In recent decades, the Kingdom of Morocco has embarked on a path that fully commits the nation to a development and civil course that is at once progressive and strongly connected to its national identity. The Moroccan model for success – with its core ideals of decentralisation, human development, multiculturalism, south-south connectivity, and participatory methods – is essential not only for its own people but also for establishing a viable strategy for the people of Africa, the Middle East, and the world.
Could it be that Morocco, committed to democratic empowerment and sustainable development of communities and individuals, will inspire a golden era of decentralised power and achievement for countries of the entire global South?
Global and local
What is compelling about the Moroccan example is the way the local community level is emphasised in programmes, policies, and laws. Actualising local participation in development helps more than any other measure to ensure that projects directly respond to local needs and that community beneficiaries are themselves dedicated to help maintain their projects.
A major challenge running through efforts to promote local community development is the need to systemise local, democratic forms of decision-making and management within the context of a still highly centralised, public administration.
Challenges and hindrances
Moroccan development programmes promote inclusion, multi-perspective planning, public-private partnership, the engagement of all levels of society and the participatory frameworks to promote sustainable change from a local level. However, the scarcity of funding and availability of “learning by doing” workshops for people from all sectors in facilitating participatory community planning – even when the approach is required to be implemented by legal statute – ensure progress can only be made at a gradual rate. As a result, incalculable benefits are lost to communities year after year.
That decentralisation and participatory methodology are embedded at many levels in key policy documents is, in itself, immensely commendable. For example, a wonderful opportunity is presented when Morocco’s National Charter of Municipalities makes it a requirement for elected members of local assemblies to assist in the creation of development plans that result from participatory, community-wide meetings.
Yet when the great majority of those elected members have never observed or experienced the application of participatory democratic methods, this excellent policy remains largely ineffectual relative to its transformative, grassroots potential.
Need for facilitators
Facilitators of community dialogue are essential in order to ensure that local meetings are widely attended, all voices have the opportunity to be expressed and heard and the community data generated is made available to local people so that they may make the most informed decisions possible.
The effectiveness of facilitators is enhanced greatly when they participate in capacity-building workshops in community settings toward creating real projects. Facilitators who assist applications of participatory planning and assessments of local needs, may include – among others – elected representatives, schoolteachers, civil society organisers, government technicians, dedicated women and youth, cooperative members, private sector workers, village leaders and volunteers.
Financial support
However, genuine community planning is not enough – there must be funding to implement the initiatives they determine. In Morocco, unfortunately, too many well-meaning programmes, which should be the natural vehicle for project finance, remain too inaccessible to the majority of people and their local associations owing to its challenging proposal format, inconsistent timing of calls for proposals and a requirement for local partial funding, which is simply impossible for the majority of groups, especially those in rural areas.
What difference can we make in Morocco and most rural places to break this impasse and create an independent, ongoing revenue stream to advance human development projects? The answer lies in promoting organic agriculture and the entire value chain, from nurseries to sales.
Organic treasures
Most rural people derive income from agriculture, and most poor are in rural places. Net revenue can then be allocated and managed by local cooperatives to build the schools, drinking water systems, and new businesses. In this way the revenue from Moroccan organic agriculture can build a decentralised system and actualise the nation’s progressive policies.
Just as decentralisation is linked closely to participatory community planning, both of which confer authority as close to the people as possible, so human development in Morocco is consciously allied to cultural inclusion and coexistence, particularly in the light of the Kingdom’s 2011 Constitution, detailing the country’s many cultures and ethnicities, past and present.
Surely then, it is worth lending our wholehearted support to the Kingdom of Morocco so that this deeply humane model may spread hope.
Dr. Yossef Ben-Meir has been dedicated to the field of international development since 1993 when he joined the Peace Corps in Morocco. In 2000, he co-founded the High Atlas Foundation and served as president of the Board of Directors until 2011, and currently leads its operations. Dr. Ben-Meir was a faculty member at the School of Humanities and Social Sciences at Al Akhawayn University in Ifrane, and a research fellow at the American Institute of Maghrib Studies, and earlier an Associate Peace Corps Director, managing the agriculture and environment sector. Dr. Ben-Meir holds a PhD in sociology from the University of New Mexico where he also taught.
Views of the author are personal and do not necessarily represent the website’s views.
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