USAID in Morocco:
Development Challenges for 1997 Presented to Congress
FOM Newsletter Spring 1997
USAID' Development Assistance Program for Morocco in 1997, presented to Congress for approval in the budget, is $19,375,000.00.
The report points out Morocco' long-standing role as a model for economic and political moderation among Islamic nations, and that it is a bulwark against anti-Western Islamic fundamentalism of the type now seen in neighboring Algeria.
The report also states that Morocco is turning increasingly to the United States to expand business ties .
The following is excerpted from the report:
The Challenge
With Morocco being a country of contrasts and dualistic development, there are development challenges to overcome. The country is populated with 27 million people, including 38% under the age of 15. Debilitating rural and urban poverty coexists alongside modern urban centers. With a per capita Gross Domestic Product (GDP) estimated at $1,150.00 in 1994, Morocco falls in the lower-middle income (LMI) country category.
Economic growth, estimated at -5.0% in 1995, has lagged behind the annual average of 0.3% since 1992, owing to drought and the slow pace of reform at the sectoral level. Natural resources are scarce (except phosphates), only 20% of the land is arable and agricultural production depends on irrigation.
Morocco' successful structural adjustment program has been sustained for a key factors of stabilization: reduced budget deficit, decline of foreign debt, and debt servicing. Inflation rose by 6.3% in 1995.
Despite the good record of economic stabilization, Morocco' economic growth rate is not quite keeping up with expansion of the labor force. Lack of jobs and access to housing, land, credit, and other productive resources remain chief causes of poverty and major contributors to social instability.
Unemployment is creating a pool of disaffected educated youth, from which extremist appeals find adherents. Poverty and illiteracy extensive, especially among women and female-headed households. Large family sizes strain meager incomes and government services. Urban, industrial, and agricultural pollution pose problems to the economy, ecosystems, and human health and productivity. Morocco also suffers from an absence of adequate policies and framework for integrating poorer Moroccans into the mainstream of social services and economic well-being.
Morocco' dualism is evidenced by lagging social indicators: (1) infant mortality rate is 66 per thousand, compared to other LMI countries of 39, and 52 for the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) in general; (2) the annual population growth rate, despite recent declines, is still 2.1% - enough to double the population in 33 years; (3) the illiteracy rate is 51% for adults (19% for LMI/45% for MENA); (4) 22% of the population live at or below the poverty level; and (5) unemployment is 20%, increasing nearly 7% annually. In short, economic and social growth rates have not kept pace with one another.
Assistance Donors
Grants, loans, commercial credits, and guaranties total about $1 billion per year in Morocco, 80% for infrastructure. The US is the fourth largest donor-nation, giving 20% of the assistance.
The 1997 Program
The 1997 program strategy is to achieve an improved quality of life for poorer Moroccans, concentrating on (1) reduced fertility and improved health of children under five and women of child-bearing age; (2) Improved water resources management in the agricultural, urban, and industrial sectors; (3) expanded base of stockholders in the economy, targeting people of below-median income; (4) increased basic educational attainment for rural girls and women in target areas; and (5) strengthened civil society in target areas.
Several common themes will be threaded through the program strategic objective: (1) targeting of poorer Moroccans, especially those in below-median income levels; (2) emphasis on the enabling environment, e.g. the policy, regulatory, and institutional framework; (3) integration and empowerment of women; (4) broad-based participation to ensure the involvement and empowerment of beneficiaries and intermediaries; (5) emphasis on private initiative and expansion of civil society, NGOs, and private associations; and (6) human capacity development.
Goals
The success of the program will be measured by goal attainment in all objective areas.
Examples of major goals in the reduced fertility category will be reducing the infant death rate from 57/1000 to 52/1000 in 1999; and the increasing contraceptive prevalence rate from 41.5 to 58 in 1999.
Other category goals include increasing person-years of employment for below-median-income women from 271 in 1992 to 13,300 in 1999; increasing the number of below-median-income households owning urban homes from 24,250 to 70,000 in 1998; increase the rural girls' primary school retention rate from 39.6% to 52% in 2001; a 20% reduction in harmful residues (chrome) released into river systems by Moroccan tanneries (100% in 1994 - 80% in 1999); increased percentage of poor households connected to sewerage and potable water from 60% to 80% in 1998; and improve canal conveyance efficiency from 0 mil m3/year to 70 mil m3/year in 1999, and reduce amount of soil erosion (sediment outflow) from 510 tons/km2/year to 740 tons/ km2/ year.
The Report
Copies of the abbreviated Web version text or the complete original (in WordPerfect 5.1 format) version of the text of USAID Congressional Presentation FY 1997 can be obtained from USAID in Washington DC.
Note USAID Congressional Presentation FY 1998 and USAID Congressional Presentation FY 1999 are also now available. See also the Briefing Book on Morocco.
