.’
Fatima’s website iswww.fatimasadiqi.on.ma
URL TRACKBACK : http://www.agoravox.com/tb_receive.php3?id_article=10377
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Moroccan-German group to build two wind farms in southern Morocco.
Dakhla

A Moroccan-German investment group plans to carry out two 672MW wind farms for a total sum of 15 billion dirhams (1.8 billion dollars) in the southern city of Dakhla. The 15,000-ha project, which is carried out by Altus and A.M Wind groups in the Ntireft locality, north of the city of Dakhla, is expected to create around 220 job opportunities, according to the Regional Center of Investment. The same source said a Spanish group has suggested to build a 753 million dirham wind farm, which is to cover an area of 900 ha.
http://www.map.ma/eng/sections/economy/moroccan-german_grou/view
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Bristol students help make a big difference in Morocco.
Monday, July 13

Teenagers from Bristol Grammar School have raised a massive £11,000 in just six months to help young girls from rural communities in Morocco to continue their education after primary school. Until recently, most young girls in the area surrounding Imlil had no opportunity to continue their education, because the only college, about 17km away, was not accessible to them because their parents could not afford to pay for lodgings.

That was until the area's first boarding house was finished in May 2008, thanks to the fund-raising efforts of students from Bristol Grammar School. A group of 14 students from the school's lower sixth form have just returned from a trip to Morocco to see how their school's hard work has helped to change a group of girls' lives. Bristol students dug the foundations for the first boarding house in 2007, and also visited the girls at the house in 2008 to see how it had developed.

The group who have just returned from Morocco have managed to raise £11,000 through sponsored runs, providing refreshments for school events, cake sales, raffles, selling homemade jewellery at craft fairs, and bag packing at supermarkets. The highlight of the fundraising was the Souk evening in the school's Great Hall in November last year, which raised £3,355.

Laura Williams, 16, a student in the lower sixth, told the Evening Post: "We've raised £11,000 in the last six months and it was amazing to meet the girls for the first time, and see how this money was being used. "It was an eye-opening trip and the start of what we all hope to be a long-running and successful project."

The boarding house was designed to accommodate 24 girls, eight for each of the three years covered by the college curriculum. Andrew Dimberline, head of leadership at Bristol Grammar School, has been heavily involved in organising trips to Morocco, and accompanied the students on the latest trip. He said: "Several of the students have said to me that visiting the girls in Morocco was a 'life-changing' experience for them, and they have already started talking about the possibility of returning to Morocco, and to continue to fund-raise for the cause – even after they leave Bristol Grammar School. "This is perhaps the most significant achievement of my teaching career, not only have we made a real difference to the Moroccan girls who now have the opportunity to continue their education, but we have also had a great influence on our BGS students who have a greater understanding of their own privileged position and how our work can make a positive change to the lives of others."

The school has already started planning their next trip to Morocco in 2010. Mr Dimberline added: "Fund-raising events are a constant feature of our calendar and we have just heard that the funds required for a second boarding house in a neighbouring valley are almost in place." The building cost 80,000 euro, and to look after the girls, providing them with food, some clothing, school materials and a housemother, costs about 1,000 euro a year for each student. The students who went on the trip were Ruth Baker, Alex Bragg, Ellis Hazelgrove, Amy Hegarty, Matthew Hicken, Philly Koehli, Lottie Philpott, Shona Pickersgill, Emma Prys-Roberts, John Shepherd, Laura Williams, Hanyang Li (Felix), Ollie Purnell, and Kate Vousden.
http://www.thisisbristol.co.uk/educationplus/home/Bristol-students-help-make-big-difference-Morocco/article-1158609-detail/article.html

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Combatting Extremism in Casablanca.
By MARISA MAZRIA-KATZ Wednesday, Jul. 15, 2009

Entering the Ben M'Sik caves on the outskirts of Casablanca, a visitor goes through a hole in a crumbling concrete wall and down a flight of stairs covered in a slippery layer of mold. At the bottom lies a dimly lit room that houses roughly 100 people. The walls are splintered, the floor damp, and thick blue tarpaulins, pregnant with leaking water, hang from the ceiling. Every morning, the people who call this place home stuff their mattresses into a corner to turn the single 97-sq.-ft. (9 sq m) room into their kitchen, washroom and dining area.

In this city of about four million, Morocco's biggest, thousands of people live in suburban shantytowns and slums. The urban squalor and poverty fuel extremism; the suicide bombers who killed a total of 48 people in attacks on downtown Casablanca in 2003 and 2007 all grew up in such places. While Moroccan authorities claim to have eradicated terrorism cells in the country's most depressed urban areas, millions of residents remain cripplingly poor. Unemployment in the slums stands at 32%. And the illiteracy rate of 64% is more than 10 points higher than the rest of Casablanca's. ….. Coninue here: http://www.time.com/time/world/article/0,8599,1910565,00.html
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Moroccan architect wins Global Holcim Awards 2009.
Fez

Moroccan architect, Aziza Chaouni, and Japanese-American urban planner, Takako Tajima, won the 2009 Global Holcim Awards for their River remediation and urban development scheme "Oued Fez". The project, worth 300,000 dollars, is meant to rehabilitate the polluted river of Fez, renovate traditional tanneries and create public spaces as well as restore wetlands and biodiversity. The project aims also to reinstate the river as an integral part of the city. "We want to make Fez an active urban city in the 21st century rather than a museum", team leader of the project, Aziza Chaouni, said.

"Oued Fez" project advanced two Vietnamese and Chinese projects, which won respectively gold and bronze medals. It was selected among 5,000 plans and projects from 121 countries. The jury applauded the scheme for creating a chain of recovery projects to enable future sub-projects to be added - and for addressing the economic and social life of the city together with the ecology of the river. They stressed that this is a multi-sited, multi-functional project organized around the recovery of the river. Core components rehabilitate the architecture of this historic Medina, creating a functional and viable urban precinct.

The project authors formed NGO Sauvons Oued Fez (Save the Fez River) after winning the regional Holcim Awards Gold 2008 Africa Middle East. The NGO is a network to advance the sub-projects of the remediation and encourage community involvement.

The Holcim Awards for Sustainable Construction competitions seek innovative, future-oriented and tangible construction projects to promote sustainable responses to the technological, environmental, socioeconomic and cultural issues affecting building and construction on a local, regional and global level. The competitions are run by the Swiss-based Holcim Foundation, offer USD 2 million in prize money per three-year cycle, and are sponsored by Holcim Ltd and it group companies in more than 70 countries.
http://www.map.ma/eng/sections/social/moroccan_architect_w/view
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Morocco earmarks over $12 mln to education reform.
El Jadida (west)

Morocco earmarked 100 million dirhams (12.4 million dollars) to prepare for the upcoming school year, as part of the emergency program to reform the educational system, Education Minister, Ahmed Akhchichine, said here Tuesday. The sum will allow educational institutions to become the focal point in the educational system, Akhchichine said at the seventh session of the educational academy for the western region of Doukkala-Abda.

He announced the creation of an association to support schools by notably facilitating school management and promoting school's competitively. Akhchichine underlined that the educational system is undergoing a reform that aims to upgrade educational institutions so that they contribute to Morocco’s economic , social and cultural development. He recalled the government's support to the emergency programme, which saw its operating and investment budgets rise by 114% and 123%, respectively.
http://www.map.ma/eng/sections/social/morocco_earmarks_ove/view
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Rural drinking water supply reaches 87%.
Rabat

Morocco's Office National de l'Eau Potable (drinking water facility) invested last year 3.6 billion dirhams ($463 million), which brought the rate of access to drinking water in rural areas to 87%, according to the office's figures. These figures suggest that the implementation of the programme of generalising drinking water in rural areas resulted in supplying a population of 690,000 in 2008. Regarding wastewater treatment, the ONEP built a collection network of 312 km. The office is to carry out in 2009 investment projects of 4,45 billion dirhams to build two desalination stations. These investments are expected to benefit 410,000 people, taking the rate of access to drinking water in rural areas to 90%. http://www.map.ma/eng/sections/social/rural_drinking_water/view
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German association donates $373 K equipment benefiting children with heart diseases.
Casablanca

German association, Ein Herz fur Kinder (a heart for children), donated, here on Friday, medical equipment, worth 3 million dirhams (some 373 thousand dollars) benefiting the Moroccan Association "Les Bonnes oeuvres du c œur", which endeavours to help children with heart diseases. The donation includes notably apparatuses for artificial respiration, echocardiography and endurance tests, in addition to other devices needed for the treatment of heart diseases.

Speaking at the donation ceremony, Social Development, Family and Solidarity Minister, Nouzha Skalli, highlighted the civil society's role in supporting the government’s social development efforts. In this respect, she underscored the major projects carried out as part of Morocco's anti-poverty program, the National Initiative for Human Development (INDH), calling on all parties to further reinforce partnerships in this direction.

On the same occasion, German Ambassador to Morocco, Ulf-Dieter Klemm, said the initiative is meant to save the lives of under-privileged babies and children suffering from heart diseases, adding that the donation shows Germany's commitment and interest in fostering partnerships with Morocco. Thanks to this humanitarian aid, the Moroccan association would increase the number of its beneficiaries to 800 children per year, Les Bonnes oeuvres du c œur association Chairman, Said Ejjennane, underlined.
http://www.map.ma/eng/sections/social/german_association_d/view
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It can be 'tough' to be a female in Morocco.
By Laila Lalami  July 19, 2009

Author's trip through the Atlas Mountains reminds her how women who don't fit typical gender roles are undermined by men -- and by other women. Two years ago, I was invited to give a reading from my novel at a university in Ifrane, in the Atlas Mountains of Morocco. One of my cousins immediately suggested I hire a driver to get there, but I laughed off his suggestion. I can drive myself! I'm not some helpless princess!

In the end, however, I had to admit I lacked the robust constitution it takes to drive on Morocco's roads and highways, so I did hire someone. His name was Younes, and he was a slight, short man with an easy smile and friendly eyes. Ordinarily, he drove a shuttle to the airport, but occasionally he took longer trips, especially in the tourist months of spring and summer.

My husband accompanied me, as did two American friends on a short detour from their European holiday. We stuffed our bags in the trunk of a dark green Peugeot 305 and headed out. I sat in the back, and was nervous until we left the suburbs of Casablanca behind us and began to see the expansive countryside, with the ubiquitous orange and tangerine trees and, as we approached Meknès, grapevines and olive trees.

On the highway, it was impossible not to notice the gendarmes in their uniforms -- gray polyester suits, red epaulets, black boots and white gloves. They looked like little Lego men, ready to take action. Arms akimbo, they stood in the middle divider and watched for infractions, real or imagined: speeding, failing to wear a seatbelt, an unsafe lane change, an expired registration or a large load that could be contraband. This last breach was the most likely to result in a large contribution to their private retirement funds.

I worried we would get stopped. "I doubt if we will," Younes said, giving me an amused smile through the rearview mirror. "They usually don't stop cars with tourists. You remember how these things work, don't you?" "Good thing Ken is in the front seat, then," I said. Given his red beard, blue eyes and six-foot-one, 200-pound frame, it would have been hard to mistake my friend Ken, a software engineer from Seattle, for a local. "Do you get stopped a lot when you don't drive tourists?" I asked.

"I was stopped last month. I had run a red light, and so the bulisia whistled and stopped me. You know they have women cops now, don't you? This one was tough." Tough was an adjective I had heard often in the past few months, applied not just to policewomen but also to female customs officers, female judges or female chief residents. The common wisdom was that women were not as likely to take pay-offs, a discordant note in a country where people routinely use bribes for everything, from getting a home phone line installed to obtaining a spot on the quota-limited list of pilgrims to Mecca.

"What happened?" I asked. "She wanted to write me up, and the ticket was 400 dirhams. I tried to reason with her. I'm a shuttle driver and people like me, we spend so much time in cars, there are certain courtesies we should be able to have. We're like cab drivers, you understand."

Having lived in Casablanca for much of that year, I understood that there was indeed an unspoken agreement between police officers and cab drivers who routinely made illegal U-turns, gamely ignored red lights and cut across lanes of traffic to pick up a fare. What remained fuzzy in my mind was why this agreement seemed to extend to drivers of buses, trucks, mopeds, vegetable carts or government cars. No wonder I never wanted to drive.

"I asked her to let me go," Younes continued, "and I added, 'May God have mercy on your parents.' I was just being polite, you understand. But then she said, 'Leave my parents out of this.' I couldn't believe it. I said, 'What are you, an orphan? You don't have parents? You don't want mercy for them?' So she got mad, and she said that my prayers wouldn't stop her from writing me a ticket." Now he pointed his thumb at his chest. "So then I got mad. I told her that she had no business being a cop and that her place was in the kitchen."

"Uh-oh," I said. Then I realized I had sounded terribly American, which meant Younes' questions about what I understood or remembered were not likely to stop any time soon. I thought of my mother, who had tried for years to teach me how to cook, until, faced with my complete lack of interest and culinary talent, she had eventually given up. Now she passed her recipes directly to my husband, without whom I would probably subsist on a diet of frozen pizza. She, too, had often called me tough.

"What did the policewoman do?"

"She picked up her walkie-talkie and called the police station and they sent a car to pick me up." Younes laughed heartily now.

"And did you get the ticket?" I asked.

"Well, sort of. At the station, I talked to the men officers and explained that I was a professional driver and she was a strange woman, being insulted by having someone pray for her parents. So in the end we settled on 200 dirhams."

"For the ticket?"

"No, no. Not for the ticket," he said, giving me a bewildered look. "For them, of course. They took the money. You remember how these things work, don't you?"

Perhaps I had forgotten exactly how to negotiate a bribe, but I still remembered how women who didn't fit typical gender roles were undermined by men -- and by other women.

Lalami is the author, most recently, of the novel "Secret Son."
http://www.latimes.com/features/books/la-caw-off-the-shelf19-2009jul19,0,67921.story
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Morocco’s Local Elections and Decentralization.
Middle East piece by Guest: Dr. Yossef Ben-Meir  -- Thursday, July 16, 2009

On June 12th, 2009, the same day that Iran had its contentious presidential elections, Moroccans also went out to polls to participate in local elections. In stark contrast, Morocco’s elections were viewed to be both free and fair, and boasted a 15 percent increase in turnout from the 2007 parliamentary elections.

While much of the world’s focus has not been on Morocco’s new party and efforts for reform, the Authenticity and Modernity party (PAM) gained the most seats in local councils (3 percent more than the ruling Socialists). PAM’s ‘third way’ message of promoting tradition and progress, business and social justice, and development and the environment energized a grassroots movement rarely seen in Moroccan politics.

PAM now has the potential to considerably guide and execute the large-scale and profoundly significant Moroccan decentralization initiative to enable local communities and provinces to have a greater say in their own affairs. The “roadmap” to decentralization, which describes the project’s guiding framework, objectives, and actions, was announced by Morocco’s King Mohammed VI on November 6, 2008 —the 33rd anniversary of the Green March which saw 350,000 unarmed Moroccans cross into the Western Sahara to unite (or reunite) the region with the Kingdom.

The idea of decentralization in Morocco was first promoted in 1977 by the late King Hassan II. In 2007, the Kingdom proposed to the United Nations Security Council a solution to the Western Sahara —“autonomy within Moroccan sovereignty,” which necessarily involves significant transfer of authority from the central level. The proposal catalyzed today’s new decentralization effort throughout Morocco with the Western Sahara.

The strategic implementation of the roadmap, including a funding level of 10 billion dollars over 10 years, can generate transformative socio-economic and environmental benefits for the entire population (36 plus million people). It can also establish ideal conditions to resolve the Western Saharan conflict by advancing the political, social, cultural, economic, and environmental fulfillment of the people there, especially those who have suffered most over the course of the international conflict.

The roadmap includes both “devolution” and “deconcentration” organizational arrangements, which are to be carried out by the “democratic, participatory method.” The participatory development method values local knowledge and engages entire communities in dialogue as they conduct their own investigation and analysis toward the creation of an action plan that reflects local development priorities.

The King’s roadmap has developmental responsibilities (legal, financial, and operational) existing at the sub-national level (among local communities, civil and private groups, and local and regional government). A range of essential capabilities (to overcome constraints and realize opportunities) need to be built among these local groups through training, education, and experience. The roadmap intends to strike a balance between national and regional levels, with clear and recognized roles for each.

Civil organizations play a critical role in decentralized systems and sustaining local projects and are part of partnerships at and between the micro and macro levels of society. Decentralization can then actually strengthen national solidarity in Morocco due to the web of new participatory-based partnerships that are created. Local communities generally seek to maintain these kinds of partnerships because they help satisfy their human needs and better enable people to shape the institutions that govern them.

The roadmap is flexible enough so that the system of decentralization can appropriately grow out of the processes of each village and neighborhood implementing development projects (such as, in rural areas, clean water, fruit tree agriculture, and irrigation). Successful local development is often replicated by neighboring communities who may embark on a process of their own and work with others to pursue shared goals. This is generally how scaling-up occurs and new and reformed policies take shape.

Decentralized development in this form could demonstrate to the 400,000 people in the Western Sahara a relationship with the Kingdom that furthers their self-determined local and regional human development goals. This is how decentralization could be a path of common interest.

To advance decentralization, centers at universities (Western Sahara needs its first university) ought to be created that train facilitators of participatory methods. The methods are interactive, information-gathering activities that help local people evaluate their conditions and plan priority projects. Facilitators of planning activities can be extension workers from ministries (such as from agriculture and health), local and regional politicians, teachers, students, from civil organizations, retirees, and citizens.

The new training center at Hassan II University in Mohammedia, for example, which is in partnership with the High Atlas Foundation, is planning training programs with presidents of communes and national park technicians who are then able to more effectively assist development initiatives in the areas they work. These professional positions and others interface with local communities and they could therefore organize and facilitate participatory community planning meetings to advance decentralized development.

In order to assist decentralization, Morocco’s Ministry of Interior (which is in charge of internal security) ought to develop its role as a provider of information to advance development. For example, it could help build institutional partnerships by making available online relevant information related to the tens of thousands of Moroccan civil society organizations. The functions of traditional provincial and local Interior officials should also be reformed so that they are active contributors to development and trust is built. For example, it might be helpful if the positions of “Kaid,“ “Sheikh,“ and “Moqadam” were made directly accountable to presidents of communes.

Finally, a new decentralization project office within the Royal Cabinet would help build innovative partnerships between government, civil, and private institutions, and influence against the centralized tendencies of government. PAM, being a new party and with its concentration of power at the local level, is probably pre-disposed to work against rigid centralized control of development.

Creating regionalization by way of implementing locally determined and controlled projects that benefit in important ways every person in a rural area will cost approximately 4 billion dollars. This figure is projected from project experience since the mid-1990s in the Rural Commune of Toubkal (Province of Taroudant) with a population of 10,000 people. Project costs are kept low because they use local materials and know-how, and labor is often contributed in-kind.

Therefore, the cost of this approach to decentralization in all rural and urban areas, with more heavy funding for projects in the Western Sahara, as the King of Morocco proposed, would likely be in the range of 10 billion dollars over 10 years. Morocco’s bold initiative is worth the investment, considering the enormous human development that would ensue, the most probable end to the decades-long Western Saharan conflict, and with that, greater constructive relationships among North African nations.
Dr. Yossef Ben-Meir
Dr. Yossef Ben-Meir is a sociologist and is president of the High Atlas Foundation, a non-governmental organization founded by former Peace Corps volunteers and dedicated to community development in Morocco.
http://americandaily.com/index.php/article/1803
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