The trend of Arab–Israeli normalization pushed both Palestine and Iran to the sidelines. Hamas, backed by Iran, sought to change that. Hamas attacked Israel on October 7, 2023. The attack and the subsequent war not only brought the Palestinian issue to the front and center of discourse once again but also re-injected Iran into the fight for regional power.

The Israel–Hamas war created a crack in regional power dynamics

Iran now has an opening where it didn’t have one before. Of course, it is as they say in the business world: Never invest with your own money. Iran used Hamas to break into the fight for regional power, and it will continue with that tactic. Terrorist groups such as the Houthis and Hezbollah offer Iran the chance to upend the fragile regional dynamics. Not only this, but Iran can also threaten increasingly brittle global trade.

It is no secret that non-geographically centered power wins over geographically-centered states. Iran can strike from many places at once, stretching the US capacity to respond thin. As in the US–Vietnam War, asymmetric warfare has proven to be wildly successful in upsetting what seemed to be a one-sided power dynamic.  In backing and funding groups such as Hamas and the Houthis, Iran is now broading the focus of attention. No longer is the world only focused on the Israel–Hamas war; the focus is increasingly on Iran as a player with growing influence.

The big powers of the Middle East find themselves, much like Odysseus’ crew, caught between Scylla and Charybdis. Saudi Arabia in particular is feeling the strain. On one hand, war with Israel is the last thing Saudi Arabia wants. But on the other, its majority Sunni Muslim population views Saudi leaders as ignoring the sentiments of their citizens. The hearts of the Arab street, of course, are with their fellow Muslims in Palestine. Thus, regional leaders risk being viewed as either spineless or corrupt. Iran has thus thrown a wrench in the Arab monarchy’s plans. 

The ripples Iran is making spread far beyond the geographical confines of the Middle East, too. The Iran-sponsored Houthis are attacking shipping vessels in the Red Sea from their base in Yemen. Through them, Iran is doing damage to intercontinental trade and thus to the entire global economy.

The US is beginning to feel the strain. Iran and its allies are carrying out strikes in the Red Sea, Syria, Iraq and Pakistan. Russia and China may seize the opportunity to move into the area as the US has its back turned. Even India has sensed the rising tension. While it knows it must maintain connections with Iran, it must also uphold the principle of free trade on the high seas that Iran is attacking. So, India and other nations outside the region are beginning to stress.

From a unipolar world to multiple spheres of influence

The Israel–Hamas war may have lasting consequences globally. Ukraine, in particular, has lost much from the aftermath of October 7. As the US diverts its aid to Israel and the Red Sea, aid cannot make its way to Ukraine. The Biden administration is finding it harder and harder to divide its support between Israel and Ukraine. 

The unrest in the Middle East affects the US domestically too. The US public is divided between supporting Israel or Palestine. The Left criticizes the administration for refusing to call a ceasefire. The Right accuses the administration of being complicit with Hamas. Once again, the two-party divide seems to have weakened US coherence, actions and influence. 

Weakened influence isn’t the only danger that comes with a divided US public. The public struggles to understand why the US should be involved in any conflicts in the Middle East. This raises the temptation for US leaders to disengage from the region or even from the world at large. Disengagement will guarantee chaos. De facto spheres of influence will shape international transactions rather than a Western-backed, unipolar system.

In other words, what we know of the normative order is collapsing right in front of our eyes. 

This impending chaos will change everything from the price of pencils to how a war is waged. The Israel-Hamas war is a chip off the world order. We will no longer be facing a unipolar world order with the US on top. Rather, we face a multipolar one. 

Decentralization of power has already begun. US influence in the Middle East, which is the successor to European colonialism in the region, is losing its rationale in the eyes of American citizens and of the world. The Israel–Hamas war is the straw that broke the camel’s back. The domino effect has now cascaded from the region onto the global stage.

The normative system is now being replaced, and no one knows what the coming multipolar order will be like.

[ wrote the first draft of this piece.]

The views expressed in this article/podcast are the author’s own and do not necessarily reflect 51łÔąĎ’s editorial policy.

The post How the Israel–Hamas War Is Now Changing the World appeared first on 51łÔąĎ.

What is the Backstory of Western Sahara?

Western Sahara is a stretch of desert territory along the Atlantic coast. It borders Morocco, Algeria, and Mauritania. From 1884 to 1976, Spain was the colonial ruler of Western Sahara, which was then known as Spanish Sahara. During the great wave of decolonization in the second half of the 20th century, the —a Sahrawi nationalist liberation movement—waged guerrilla war against Spain.

Following the campaign of pressure that the UN, Morocco, and the Polisario Front launched against Spain in the late 1960s Madrid to consider withdrawing from the region, given that it no longer anticipated a future in the area. Subsequently, in 1974, Spain signaled its withdrawal by plans for a referendum in which the Sahrawi people could determine the future of the territory, whether to be a part of Morocco or Mauritania or to obtain their independence. Morocco and Mauritania welcomed Spain’s decision. However, the UNSG Resolution 3292 suspending the referendum until a formal process for this could be determined. 

On October 16, 1975, the International Court of Justice (ICJ) in the Hague that while there were legal ties of allegiance between the Sultan of Morocco and certain tribes in Western Sahara during the time of Spanish colonization, and there were rights connecting the Mauritanian entity to the territory of Western Sahara, there was no evidence of a territorial sovereignty link between the territory of Western Sahara and either the Kingdom of Morocco or the Mauritanian entity. In response to the ruling, in 1975 King Hassan II of Morocco  for a peaceful mass demonstration in the form of a march into Western Sahara. The King sought to reaffirm Morocco’s claim of sovereignty over the territory and called upon the Moroccan people to participate in the march. He emphasized that the march was the only way to regain control of Western Sahara.

Western Sahara is important for Morocco not only for sovereignty reasons but also for economic ones. It is rich in , a valuable fertilizer that secures the world’s food supply. This mineral is ˛Ń´Ç°ů´Çł¦ł¦´Ç’s third largest export and brought the country $850 million in 2021. As a region along the Atlantic coast, Western Sahara is important for fishing, providing 75% of ˛Ń´Ç°ů´Çł¦ł¦´Ç’s catches. Clearly, this region is of paramount to Rabat.

What Is Going on Now with Spain, Morocco and Algeria?

Therefore, Moroccan-Spanish ties turned when Spain admitted Polisario leader Brahim Ghali in April 2021 for medical treatment without officially telling Rabat. In 2022, Madrid agreed to support Rabat’s autonomy plan for Western Sahara, ending a year-long diplomatic crisis.

Spain’s change in policy has with Morocco after a year-long diplomatic spat. However, this move has infuriated Algeria, which an economic blockade on Spain in June 2022. This resulted in significant losses estimated at around $1 billion (€930 million) in the following seven months alone. Spanish Secretary of State for Trade Xiana Méndez Bértolo recently that, between June and November 2022, Spain’s exports were a mere $189.1 million (€176.2 million) to Algeria. In December 2022, Spanish exports to Algeria amounted to $11.81 million (€10.8 million), a fall of 84%. Spain’s position as an exporter to Algeria fell from second in 2021 to ninth in 2022.

This has hurt Spanish companies and businesses exporting to Algeria, especially in Valencia and Catalonia. These regions account for over 50% of to Algeria. In terms of sectors, enamelers and ceramic machinery manufacturers are facing significant negative impacts.The economic pain of this blockade has led the Spanish Ministry of Trade to the support of the European Commission. It has come up with a financial plan to support Spanish companies suffering from the blockade. EU foreign policy chief Josep Borrell to Algeria in March to resolve this crisis but the visit was .

Algeria Is Still Supplying Gas to Spain

Spain depends on Algeria for gas. Therefore, it is important for Madrid to maintain good relations with Algiers. Algerian President Abdelmadjid Tebboune commented that “among all the Algerian statements, what matters to the Spanish state is the full guarantee of Spain’s supply of Algerian gas and the strict respect of the international contracts.” Algeria has assured Spain that it will continue to supply gas under any circumstances.

Spain gets much of its gas through the Medgaz pipeline from Algeria. According to Spanish reports, Madrid has recently turned to the US for gas. Many analysts speculate that Spain might be moving away from Algerian gas. Hence, Algeria decided not to escalate matters with Spain when it comes to supply of gas. Losing a lucrative export market would not be in Algerian economic interest.

Tensions between Spain and Algeria have occurred in the past but the two countries have always been able to achieve an accommodation. This time, things are different. Spain’s change of policy has touched a raw nerve and only a change in government might lead to the calming of the waters.

Algeria Strengthens Ties with Other Countries

As Spanish exports to Algeria have crashed, other countries such as Portugal and Italy have stepped in. In 2021, Portugal exports to Algeria totaled $241 million. The main products were uncoated paper, heating machinery, and acrylic hydrocarbons. Between February 2022 and February 2023, Portugal’s exports have increased by $384.6 million. The top exports to Algeria in February 2023 were vegetables, wood pulp, paper products, plastics and plastic goods, machinery, mechanical appliances and parts. 

Before the rupture in relations, Algeria preferred Spanish products. Sociedad Española Automóviles de Turismo (SEAT), a Spanish car manufacturer was active in Algeria. In 2018, SEAT strategic operations in Algeria. Now, Italian car company FIAT seems to be replacing SEAT. In March 2023, six carlines were launched in Algeria. In contrast, SEAT’s growth has suffered.

Italy and Algeria have good neighborly agreements. They are now deepening their strategic partnership. In January 2023, Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni Algeria to launch her new Mediterranean policy in Algiers. It is well known that Italy wants to become an energy hub between Europe and the southern Mediterranean. The Russia-Ukraine War is causing an energy crisis in Europe, which is looking for alternative sources. This offers a great economic opportunity for both Italy and Algeria.

Both countries also signed  agreements relating to aerospace and pharmaceutical sectors. These agreements were not only about economics but also geopolitics. Italy sees Algeria as a vital actor in the Mediterranean region that can underpin regional stability. Algeria’s neighbors are facing turmoil. Libya is going through a civil war. Al Jazeera has Tunisia a “ticking time bomb.” The unsettled situation in North Africa makes Algeria critically important not only for Italy but also the European Union.

Is Morocco a Springboard for Spain Into Africa?

Spain has a growing interest in the Moroccan market. In 2022, Spanish exports to Morocco amounted to $12.9 billion (€11.748 billion) while Moroccan imports to Spain were $9.4 million (€8.6 million). Morocco lies just across the Strait of Gibraltar to the south of Spain. It is Spain’s closest neighbor in North Africa. Morocco is a natural trading partner where demand for Spanish goods and services is growing. Therefore, it makes sense for Spain to invest in closer relations with its southern neighbor.

Spanish President Pedro Sánchez Morocco in February. The two governments reached agreements on migration, tourism, trade and investment. Just as Italy is developing a strategic relationship with Algeria, Spain is betting on Morocco. Spanish companies are looking to expand in North Africa. Morocco could be a good base of operations for Spain. Given the fact that Spain’s relations with Algeria have taken a hit and other European rivals are stepping in, it makes sense for Madrid to cultivate Rabat. A closer relationship with Morocco makes both economic and geopolitical sense for Spain.

[ edited this piece.]

The views expressed in this article are the author’s own and do not necessarily reflect 51łÔąĎ’s editorial policy.

The post Morocco Make up Causes Spain Economic Loss in Algeria appeared first on 51łÔąĎ.

However, after signing the deal, the government in Madrid never formalized its political and diplomatic position regarding Moroccan over Spain‘s former colony in Western Sahara. A geopolitical matter of vital importance for Morocco, the question of Western Sahara remains an unhealed wound in the relationship between Madrid and Rabat.

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In 2021, this wound was reopened after Spain, in a somewhat secret and irregular move, welcomed Brahim Ghali, secretary-general of the Polisario Front, a nationalist movement seeking independence for Western Sahara vis-Ă -vis Morocco. On top of the fact that Ghali is wanted in Spain for crimes against humanity, rape and torture, among others, he is also a staunch enemy of the government in Rabat.

This politically embarrassing situation, a product of a diplomatic miscalculation by the Spanish government, created a feeling of betrayal in Rabat. Morocco quickly conveyed its discomfort, considering Spain’s harboring of Ghali a challenge to the kingdom’s sovereignty and interference in an internal state matter. Thus, Morocco issued a warning that continuing to host Ghali would have consequences.

Spain in North Africa

Despite these warnings, the government in Madrid decided not to make any political or diplomatic overtures to Morocco, declining to resolve the misunderstanding in a consensual manner. Therefore, in a way, the Spanish government forwent its diplomatic relationship with Morocco and disregarded the important role that Rabat has always played as a critical partner in the fight against illegal trafficking and terrorism stemming from the Maghreb and the Sahel.

Though the relationship between Morocco and Spain has lived through ups and downs, the tensions last year felt much different. Through relaxation of its military controls, Rabat‘s threat became a reality in May 2021 when Morocco effectively opened its border with Ceuta, a Spanish enclave and autonomous city located on the African continent, which made it easier for waves of irregular to reach Tarajal beach. Around 8,000 people, including more than 1,500 estimated minors, tried to cross the Spanish-Moroccan border on foot and by swimming to enter Spanish soil illegally.

As crude as it may seem, this political move by the government in Rabat, using Moroccans and Africans in general as a weapon against Spain, is not new. For years, Morocco has used this modus operandi as a diplomatic weapon to pressure and obtain concessions from its European neighbor. However, there has not been such a mass arrival of people, especially such a high percentage of minors, to the Spanish border in recent history.

The diplomatic crisis last May led to authentic moments of chaos and siege along Ceuta‘s border, making the passage of many of these immigrants to the European territory possible. Through its actions, Rabat sent a message without palliatives and the Spanish government to back down from political moves, such as open invitations to regional nationalist leaders.

The Existential Issue of Territorial Integrity

Morocco’s red lines related to Western Sahara have been drawn, and the kingdom has reiterated that interferences with its national sovereignty will not be tolerated. The crude political response at the Spanish border of Ceuta represents the harshness of Rabat‘s diplomatic relations, choosing, yet again, to weaponize its population.

Spain needs Morocco; indeed, Europe needs Morocco. Rabat is a crucial partner in Africa, especially given the many challenges in the region. However, Spain and the European Union should not allow the pressure and blackmail from their North African neighbor to stand because they embolden others. Spain and the EU should impose strict red lines on Morocco as well as clear and intelligent economic sanctions concerning development, education and health funds.

Political, and diplomatic issues can be resolved with class and delicacy without cheap blows and without trivializing despair and compassion. For this, Spain needs to reach a rapprochement with Morocco the status and future of Western Sahara.

Energy and Copycats

In tandem with ˛Ń´Ç°ů´Çł¦ł¦´Ç’s migrant valve vis-Ă -vis Spain, Algeria started leveraging its gas valve to counter France’s escalation on matters like issuing visas to Algerian citizens. In this latter issue, Spain and Morocco, neither of whom are particularly close with Algeria, are collateral damage to the Paris-Algiers feud whether in the form of declining pipeline or a higher power bill.

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Since these episodes toward the middle of last year, the same playbook has been used by Moscow’s client in Minsk, who has fostered a migrant cul-de-sac along the EU’s Polish border. In doing so, Russia and Belarus are feeding the euroskeptic spirits the Visegrad countries and beyond, which are particularly sensitive to migration and border sovereignty issues. Moreover, Alexander Lukashenko and Vladimir Putin are playing good cop, bad cop on the issue of Europe’s gas supply by offering both threats and assurances that further highlight the EU’s vulnerable dependency on external providers when it comes to energy.

On the migration front, the European Union needs to reinforce its external borders and FRONTEX agency, particularly within the Schengen area, and formulate a common framework to tackle both migration quotas and allocation throughout Schengen member countries. Not only is the migrant in places like Spain, Greece, and Poland a human tragedy, but it is also increasingly a geopolitical lever weaponized by Morocco, Turkey, Belarus and other adversaries to destabilize the EU and bolster internal chaos to the benefit of figures such as Viktor Orban, Geert Wilders, Santiago Abascal, Marine Le Pen, and Eric Zemmour.

Whether nuclear, solar or wind, a common and comprehensive European defense framework urgently requires a holistic approach that tackles the issue of energy independence, in addition to that of border security, particularly in an increasingly hostile and multipolar neighborhood.

Building Solutions Where Possible

Along the Maghreb, one of the best solutions would be a new pragmatic and flexible bipartisan agreement between Spain and Morocco. An agreement that commemorates the golden jubilee of the Tripartite Agreement provides a firm solution to the Western Sahara dispute in a framework that benefits coexistence in the region and maintains collaboration in critical matters such as the fight against terrorism, illegal immigration and human trafficking.

In the same way, Spain and the EU must encourage the good behavior of Morocco with humanitarian aid and fruitful commercial relations to definitively close the post-colonial wound that sometimes reopens between the two countries.

The views expressed in this article are the author’s own and do not necessarily reflect 51łÔąĎ’s editorial policy.

The post From the Maghreb to the East, Poking the EU Has an MO appeared first on 51łÔąĎ.

Not All Quiet on the Western Sahara Front

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The latest episode in this tense relationship between the North African nations took place in August when Algeria severed diplomatic with Morocco. The move came after a series of wildfires swept through the Amazigh-speaking Kabylie region in what Algeria claims was a covert Moroccan operation to bolster the MAK.

For Algeria, this was a delicate time for the government due to an economic crisis exacerbated by the COVID-19 pandemic, political unrest since 2020, and the ill health and subsequent death of the country’s former leader, Abdelaziz Bouteflika.

Tension in the Maghreb

Algeria and Morocco have been antagonistic neighbors since their respective independence from the French. Border discord gave rise to a tenacious rivalry that worsened with the Western Sahara when Algeria became the main supporter of the Polisario Front. This unfinished conflict and the decades-long of the land border between Algeria and Morocco are the most tangible examples of the enmity that keeps the Maghreb divided.

Diplomatic spats and mutual accusations of instigating internal turmoil have been frequent. One area where the tense calm in bilateral relations has been the military. The two countries have engaged in a rapid arms fueled, in Algeria‘s case, by generous hydrocarbon revenues in the first decade of the century. Despite its efforts, ˛Ń´Ç°ů´Çł¦ł¦´Ç’s military budget has been outstripped since 2006. Only as a result of Algeria‘s economic fragility has Morocco been able to make a significant .

Recent years have been characterized by Morocco’s impetuous diplomatic activity, particularly in the Gulf and throughout Africa. In the face of Morocco’s increased international projection, the Algerians have tried to respond despite the country’s poor economic situation.

In particular, the Algerians have sought to build closer relations with African nations. Algeria has strengthened ties with its traditional ally Nigeria, restarting talks on the construction of the trans-Saharan gas . It has also reinforced cooperation with countries such as Mali and Libya.

Implications for Spain

Europe overlooks North Africa and is separated by mere miles from Morocco. As a result, the Europeans have a direct stake in the tension south of the Mediterranean. The European country most affected by the recent escalation between Morocco and Algeria is Spain.

Taking a position in favor of one party could have on either the security of Spain’s southern border that is close to northern Morocco or the supply of natural gas that it receives from Algeria. This comes at a time when the flow of migrants across the Mediterranean is increasing and the price of gas, coal and electricity is rising.

The of the Maghreb-Europe gas pipeline on November 1 has direct implications for Spain since the route was a major source of supply for over two decades. The pipeline also passes through Morocco, which retained part of the gas in exchange for allowing the line to operate via its territory. Morocco used the gas to produce around 12% of the country’s electricity. The Medgaz pipeline is seen as a replacement, which would allow Algeria to get rid of intermediaries and also strike a blow against Morocco.

Yet this will not spare Spain, which has no voice in regional disputes despite its desire to present itself as a strong European country. It is unclear how long this new episode of tension in the Maghreb will play out, but it could have serious implications for Europe.

The views expressed in this article are the author’s own and do not necessarily reflect 51łÔąĎ’s editorial policy.

The post Algeria and Morocco: The Conflict on Europe’s Doorstep appeared first on 51łÔąĎ.

Addressing Climate Change Impacts on the Sporting Calendar

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This, combined with flagging and in some cases stagnant yield increases in soil systems across the world, will soon require sweeping and rapid changes in growing methods. As the global population continues to increase, food production will rise and our methods of growing should change as well.

Better Methods

There are methods available to us today to not only change the way we grow produce for the better, but also increase yields in a smaller space. Vertical farming through hydroponics or aeroponics gives us the opportunity to grow larger amounts of produce in seemingly unavailable spaces. Rooftops and indoor areas such as old warehouses can be used to grow plants that are stacked on top of each other to farm a consistent crop that produces year-round and quickly. Such measures would require less water and energy, are more pest resistant and can help alleviate some of the logistical trouble of transporting produce to and from farms to cities everywhere.

Hydroponics and aeroponics are increasingly popular cultivation methods among both commercial growers and research scientists. They confer several advantages, with the foremost being their water use efficiency. Some studies suggest up to 70% and 95% less water usage for hydroponics and aeroponics, respectively. In a 2015  conducted in Arizona, an extremely dry place in the United States, it was found that hydroponically grown lettuce required 10 times less water as a system than soil-based lettuce crops.

This is particularly important based on the similarities between the climates of Arizona and Marrakech, a city in Morocco. While this study found that energy usage of a hydroponic farm was significantly higher than soil-based farms, this could be nearly completely offset by reducing the amount of supplemental lighting used in favor of currently available solar power technologies.

Another advantage of greenhouse hydroponic production is season independence, where a grower would be able to produce several harvests year-round by shielding the crops from seasonal changes through the use of LED lighting and heating and cooling of the greenhouse space. By utilizing existing ideas for a closed-loop hydroponic system, which can be easily constructed in any area of the world, it is possible to reuse nearly all water and nutrients that are not taken up and transpired by plants.

One  conducted in Indonesia suggested the use of such a system to more actively regulate water usage and increase the cost-efficiency of hydroponic production in a nutrient film technique (NFT) hydroponic system. Water efficiency and full-year production and harvest are attractive, and depending on the design of the greenhouse, pest resistance can be built in as well through the engineering of the facility to not be conducive to insect or microbial population accumulation.

While reusing nutrients and water can be economically and environmentally attractive (in reducing agricultural runoff, one of the main sources of pollution in the world), care must be taken to ensure consistent yield through several cycles of harvest. If not properly treated, reused nutrient solution can accumulate several  (plant-harming) organic acids that are released from the roots of any plant in order to regulate the microbial population of its roots. Studies have shown that the use of activated charcoal can help to mitigate some of the damaging effects of these chemicals, though further research is needed to determine a commercially viable solution.

Another promising area of research in hydroponics and aeroponics is a possible disease resistance conferred by the physical stress of constant flow or aerosolization. One  found that in aeroponic systems, the microbial population of the roots remained almost entirely distinct from the population of the nutrient solution reservoir, suggesting very little, if any, microbial population overlap.

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Another recent  attempted to use a chemical intervention solution to mitigate possible E. coli contamination of lettuce crops grown in NFT systems. Though the chemical intervention was unsuccessful, a notable result was the complete lack of colonization of root tissue and no uptake of harmful bacteria into the vegetative tissues of any of the tested crops. Though these studies are recent, they suggest that hydroponics may be much more pathogen-resistant than previously thought, leading to considerably lower contamination risk for hydroponic growers and safer food for consumers.

Benefits Are Many

The benefits of hydroponic and aeroponic farming are many, and emerging technologies are making the ease of access to such systems considerably lower, paving the way for a future generation of amateur and commercial growers to begin to farm in any place, at any time.

Africa has experienced wonderful agricultural and economic growth in some regions, but with current methods, this is not sustainable. At a recent pre-summit event of the US Agency for International Development (USAID) , “Agricultural Transformation for Sustainable and Resilient Food Systems,” there was a discussion regarding the need for change in the direction of agriculture in the future. There is a need for an increase in productivity in the land already used for agriculture, which will then lead to greater and more sustainable economic growth. Increasing productivity through new agricultural technologies would have lasting impacts on farmers, communities, and societies everywhere.

As per a 2020 World Bank , “Harvesting Prosperity: Technology and Productivity Growth in Agriculture,” there is particular weight given to innovation and the need to support this innovation through connection to markets. We believe that using new hydroponic and aeroponic technology as well as vertical farming can increase productivity, foster a closer connection for city residents to their food production and experience continued growth in the agricultural sector.

From Africa to the World

Across the world, we are conducting unsustainable practices and the use of land for agricultural growth. The High Atlas Foundation (HAF), an organization for the lasting and prosperous development of Morocco, has been working to address this problem. It has been following responsible procedures and using new technology to increase efficiency primarily through women and youth-led campaigns. In addition, it has been working to address the problem of climate change through monitoring trees that HAF has planted for carbon offsets.

There is a necessity in not only Africa but across the world to accept and utilize new technology to help increase the productivity of the land we have while also saving our planet. The advent of hydroponics, aeroponics and vertical farming is a great method to try to combat the pressing issue of how we are going to grow plants when there is little water and little surface area. This gives the possibility for many methods of urban farming, including vertical and hydroponics in rooftops and many unused areas that could be used for growing.
 
We only have one world, so being good stewards and living sustainable lives is imperative. Expanding use of the technology of hydroponics and vertical farming can allow the small grower to have much stronger financial gain while also helping alleviate the burden agriculture places on the planet. There is only so much space in the world, but we can always grow up.

*[The authors are interns at the .]

The views expressed in this article are the author’s own and do not necessarily reflect 51łÔąĎ’s editorial policy.

The post The Future of Farming in Morocco appeared first on 51łÔąĎ.

The post Algeria and Morocco: Neighbors With Issues appeared first on 51łÔąĎ.

The US-brokered agreement goes beyond a simple quid pro quo for Trump’s Arab peace deals. It represents a US investment in a North African security partner that is key to Washington’s conception of great power competition. Trump’s decision pulls Morocco closer to the US and the European Union. It also brings Rabat closer to the United Arab Emirates’ spheres of geopolitical influence in Africa and the wider Arab world. At the same time, the decision gives the EU cover to further align with Morocco.

Yet Trump’s gift to Morocco could have unintended consequences. Algeria might deepen its relationship with Russia and China, increasing their presence in the Maghreb region. The Biden administration is scrutinizing past deals signed by the previous president, and the decision pertaining to Morocco might come up for reconsideration. 

Not All Quiet on the Western Sahara Front

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The Moroccan kingdom conceives of its neighborhood’s stability in terms of a strong grip on Western Sahara, the continued development of the southern territory’s resources, and limited terrorist threats in and around its porous Saharan borders. In late November 2020, the US committed to $3 billion in Morocco — through the Development Finance Corporation — and designated the country as a regional hub for its Prosper Africa trade and investment program. A month later, the US committed to four sky guardian drones to Morocco, which expands its intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance (ISR) capacity. By acknowledging Moroccan sovereignty over Western Sahara, allotting Morocco more development funding and providing increased ISR, the US bolsters neighborhood stability as seen by King Mohammed VI.

In turn, increased stability for Morocco may reverberate across its littoral Sahara — a vacuum for terrorists and a potential target of Russian . New US development initiatives could amplify previous Moroccan actions in the region, such as the delivery of COVID-19 aid packages to Mauritania and Burkina Faso in . New ISR capacity will also see the increased interdiction of traffickers and terrorists, whose roles progressively overlap. These actions will not decisively change the nature of conflict plaguing the Sahel region, located just south of the Sahara Desert. But even marginal gains for Moroccan stability would decrease power vacuums for Russia to exploit with the , a private military company Moscow uses to surreptitiously advance its foreign policy.

Europe and the Gulf

Trump’s decision also provides political cover for the EU to overcome obstacles in its relationship with Morocco, which retains advanced status under the union’s . The Brussels-Rabat relationship is fraught with disputes over whether goods from Western Sahara should come under the jurisdiction of the EU-Morocco free trade agreement. Rulings in  by the European Court of Justice decreed that EU-Morocco trade and fishing agreements would only remain valid if they excluded goods originating from Western Sahara, contradicting the Moroccan autonomy plan for the territory.

Washington’s recognition of Moroccan sovereignty gives political cover to European states, including France, that lean toward the autonomy plan. European judicial decisions do not derive from US decrees, but if key EU member states were to change their stance on Western Sahara, the legal basis of the earlier court rulings could also differ. If so, like the US, the European Union would find itself pulled closer to Morocco, portending new initiatives that align with the European interest of Morocco as a stability exporter.

In the Gulf, Washington’s recognition of Moroccan sovereignty pushes Rabat and Abu Dhabi closer into alignment. This would continue their rapprochement after previous tensions, which stemmed from ˛Ń´Ç°ů´Çł¦ł¦´Ç’s refusal to back the Saudi-Emirati-led blockade of Qatar between 2017 and 2021. To punish Morocco for its neutrality, in 2018, the UAE and Saudi Arabia voted against ˛Ń´Ç°ů´Çł¦ł¦´Ç’s bid to host the 2026 FIFA World Cup. The states also recalled each other’s .

In October 2020, however, the UAE opened a consulate in Western Sahara’s , which at that time was not recognized as Moroccan territory by the US. This was an important symbolic gesture, given that the UAE was the first Arab state to do so. UAE actions that favor Morocco come amidst deteriorating Emirati-Algerian relations, as Abu Dhabi is unhappy with Algeria’s alleged support of Turkey or, to the UAE, “anti-Emirati lobbies in the region.” That the UAE is strengthening ties with Morocco while Saudi Arabia makes no such overtures could foreshadow Emirati attempts at constructing a new, intra-Sunni coalition.

Russia and China

US rivals have adopted less amenable stances. Russia has already Washington’s recognition of Moroccan sovereignty over Western Sahara. The US decision, consequently, gives Russia and China an excuse to increase security and economic cooperation with the Algerians. As the most strident supporter of the Polisario Front — an armed group demanding independence for Western Sahara — Algeria is upset about the diplomatic win Morocco secured in the US recognition of Moroccan sovereignty.

To balance Rabat’s victory, Algiers could invite in Russian troops under the guise of counterterrorism operations to the Sahel. Algeria is one of Russia’s largest and China has already committed billions to in the east of the country. In light of the US move, both of these relationships could further develop.

Increased Russian and Chinese activity in Algeria would also diminish advances made in terms of Moroccan stability in the Sahel. Russia expanding its North African power projection and China increasing its investments in natural resources would balance Moroccan actions that close power vacuums to the Wagner Group. Unforeseen by Trump, Russia can also cite the US recognition of Moroccan sovereignty over Western Sahara as justification for its annexation in 2014 of Crimea, which is officially part of Ukraine. The US may have improved ties with Morocco but, in doing so, pushed Algeria, another North African behemoth, firmly into a sphere of Russian and Chinese influence and provided Russia justification for its illegal invasions.

The New US Administration

The Biden administration has already stated its support of the Abraham Accords, a term used for the peace deals Israel signed with the UAE and Bahrain in 2020. In response to a question concerning US recognition of Western Sahara, however, Secretary of State Antony Blinken , “We’re also trying to make sure that we have a full understanding of any commitments that may have been made in securing those agreements.”

On January 27, 2021, US President Joe Biden the Trump-era F-35 sale to the UAE, pending review. Many considered the F-35 sale as a carrot Trump offered to the UAE. The freeze does not necessitate the reversal of the sale, but it indicates Biden’s resolve to scrutinize the quid pro quos that accompany the Abraham Accords. Once the US reaches “a full understanding of any commitments,” it will either continue or withdraw recognition of Moroccan sovereignty over Western Sahara.

If the Biden administration continues recognition of Western Sahara, Blinken would most likely work through an international framework at the United Nations to achieve increased support for Washington’s unilateral decision, as the US is the only state to recognize full Moroccan sovereignty over Western Sahara. If EU states lean toward the Moroccan autonomy plan, the Biden administration will find some find needed political cover.

At the same time, Russia and China would continue their support for Algeria, and Morocco would export its version of stability across North Africa. Rabat would also continue its recognition of Israel. Malignant non-state actors, however, could use the endurance of the US decision to galvanize violent actions from some Polisario fighters, creating another opening for terrorist groups. Maintenance of the decision also comes at the expense of true self-determination for the Saharawi people in Western Sahara.

The US can also withdraw recognition of Moroccan sovereignty over Western Sahara. This action would see the White House realign with the UN-sponsored peace process and international law. Potentially, a US return to non-recognition would invigorate efforts toward a true autonomy plan. In this case, Morocco would withdraw its recognition of Israel and US relations with Morocco would cool. Although the US and Morocco would remain important partners, the Moroccans would feel betrayed by this decision and potentially align closer with Russia and China to castigate the Americans. The Polisario, moreover, would also find a renewed chance at some form of self-determination.

Regardless of the Biden administration’s actions, Trump blatantly circumvented a UN-sponsored peace process and gave Morocco a carte blanche to implement its autonomy plan. New US-Moroccan collaboration could see Morocco push Sahelian stability that benefits the US position in great power competition by closing power vacuums to Russian interests. Trump’s thirst for diplomatic wins, however, caused his administration to view Western Sahara through a transactional lens, obfuscating a legitimate international solution and potentially inviting new Russian and Chinese activity in North Africa.

*[51łÔąĎ is a media partner of .]

The views expressed in this article are the author’s own and do not necessarily reflect 51łÔąĎ’s editorial policy.

The post The Western Sahara Conflict and Great Power Competition appeared first on 51łÔąĎ.

Developmental nonprofits in the area have begun working with communities facing scarce economic prospects in the face of “extreme” climate events like drought, which occur in Morocco every two years. The High Atlas Foundation (HAF), working in part with Farmer-to-Farmer, a USAID program, creates tree nurseries in areas of the lower mountain regions. Some communities from the higher pasturelands have voiced their interest in these projects. This follows a trend within the past two decades of nomadic and semi-nomadic pastoralists seeking out additional or alternative forms of agriculture.

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Since 2004, the number of  in the Maghreb region has declined by more than 60%. As of 2014, only 25,300 remain. Morocco is home to one of the largest regions of pastoral rangelands in the Maghreb. These rangelands make up about 40% of land territory, or 20 million hectares, in Morocco and Algeria. In Morocco, the majority of nomadic pastoralists range in the western coastal plains. Their pasturelands include the Rif and Tell mountains, where altitudes for some summer pastures reach 3,000 meters above sea level. There, the air is dry and the pressure is lower, limiting the kind of agriculture the area can sustain. Along these routes, pastoralists herd camels, sheep and goats, producing mutton and valuable products like wool (to be used for local handicraft) and manure, an alternative for chemical-based fertilizer.

Pastoralism is a process engrained in Moroccan history and heritage. Up until the last century, semi-nomadic pastoralists occupied the Middle Atlas regions, traveling with herds during the grazing season and growing crops like cereal for domestic consumption. Herders still use indigenous breeds and veterinary medicine developed over centuries.

Yet some pastoralist communities are beginning to favor more sedentary farming methods. Part of the reason is the rising and devaluing of mutton as a main source of meat, now associated with being unhealthy due to its high cholesterol content. However, the Moroccan ministry of agriculture suggests the reason is that pastoralists are suffering from the degradation of rangelands, which makes it difficult to maintain a livelihood.

Overuse, Not Overgrazing, Degrades Pasturelands

Moroccan pastoralism is changing for a wide range of reasons. Viable grazing lands are affected by the amount of rain per season, availability of shrubs for grazing and regional politics or poverty — all of which are subject to change. The main factors that make pastoralism difficult for many, and may be a reason for some to switch to sedentary farming, include shifting social values, environmental change and rising population in both urban and rural areas. But the most pressing issue for pastoralists is land degradation.

Many typically point to overgrazing as a reason for the degradation of pastoral rangelands. This is often blamed on pastoralists themselves, whose herds graze away the vegetation. Yet varying rainfall, especially in arid climates, leads to periods of drought, and the shrubs that typically cover the steppe lands are not as plentiful.

Rangelands in the Maghreb region  1,557 hectares a year to drought and degradation, and in nearly three decades, more than 8.3 million hectares of land have been “severely degraded.” This is one of the reasons there has been a recent movement of pastoral nomads traveling northward, particularly toward the Souss region in Morocco. But this kind of movement leads to regional  like land disputes and tension, especially in the Souss region that is home to a large population of Amazigh people, who must now compete with newcomers for land and natural resources.

Overuse, rather than overgrazing, more accurately explains the desiccation of pastoral land. Overuse, or human-induced degradation, comes from improper agricultural practices like plowing with heavy machines and over-irrigation, soil erosion by deforestation and, to some extent, overgrazing. Agricultural researchers have suggested that overuse, coupled with a growing rural population and a difficult climate, wears away the land, so pastoralists must either move to more viable pasturelands or build themselves an economic cushion by engaging in irrigation farming and growing crops, fruit or nut trees.

Land formerly used for pastoral purposes is being converted to sedentary farming areas. Fruit and nut trees provide diverse incomes as grass for herding becomes harder to find. Land used for forestry and herding has declined by 21% since the early 1980s, while agricultural land used for non-forestry and non-pastoral purposes has increased by 7.7%.

At the same time, as more people move to cities, rural areas face low population densities. Modernization policies have tended to favor farming expansions and development in areas with higher populations, leaving pastoralist societies — far from city centers — to be . This has reduced their access to certain services, such as privatized veterinary services, which makes it difficult for herders to afford veterinary care.

A Semi-Nomadic Majority

Many pastoralists in the region, in part a result of changing social norms and development in the region, are only semi-nomadic and will likely stay so. This means they may have both farmlands and herds, which they send off with a herder for the grazing season. As advancements in education expand access to rural areas, pastoral families value sending their children to schools for a more , which requires them to stay in one place. Yet despite shifting trends and smaller numbers, pastoral systems will remain important as the population grows and demand for meat rises.

As rural life changes, development must also change, so it is important to work with rather than against existing shifts. The High Atlas Foundation works with communities to address these agricultural changes by taking a participatory approach to development. HAF takes note of communities that are looking to grow fruit, nut or medicinal plants, thereby determining trends and producing a plan for the community to approve for implementation.

This process has taken root as HAF’s House of Life program, through which 12  have been built around Morocco. Trees are planted every  where they grow for two years, contributing around 30,000 trees annually to be donated to local farmers and schools as a way to reduce environmental damage and improve local livelihoods. As communities continue to mark their interest in sedentary farming, projects like this face new levels of expansion.

The views expressed in this article are the author’s own and do not necessarily reflect 51łÔąĎ’s editorial policy.

The post Pastoral Nomads in North Africa Consider In-Place Farming appeared first on 51łÔąĎ.

There are two overriding issues to consider in this regard. King Mohammed VI has consistently and strongly supported a peace agreement between Israel and Palestine, and he may see a Moroccan agreement with Israel as damaging to such prospects. Also, the timing to act now, during an election year in the US, may be a deterrent for Morocco to move too hastily.

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The king has made his viewpoint clear over the past two decades with regard to Palestine and used his position as chairman of the Al-Quds (Jerusalem) Committee of the Organization of Islamic Conference (OIC) to assert strong support for a Palestinian state. At the same time, he has expressed his support for warm and full relations with Israel and seems perfectly situated as the next peace partner with Israel, given the fact that Moroccans are the second largest ethnic group in Israel, after Russians.

Such a move, however, will have to be balanced with the statements that King Mohammed VI has constantly to over the years in his support for Palestine. In November 2019, he  that “the continuing Israeli practices in violation of international legitimacy and international humanitarian law in the occupied Palestinian territories fuel tension, violence, instability and sow the seeds of religious conflict and hatred,” The North Africa Post reports. Following the king’s comments, Moroccan diplomats  Morocco’s steadfast and unwavering support for Palestine.

In February of this year, a from King Mohammed VI conveyed to the Palestinian leader, Mahmoud Abbas, by Moroccan Foreign Minister Nasser Bourita reaffirmed Morocco’s unwavering support to the Palestinian cause. The number of times the king has reiterated his support for Palestine during the past is too numerous to repeat here.

Since the days of King Hassan II — the reigning monarch’s father — Moroccans have been encouraged to give to the poor in Palestine and have inspired a Moroccan population deeply supportive of a Palestinian homeland. King Mohammed VI would have a hefty price to pay if he went back on his word and didn’t first extract meaningful concessions for the Palestinians before signing any agreement with Israel.

Remember also that the king opposed Gulf countries’ pressure on Morocco to support their of Qatar in 2017 and he Morocco’s participation in the war in Yemen in 2019. Such stands took courage for a country so dependent on economic development from the Gulf. Analysts who predict that Morocco will be next to sign a peace accord with Israel may not understand the strength of King Mohammed’s moral compass.

Partisanship

The other consideration of Morocco to normalize relations with Israel is timing. There’s a joke in Morocco that says, “I’m not sure who the next US president will be, but I do know who the king’s best friend will be.” Morocco has always avoided partisan gestures during US election cycles dating back to the time when, in 1777, Sultan Mohammed III recognized the independence of the US. Morocco was the first country in the world to officially recognize the United States and was among the first countries to sign a treaty of peace and friendship between the two nations. Every monarch since has been careful to avoid the appearance of taking sides in US politics.

Morocco understands that if it is not early to the peace party, the country will have less to gain from it. The king will have to balance that notion with his moral authority and long-held beliefs — and those of his citizens — to remain steadfast in support of a Palestinian state, as well as considering US election year timing.

There are obvious reasons for Morocco to move quickly toward normalization given cultural and family ties with Israelis of Moroccan descent. For these and other reasons, many Morocco watchers believe that when the right concessions are made that include a serious negotiation between the parties that include a contiguous state of Palestine, based upon the 1967 borders, with Jerusalem as a capital of both Israel and Palestine — and when Morocco is not playing into election-year politics — the king will move swiftly to normalize relations.

Many Moroccan and Israeli citizens already know through their cultural and family ties that when that day arrives, their new relationship will be a peaceful, warm and genuine one.

*[This article was originally published by .]

The views expressed in this article are the author’s own and do not necessarily reflect 51łÔąĎ’s editorial policy.

The post Will Morocco Normalize Relations With Israel? appeared first on 51łÔąĎ.

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As the US aims to improve race relations, black culture and heritage have become more than just an expression of the black community, but something that is inherently all-American. The BLM movement has highlighted the need for change in the US, and it may be helpful to consider the methods of Moroccan multiculturalism. In Morocco, cultural protection is tied to development, limiting socioeconomic divides and welcoming diversity.

A Model for the World

There is a word for the Moroccan ideal of multiculturalism — a term borrowed from the Spanish — known as convivencia (coexistence). Originally a reference to the relative harmony among Christians, Muslims and Jews living in Islamic Iberia (al-Andalus) during the Middle Ages, it now represents the shared history, culture and heritage of Morocco’s diverse national identity and a guide for modern multiculturalism.

Moroccan Judaism has roots in the time of antiquity. Jewish merchants came to Africa around 500 BC, likely to take part in the riches of the Carthaginian gold market. Before the Arab conquest, several native Amazigh (Berber) tribes converted to Judaism, one of which, located near Sefrou, survived long into the 11th century.

In 1948, about 265,000 Jews lived in the French and Spanish protectorates of Morocco, although the numbers soon began to decrease as many emigrated to newly-formed Israel. Those who remained resided mostly in small towns and villages, dispersed throughout the country, limiting their access to educational institutions and health care. The illiteracy rate for some Moroccan Jews was  than 40%.

When Morocco gained independence in 1956, after rising hostilities and anti-Jewish in 1948, many Jews believed they had no future in a country where they felt they were unwelcome. However, despite these setbacks, Morocco has and continues to be protective of its Jewish community as a model for inclusion.

The 2011 amendment to the Moroccan Constitution redefined Moroccan national identity, establishing difference — Arab, Muslim, Jewish, Amazigh, Andalusian, African, Mediterranean — as a facet of Moroccan identity. It also made Tamazight, which is spoken by native Berbers, roughly one-third of the Moroccan population, an official language. And two years later, Morocco’s new migration policy  24,000 migrants, beginning the first phase of a human-rights approach to migration and strengthening support of Morocco’s African heritage.

In combination with Morocco’s municipal charter — requiring participatory methods in community planning and thus involving minority voices — and the country’s stance within the UN Alliance of Civilizations (which ties multiculturalism to development), this solidified a tradition of multicultural preservation. This was a result of efforts by the late King Mohammed V and King Hassan II as well as the current monarch, King Mohammed VI.

The Role of Society

Morocco’s preservation of cultural heritage has led to greater community development and reduced poverty in neglected minority areas. Cultural preservation projects, funded by the ministry of culture in the  — a Jewish quarter whose traditional name was reinstated in 2017 — have restored streets and town squares, creating a safe, clean space for its inhabitants.

The House of Life , initiated in 2010 by the chief rabbinate of Morocco and the ministry of interior, permits the restoration of 167 mausoleums and cemeteries in 14 different regions within Morocco. This has led to the development of pilgrimage destinations such as Ouezzane Cemetery in northern Morocco, where Jews of Moroccan descent who emigrated to Israel return to visit.

On lands surrounding these protected cemeteries, the High Atlas Foundation, a developmental organization in Marrakesh, creates nurseries for medicinal and fruit trees. These are then given to farmers as a way to diversify local produce and improve local economies, promoting both Jewish heritage and community development.

These projects are made possible through participatory methods, where members of the communities they serve decide which resources are most in need, a method that could be useful in underrepresented American neighborhoods. Promoting black art, culture and history gives recognition and provides a basis for the rest of the country to learn about differences.

“I always advocate for education,” says Laziza Dalil, a guest speaker on a series of Jewish-cross-cultural lectures hosted by the Kivunim Institute. “[Education] is a building bridge. It causes people to deal with diversity in a more positive way,” she adds. Dalil is also the vice president of the Association Mimouna, a Moroccan organization run by Muslim university students in the promotion of Jewish culture and tradition.

While the Moroccan case is not identical to the US, the development and support of a Moroccan multicultural society, through cultural preservation and promotion of minority visibility, can serve as a guide for NGOs and policymakers in America working to combat systemic racism. Such a plan may include funding the preservation of buildings and landscapes infused with black culture and history, supporting small museums or exhibitions on African American activism and achievement, and backing arts programs focused on diversity and inclusion.

The views expressed in this article are the author’s own and do not necessarily reflect 51łÔąĎ’s editorial policy.

The post What the US Can Learn From Morocco appeared first on 51łÔąĎ.

In the latest World Bank , “Morocco Economic Monitor,” it is projected that the Moroccan economy will contract in the next year, which would be the first severe recession since 1995. “Over the past two decades, Morocco has achieved significant social and economic progress due to the large public investments, structural reforms, along with measures to ensure macroeconomic stability,” the report notes.

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The World Bank’s forecast indicates that Morocco’s real GDP is projected to contract by 4% in 2020, which is a sharp swing from the 3.6% positive growth rate that was predicted before the pandemic. Consequently, the bank expects Morocco’s fiscal deficit to widen to 7.5% of GDP in 2020, around 4% more than expected before the COVID-19 outbreak.

Meanwhile, the country’s public and external debt is to set rise but still remains manageable. In assessing the government’s well-regarded response to the crisis, the World Bank puts an emphasis on moving from mitigation to adaptation, which is key “to ensuring a resilient, inclusive, and growing Moroccan economy.” It also points out that despite this year’s setbacks, Morocco can still “build a more sustainable and resilient economy by developing a strategy to adapt,” similar to what it has done to address issues of climate change and environmental challenges.

A Strong Position

When viewed in comparison to the rest of North Africa and the Middle East, let alone its sub-Saharan neighbors, Morocco is in a strong position to capitalize on global changes as companies rethink supply chains and vulnerabilities in logistics. Globally, and especially in Europe and the US, corporations are rethinking their reliance on China as a key supplier, and Morocco is poised to benefit, as I mentioned in a previous article on 51łÔąĎ.

The European Union, in particular, is already calling for “strategic autonomy” in sectors such as pharmaceuticals by focusing on more reliable and diversified supply chains. The new  is expected to entail tighter rules on human rights and environmental protection on imported goods, a move that experts say would boost local manufacturers, and Morocco is near the top of the list.

Guillaume Van Der Loo, a researcher at the Center for European Policy Studies in Brussels, to DW about the opportunities for Morocco. “If you look at Morocco, there are more favorable conditions there for specific areas in particular, in relation to renewable energy and environmental related sectors, [and] Morocco is quite a frontrunner and the EU tries to chip in on that,” he said. “The idea that the European Commission has already expressed about diversifying supply chains could be beneficial for Morocco and that could accelerate negotiations on the new trade agreement.”

Morocco is one of few countries that have free-trade deals with both the United States and the European Union, and it is seen as an entry point for Western investment in Africa. As Alessandro Nicita, an economist at UN Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD), , “Morocco is very well positioned because of its proximity [and] because it’s part of [the] EU’s regional trade agreements, its rules of origin are kind of integrated with those of the EU.”

The Challenges

Yet Morocco faces challenges in grabbing these economic opportunities, including restrictive capital controls and a paucity of high-skilled workers. Having been overhauled in the 1980s, the country’s education system “has failed to raise skill levels among the country’s youth, making them especially unsuitable for middle management roles,” DW reports.

Another concern has been by the National Competitive Council in Morocco, which said that if the country was to move forward efficiently, it had to end monopolies in key sectors. These include fuel distribution, telecoms, banks, insurance companies and cement producers, which have created an oligopolistic situation in the country.

The Oxford Business Group (OBG) has also released a  focusing on the success that Morocco is achieving in terms of combating the effects of COVID-19. “Morocco boasts a robust and diversified industrial base, developed through years of heavy investment, which enabled the country to take actions to control the pandemic and mitigate supply chain disruptions,” the OBG notes. The investment-friendly climate and robust infrastructure, with Africa’s fastest train network, will enhance the country’s attraction for manufacturers looking to relocate Asia-based production, as supply-chain disruptions due to distant and vulnerable suppliers have resulted in many companies pursuing a strategy of near-shoring, the report adds.

So, ˛Ń´Ç°ů´Çł¦ł¦´Ç’s future in manufacturing, agro-business and technology may well determine the country’s capacity to recover its positive GDP growth rate as it overcomes the COVID-19-induced recession. To do so, it will need a robust marketing campaign as a country for reliable and relatively inexpensive supply chains and a skilled workforce.

*[An earlier version of this article was published by .]

The views expressed in this article are the author’s own and do not necessarily reflect 51łÔąĎ’s editorial policy.

The post Morocco Looks to a Future After COVID-19 appeared first on 51łÔąĎ.

In other news, the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) has declared that a Moroccan digital tracking system is the most “innovative initiative in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) for the protection of farmers and vulnerable groups against COVID-19 contamination,” Zuza Nazaruk . Writing for Morocco World News, she adds that by “digitizing the processes of cultivation and harvesting, the innovation facilitates the management of key stages of cultivation.”

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The program benefits all sizes of farms and is one of the results of the 2008 Green Morocco Plan, which funded a range of initiatives and programs. The aim of the plan was to make agriculture one of the main growth engines of the national economy by stabilizing production and thereby increasing its contribution to “GDP growth, job creation and poverty reduction.”

To enable farmers and companies in the agricultural sector to access financing during the coronavirus pandemic, Moroccan bank Credit Agricole has signed a 560-million dirham  with the French Development Agency. At around $57 million, this would enable micro, small and medium-sized companies to secure funding at reduced rates for seeds, equipment and social services for rural families and marginalized people during the health crisis.

The line of credit is in to 16.8 million dirhams ($1.7 million) that is intended to support sustainable agricultural projects that “contribute to the deployment of more sustainable and local agriculture,” which includes “integrated irrigation, energy efficiency, organic farming, agricultural waste treatment and local farming.”

In manufacturing, a number of analysts believe that the global infrastructure of value supply chains may undergo dramatic changes due to COVID-19, the disease caused by the novel coronavirus. As the US is experiencing, there is now greater awareness of factors other than costs and speed of delivery, which must be taken into account.

Supply Chains

There is growing concern about excessive reliance on China for global manufacturing. A great deal of analysis is being given to medium and long-term alternatives to reduce vulnerabilities in supply chains of major sectors, including the automobile, textiles and electronics industries as well as pharmaceuticals and health. For example, China monopolizes more than 15% of the world export market. When its labor force was constrained by the coronavirus lockdown earlier this year, coupled with the dramatic rise in demand for medical and protective equipment, the fragility of the current system became obvious.

Other factors calling into question the primacy of global supply chains are the rising wage costs in Asia that are no longer offset by productivity gains, the growing utilization of robotics and artificial intelligence (AI) in production, resurgent protectionism in the US and Europe, trade and tariff regimes that penalize some categories of imports, and growing concern for the environmental impact on labor and nature due to a lack of monitoring by foreign companies.

While there are several scenarios of options moving forward, Morocco is in a unique position to up its game by becoming a regional leader in supply-chain production. Morocco has the capacity to expand its industrial base quickly to meet demands in Europe and the US through the kinds of partnerships it already has with automobile and aeronautical manufacturers.

This kind of regional relocation will only have an incremental impact on costs balanced against a more reliable and convenient supply chain. This would mean that companies reorganize their production systems and those of their partner suppliers — as Boeing has done in Morocco — to take advantage of the human, material and energy resources available and accessible in Africa.

As Hafsa el-Bekri and Hicham Sebti pointed out in a recent , “In the automotive, textile, and electronic components sectors, for example, Morocco could benefit from the repatriation in a Euro-Mediterranean area of ​​part of the productions currently carried out in Asia. This movement could also be accompanied by flows of Asian FDI [foreign direct investment] wishing to retain their European customers by setting up in Morocco.” This is already obvious in the automotive sector, which serves as a model for other industries.

The Arab Maghreb Union

Another possible — though currently unlikely — benefit from the pandemic is extending this proposed value chain model across the Maghreb region in North Africa. This would see Tunisia and Algeria work with Morocco to become  of a vital supply chain for Europe and Africa, with some outreach to US markets. All three nations have well-qualified people who need training for industry 4.0 opportunities — use of digital technology, AI, agile organizational infrastructure, and supportive government and legal infrastructure. Algeria already has energy links to Tunisia and Morocco to reduce those costs, and all three countries would greatly benefit from expanding 5G networks and backbones throughout the region.

If Algeria, Morocco, and Tunisia can manage the coronavirus pandemic with some success, they could emerge with new energies to explore opportunities to resurrect the Arab Maghreb Union on a practical basis that responds to the basic needs of their citizens for opportunities and dignity. It’s a stretch, but it’s better than the status quo.

Consistent with this concept was a recent  by economist Abdelghani Youmni, who highlighted the “potential of public-private partnerships (PPP) and foreign investment in facilitating” Morocco’s post-coronavirus economic recovery. He believes that Morocco can attract global investors using the PPP model, which has had great success in the country.

Youmni thinks that Europe, with its aging population, should consider integrating its businesses with North Africa and building upon the success of existing ties between international companies and Morocco. “An industrially strong Morocco could be a reliable partner where environmentally responsible European companies could establish joint ventures,” he said.

This is exactly why a stronger and multifaceted value supply chain reorientation to the Maghreb makes great business sense.

*[A version of this article was cross-posted by .]

The views expressed in this article are the author’s own and do not necessarily reflect 51łÔąĎ’s editorial policy.

The post Morocco Sets Out a Post-Coronavirus Recovery Strategy appeared first on 51łÔąĎ.

Algeria

In an interesting analogy to how a person’s health status may determine their ability to resist the coronavirus, Sarah Feuer : “For Algeria and its 43 million inhabitants, a weak medical infrastructure, a year-long political crisis, and a stalled reorientation of an economy that has been overly dependent on hydrocarbons for decades have all made the North African country particularly vulnerable to repercussions from the virus.”

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Feuer, an associate fellow at the Washington Institute for Near East Policy, is not alone in this assessment as the government has been perhaps the slowest to put in place the necessary tools to detect and combat COVID-19. She points out that the “2019 Global Health Security Index, which measures various health-sector capacities in countries around the world—including preparedness to manage pandemicsâ€Ŕą˛ą˛Ô°ě±đ»ĺ Algeria 173rd out of 195 countries and 17th out of 21 Arab states (surpassing only Djibouti, Syria, Yemen, and Somalia).” This is clearly not a healthy picture.

Algeria’s ally and largest trade partner, China, is doing its part, sending medical supplies, equipment and professionals, along with the construction of a hospital to treat patients. One of the most notable effects of the COVID-19 pandemic has been the cessation of its biweekly demonstrations by the Hirak, a movement that is opposed to the current government. Now, off the streets, protesters have moved online, raising money for food and medical supplies to hard-hit areas and pointing out the government’s shortcomings in addressing the crisis. This has not slowed down the government’s push against its opponents as journalists, activists and opposition figures continue to be arrested.

With the plunge in demand for gas and oil worldwide, Algeria is especially vulnerable to economic shocks that disrupt its ability to provide subsidies and services. Announced national budget cuts of 30% may only delay the inevitable drain on foreign reserves, forcing the government to seek external assistance, which may prove quite onerous if it upsets existing arrangements between big business, military and government officials.

Morocco

In Morocco, King Mohammed VI has received near-unanimous approval for his leadership, yet there are concerns that continued restrictions on the country’s media and activists portend challenges that may signal a more restrictive regime after the pandemic is over. As an energy importer, Morocco has benefited from low energy prices, but remittances, tourism, transportation and hospitality services are all suffering as a result of global restrictions and weaknesses in supply chains. The Moroccan economy can hardly afford to suffer a prolonged shutdown, and many small businesses have already disappeared. The government has few resources to sustain small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) and larger companies, and its social and health services networks are strained.

Moroccans have taken up the challenges of social distancing and lack of contact fairly well for the moment and, in some ways, the Islamic month of Ramadan has helped. However, closing mosques and the inconsistent availability of food items and medicines are generating dissent. With more testing being carried out and greater outreach into the rural areas, the number of cases may well beyond the capacity of the public health system. With the nationwide lockdown extended until May 20, right before the Eid al-Fitr holiday, the government is hoping that its early interventions, along with increased testing and treatment protocols, will absorb most of the new cases and take Morocco through any spikes in infections.

As with other countries in the region, the government has released thousands of prisoners from jail to reduce the threat of spreading the virus in confined facilities. Yet since March 20, authorities have arrested thousands of individuals for violating the state of emergency or for spreading false information. Most of these have resulted in fines rather than incarceration.

Morocco, along with the rest of the world, faces a great deal of economic uncertainty. Official figures show that 700,000 workers lost their jobs and some 113,000 businesses closed from March 20 to April 1. This has severely depleted the state’s safety net, despite funds from international donors to support SMEs in this difficult transition. Questions are being asked not only about Morocco’s recovery, but its supply chain and customer links — largely in Europe — which are also under duress with no bright prospects on the horizon.

Tunisia

Like neighboring Morocco, Tunisia mobilized its rich human resources to help in the fight against the coronavirus. Engineering and health students and technology innovators are working on a variety of equipment and IT programs to boost the country’s anti-virus capacity. For example, as in Morocco, Tunisians now have locally ventilators, personal protective equipment (PPE) and other critical resources for protection and treatment. The Pasteur Institute in Tunis has already decoded the local strain of COVID-19, which is critical to developing a vaccine, and technicians are pushing ahead with applying artificial intelligence to the identification of early signs of the virus through X-rays.

While the number of confirmed infections is currently low in Tunisia, reporting is now coming in on the rural and interior areas where the infrastructure and professional staff are limited. The biggest hit, however, is to the economy as tourism, remittances, hospitality, transportation and services are suffering from lockdowns in Europe and restricted movement across borders. This has forced the Tunisian government, which has been in deficit spending and slow growth for the last five years, to adopt a support for the poor, SMEs and various sectors of the economy.

The economic stimulus includes some 450 million dinars ($155 million) in aid to poor families or those who have lost their jobs due to the coronavirus outbreak. In addition to a postponement on taxes on SMEs, repayments on low-income employee loans are being delayed as well. The International Monetary Fund is providing a $745 million loan, the European Union has pledged a grant of $273 million, Italy a $55 million grant and a loan of $280 million from the Islamic Development Bank.

Politics Not as Usual

How these countries emerge from the COVID-19 pandemic will shape their economic, social and political futures, with little assurances that the social contracts — which have been strained in the past decade — will survive without key alterations. As Intissar Fakir in an article on Carnegie Middle East, “As the aftereffects of the Covid-19 pandemic become clearer, they are likely to bring to the fore the policy failures that made the North African nations so fragile and susceptible to the virus in the first place. Economic mismanagement and underinvestment in infrastructure and human development have resulted in systems characterized by inequality and social precariousness. The governments of the three countries might be able to reinvent themselves in the short term, but beyond that the consequences of their errors are potentially destabilizing.”

While Morocco may seem to be the most stable based on its more diverse economic foundations and the leadership of the king, it has a weak political system, large wealth disparities, too many unfulfilled pledges from the government and a large youth population in need of jobs. These conditions are true in Tunisia as well, except that it lacks a unifying national authority and suffers from a continued dysfunctional political system and a faltering economy. Algeria, the most repressive regime, will certainly have to with the Hirak once the number of new infections has gone down and demonstrators return to the streets. Their demands, like the others, for an open, effective, transparent government and significant efforts to create jobs and diversify the economy may be beyond the scope of the traditional political leadership.

What lies ahead for Algeria, Morocco and Tunisia will very much be determined by the level of trust governments are able to build with their constituents based on how they combat the coronavirus, protect the needy, develop more comprehensive health sectors and work transparently to promote economic recovery. This is a global phenomenon but especially critical in countries struggling to survive.

*[Updated: May 1, 2020.]

The views expressed in this article are the author’s own and do not necessarily reflect 51łÔąĎ’s editorial policy.

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As one person mentioned, “There is no care here in Morocco for the population. It�s the lack of care that makes people migrate.” The data reflects this observation. Almost half of Moroccans are considering emigrating. The proportion is up sharply after a decade of decline, the survey indicated. The BBC reports: “About 45% of the population is under 24 and on most issues the country is riven by a generational split. Some 70% of adults under 30 want to emigrate versus 22% of people in their forties. While half of over 60-year-olds have a positive view of the government, the figure for those aged 18-29 is 18%.”

Does this mean that protest marches to overthrow the current government are coming in the near future? A more likely scenario is the article’s conclusion that “Morocco is at a crossroads.” It can reduce corruption, realign its development priorities to focus on building worthwhile jobs and public services, and to open the political space for greater citizen participation. Or it can muddle along, disabling dreams of a better life that reaches into the interior of the country as well as the urban coastal areas, and see if crises threaten the status quo.

Morocco is no stranger to protests. They occur frequently, focused either on specific sectors such as public health workers or teachers, or regional grievances such as those in the Rif region that continue to simmer as the government is still dragging in efforts to promote prosperity and upgrade services in the north. Facing a slower growth rate and a government, including parliament, that prefers to follow than to lead development and reform efforts, prospects for real constructive change are unlikely without a jolt to the body politic.

Moroccan Ministries

Adding to the discontent in Morocco is the bickering among ministries about the transparency and reliability of government data.  Morocco World News ran an excellent  in which the president of the High Commission for Planning (HCP), Ahmed Lahlimi Alami, called out several ministers and high-ranking government officials for not sharing “data on the performance of their respective departments’ performances.”

HCP data is always seen to be credible and reliable, so this charge merits close attention. Tamba François Koundouno writes: “As the main provider of economic, demographic, and statistical data on Morocco, HCP prides itself on its independence and the fact that all departments of Morocco’s public administration have the obligation to share their data with the institution.”

There is a disparity between figures released by the HCP and the trade and investment ministry concerning job creation. “In that particular case, HCP’s data on employment in Morocco, which offered a grim reading of the Moroccan labor market, was the exact opposite of the government’s �lofty’ figures and its insistence on delivering a target number of employments HCP rightly predicted it could not attain,” Koundouno mentions.

Without a reliable source of data inside the government that makes its information available widely, the country lacks credibility with analysts, investors, researchers and others who rely on HCP data for their reports, predictions and analyses. If the HCP’s mission is to develop updated and accurate data on “Morocco’s economic and political trajectories,” a lack of transparency will only undermine the country’s ability to attract investors and build partnerships to promote its economic and political goals. What’s equally important is that by having up-to-date and reliable data, the HCP can provide international financial institutions and rating agencies with critical data for making accurate log projections and rankings.

This relates back to the first article in that the scope of the challenges to Morocco’s development cannot be a “feel-good” exercise so that the government can pat itself on the back. Morocco faces serious economic challenges that will not disappear through a lack of accurate reporting.

The rainy season is coming in Morocco and with it an uptick in the agricultural sector. Yet there are signs of public frustration, including political chanting at football matches and popular rap songs that recently landed one rapper in jail for a year. Lahlimi Alami out that, “More than poverty, social disparities create frustrations that may trigger protests. These disparities are often viewed as a result of an illegitimate accumulation of wealth.”

Since a quarter of Moroccans are either poor or at risk of poverty, according to a recent World Bank report, and the kingdom ranks 123rd in the UN’s Human Development Index, the government needs to seriously recommit to support economic, social and political development.

Algeria’s New President

Looking at Algeria, there is a different challenge: installing a regime that has little or no legitimacy with the people, through elections that lack transparency, credibility and popular support. While the army was content to push ahead with the presidential election on December 12 that was at odds with the demands of anti-government demonstrators, the consequences of this faux election mirror the simplistic view of the West when fingers with ink-stains somehow represent democracy. Voting does not make a government legitimate, but the army and elites seem to be willing to continue with the charade to force a sense of normalcy on the political life of Algeria.

As an article by Dalia Ghanem on  opined, “Algeria will end up with a president who will suffer from a lack of legitimacy. This will put him under enormous pressure, caught between citizens who have increased their demands and changed their perception of the institutions and elites governing them and the military that brought him to power. With such a lack of legitimacy, the president will not be able to meet the political and socioeconomic challenges lying ahead.”

The fact that there is not a “central committee” or other mechanism representing the agenda of the demonstrators — who have protested weekly for nearly a year — has given the Algerian army a breathing spell to impose its will. But that does not mean that President Abdelmadjid Tebboune will automatically achieve legitimacy with the people. More likely, the new president “will need to negotiate with the popular movement immediately after the election.”

How this will play out is still a crystal ball exercise. Given that the popular movement reflects a variety of concerns from wanting more resources for local economic and social development, to empowering civil and human rights, expanding opportunities for political participation, and dealing with corruption and an unbalanced set of national economic initiatives, Tebboune will not be able to reach agreements on priorities and actions quickly, thus feeding popular discontent. What this means for the largest country in Africa by size is a challenge of major proportions.

*[A version of this article was published by .]

The views expressed in this article are the author’s own and do not necessarily reflect 51łÔąĎ’s editorial policy.

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Overall, all groups see the economy and the quality of public services as the most important challenges facing the government. They also “say corruption is found in state institutions,” although to a lesser degree than the last survey in 2016 (38% vs. 39%).

The weak performance of the government has resulted in a correspondingly low level of trust among the citizens, especially the youth. Yet the majority still support the army, police and judiciary, according to the survey results. Among those under 30 years of age, 70% believe they have to emigrate to have a good life, which only falls to 50% among all those surveyed. Unfortunately, it is the young people with higher levels of education who feel most strongly that they have to leave to succeed.

This concern with emigration was the subject of a very opinion piece on Morocco World News by writer Hassan Masiky, who pointed out the great loss to Morocco because educated young people are leaving and finding success abroad rather than at home. He says this is both a validation of “the competence, aptitude, and talent of Moroccans and evidence of the failure of the Moroccan government to create an environment for attracting and keeping a talented workforce.” He blames this on three conditions.

The first is that “unqualified people hold many high-level positions in the public and semi-public sectors in the Kingdom.” He adds: “Nepotism and favoritism continue to dominate the hiring practices in the government and in some private sectors. This fact nullifies the government’s heavy investments in human capital.” Second, he takes aim at “a deteriorating public education system, nepotism, incompetence, and lack of transparency,” which is depriving Morocco of some of its brightest youth. Third, he points to the lack of enforcement in contracts for programs targeting employment opportunities as the third force destabilizing the economy and not firming up the local job market.

Perceptions of corruption were part of the focus of surveys done by the . It compared attitudes of Moroccans from 2015 and 2019 and found that 53% think that corruption has increased in the past year — twice the number of 26% in 2015 — while 31% responded that they had paid a bribe in the previous 12 months to access a public service (down from 48% in 2015). Added to this, 74% think the government is doing a poor job of tackling corruption (up from 64% in 2015) and, importantly, 49% believe that ordinary citizens can make a difference in the fight against corruption. When asked which institutions were corrupt, the biggest increase was in the office of the prime minister from 20% in 2015 to 39% in 2019, followed by members of parliament, which rose from 36% to 41%.

Economic Development and Loans From the World Bank

Funding for economic development always has preconditions, and one of the biggest challenges facing developing countries, particularly non-oil producers, is borrowing to build needed infrastructure for transportation and power production, education and health facilities, and environmental projects.

One only needs to look at the high-speed train from Tangier to Casablanca, the trams in Rabat and Casablanca, large-scale renewable energy projects and funding for the growth in ports over the past two decades to identify where external funding is required for their realization. While some initiatives like toll roads and ports have built revenue streams, other projects are built on the assumption that their revenue, in time, will offset the interest and principle payments when they come due. While this is true for public-private partnerships in renewable energy whether solar, wind or hydro, it does not apply to programs that have no direct revenue streams, such as building human resources.

This is a conundrum faced by Morocco, which must reach out to international agencies and donors to support its efforts to develop its human resources. Building the skills and capabilities of Morocco’s citizens is a consistent policy focus of King Mohammed VI, underlying his plans to build cities focusing on regional advantages and promoting technical and vocational skills needed in the country.

It is in this context that the World Bank announced its approval of a new $300-million loan to support the strengthening of “Morocco’s municipalities” as part of the country’s reforms to upgrade public administrations. This is tied to both Morocco’s regionalization and decentralized economic development goals.

The statement from the World Bank said that the loan seeks to help Morocco in its “broader efforts to upgrade urban services and turn urban conglomerations into engines of growth and job creation.” It is critical that local governments receive training in all the skills needed for providing services institutionally and effectively. According to , the World Bank’s Maghreb country director, the “program will target key gaps in performance to promote a transparent, efficient, and accountable urban management system that can drive long-term local development and enhance Moroccan cities’ attractiveness.”

This program and the recent $500-million loan from the World Bank to improve the education sector exemplify the mounting external debt that results from borrowing for development. While Morocco’s external debt is still relatively manageable, Abdellatif Jouahri, the governor of the central bank, said he  to rise to 16.6% of Morocco’s GDP in 2019, up from 13.8% of GDP in 2018. In his annual report, he noted that Morocco is in a financial crisis as the economy is not able to keep up with growing special demands financed by external sources. CEIC found that the external debt in Morocco reached $53.2 billion in June 2019, compared to $51.4 billion in the previous quarter.

*[This article was originally published by .]

The views expressed in this article are the author’s own and do not necessarily reflect 51łÔąĎ’s editorial policy.

The post What Are the Priorities of ˛Ń´Ç°ů´Çł¦ł¦´Ç’s Youth? appeared first on 51łÔąĎ.

I recently met with Najwa el-Iraki, the founder and managing partner of , a business development and advisory firm building networks of companies in Africa. She is also managing director of North West Africa for Opportunity Network, a global business matchmaking platform headquartered in London that connects CEOs worldwide, and she is the general representative of Lloyd’s of London in Francophone Africa.

I met Najwa years ago when she was head of business development at Casablanca Finance City Authority (CFCA), a public-private organization dedicated to positioning Casablanca as a regional financial center and a premier gateway into African markets for financial institutions, multinationals and international professional services firms. She was there at the onset, contributing to the overall strategy for building a regional business and financial center, advising prospective institutional investors and attracting over 130 international companies to CFCA within a short period of time.

A respected advocate for women in business, Najwa was named one of the 60 most influential women in Africa in 2016 by New African Woman Magazine, and she received the Consultancy Award from Corporate Vision Magazine as financial adviser North Africa that same year.

Women and Entrepreneurship

We met again recently when she was in the US as one of this year’s participants in the International Visitor Leadership Program (IVLP), nominated by the US Embassy in Rabat and approved by the State Department as the Moroccan representative. Since 1940, the IVLP has offered current and emerging international leaders in a variety of fields the opportunity to experience the richness and diversity of American political, economic, social and cultural life through carefully designed exchanges that reflect participants’ professional interests and the public diplomacy objectives of the US government.

To date, more than 200,000 international visitors have engaged with Americans through the IVLP, which counts 30% of the world’s leaders among its alumni. Since she is no stranger to the US, as we had worked together on several promotional tours for CFCA and she holds a certificate in leadership management from Harvard Business School, I asked her why she decided to accept the invitation to the IVLP.

Najwa believes that building networks and promoting her country are essential tools for greater international cooperation. In fact, the IVLP is designed to encourage continuing discussions even after the conclusion of the US portion of the program. In this way, strong ties will be formed among these rising leaders that will build long-term ties and understanding.

Her particular program focused on women and entrepreneurship and hosted 24 women from Argentina, Bahrain, Burma, Cook Island, Czech Republic, Egypt, Equatorial Guinea, Italy, Japan, Madagascar, Mexico, Morocco, Mozambique, Nepal, New Zealand, Nicaragua, Pakistan, Taiwan, Tanzania, Saudi Arabia, Senegal, Sierra Leone and Zimbabwe. Her travels took her to Washington, New York City, Dallas, Kansas City and Miami, where they met with women-owned businesses and gained an understanding of the challenges women face in the US.

She told me they visited private companies, business incubators, financial institutions, universities and mentorship institutions, discussing social, economic, and political factors that influence and encourage women as entrepreneurs and owners or managers of small, medium and large-scale businesses.

When I asked her what she got out of the program, considering what she had already achieved, she replied that this was, in many ways, a positive, life-changing experience. She was part of an enriching program that facilitated conversation around key global and domestic issues and demonstrated the diversity of the United States. Najwa highlighted the opportunity to expand her professional knowledge base, as well as develop leadership skills through interactive workshops, speaking engagements, casual and formal events, and cultural activities.

She said that she intended to keep in touch with many of those she met. She also feels more committed to empowering women in the region and is aiming to do so through an Africa-focused venture capital fund that has already been set up by a friend of hers.

In Her Words

Among her strongest impressions is the value of cultivating and maintaining a growth mindset as the path to success for a person and for a country. She admired the Americans she met, saying: “I could largely notice this natural positiveness and humble confidence they have. I was impressed by the culture of voluntarism from an early age, which is clearly contributing to infusing its people with values such as mutual trust and respect, belonging and empowerment. I was also impressed by how everyone within an organization shares the same purpose and vision.”

She added: “We also learnt the importance of self-advocacy—as women, we should speak up about our needs, champion our own work and find allies who will help us succeed. As much as education and skill, it’s the ability to self-advocate and owning who you are that can boost a career.”

Najwa continued by saying: “Connecting 24 amazing and unique women from so many different countries has helped me realize how supportive women can actually be within the right environment, where as I was always under the wrong perception that women are not good enough at empowering other women. As my IVLP friends from Italy or Mexico said, it’s actually important to have meaningful relationships (work, friends, love) and to choose meaning over everything else. This was one of the key lessons of the IVLP.”

Najwa concluded: “We need more women leaders and women entrepreneurs in each and every different field, in each and every different country, to empower each other and take ownership of their actions, their decisions and who they are.”

This was an extraordinary experience for an accomplished professional and a strong endorsement of a very impactful US international program.

*[A version of this article was originally published by .]

The views expressed in this article are the author’s own and do not necessarily reflect 51łÔąĎ’s editorial policy.

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Foreign Direct Investment

In , there was an interesting assessment of why foreign direct investment (FDI) has recently declined in Morocco. The chief culprit seems to be that it is a symptom of the general economic malaise in the European Union, which has long been the top investor in the country. Overall, FDI declined some 17.2% at the end of July compared to the same period in 2018.

Saad Guerraoui writes: “Experts said the Moroccan government must significantly improve the country’s international attractiveness and competitiveness and offer a favourable business environment to foreign companies to be the leading destination for FDI in the [Middle East and North Africa] region.” The article also points to bureaucratic snafus and “meagre tax benefits” as impeding FDI.

Another, maybe not so surprising factor is that Moroccans abroad are not investing as much in Morocco due to the high real estate prices in tourism areas, which have long been a favorite investment destination. Similar properties in Spain and Portugal are more competitively priced. Last year, the EU and Morocco set up a program to improve the business environment and promote economic development.

Johannes Hahn, the commissioner for enlargement negotiations and European neighborhood policy, noted: “The European External Investment Plan will help leverage significant private funds into key sectors of Morocco’s economy. The plan will in turn empower local entrepreneurs and create jobs in the country.”.

Business Hub

There’s some good news. The 2019 International Franchise Attractiveness Index Morocco 39 out of 131 states. This made it the number 1 attractive business hub for US-based franchises in Africa and the second in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) after the United Arab Emirates. This ranking shows it competing with some leading international powers, including France, Spain, Germany and Australia, according to a  by Morocco World News. The index combines peer-reviewed research and a survey of franchise executives to produce two rankings, balanced growth and aggressive growth.

These results support the 2019 Investment Climate appraisal from the US State Department that said “Morocco’s political stability, geographical location, and efforts to build a robust infrastructure, contribute �to its emergence as a regional manufacturing and export base for companies.’” That report also mentioned Morocco’s strategy for attracting investors, with several measures in place, including facilitating foreign investment in export-oriented sectors like manufacturing (i.e., cars).

Tourism in Morocco

Another area drawing attention is, of course, tourism. Reporting on the Travel and Tourism Competitiveness Report 2019, Kawtar Ennaji that “Morocco boasts the MENA region’s top TTCI [Travel and Tourism Competitiveness Index] scores on natural resources, North Africa’s best enabling environment, infrastructure, and tourist service infrastructure.” Criteria include the “set of factors and policies that enable the sustainable development of the Travel & Tourism (T&T) sector, which in turn, contributes to the development and competitiveness of a country.” This includes government support for the tourism sector, natural attractions, ease of access, tourism infrastructure, marketing, and security and stability.

In other news, the Dakhla port is moving ahead. In line with the country’s 2030 National Ports Strategy, the Moroccan government has given the go-ahead for the formation of a Dakhla Atlantic Port committee to oversee the construction of the port project, which includes a broad range of infrastructure projects with a value in excess of $1 billion.

“The committee is expected to launch a tender for the project, which is expected to take some seven years, in the last three months of 2019, according to a by Morocco World News. King Mohammed VI has mentioned that the port will make Dakhla a significant link in Morocco’s outreach to business in Africa.

There’s also relief for the traveler. It’s time to say to the immigration cards that have to be filled out at the ports of entry. Currently, travelers must fill out their details on an immigration form and hand it to the border police before going on to baggage or customs. This is just another great step forward in promoting travel to Morocco.

A New Development Model

One final piece is a commentary on the king’s directive to appoint a committee to come up with a new development model for the country. An by Menas Associates points out that the failure to achieve sufficient progress in past efforts was not due to the absence of plans, from the (INDH) to the Economic, Social and Environmental Council (CESE) recommendations for the south. While much has been achieved, full implementation has not always occurred.

The report reads: “This is due to various reasons, including: the lack of follow up; the absence of real expertise; a lack of finance; and perhaps most important of all, the pervasive corruption that has seen funds that have been earmarked for development projects being siphoned off or wasted. There is also the problem of the government’s hands being tied with those around the King still holding the real reins of power.” It hopes that the government will have a higher degree of success than past efforts to combat the unrest and protests that regularly occur and make a qualitative difference in the lives of Moroccans.

*[A version of this article was originally published by .]

The views expressed in this article are the author’s own and do not necessarily reflect 51łÔąĎ’s editorial policy.

The post There Are Mixed Messages on the Moroccan Economy appeared first on 51łÔąĎ.

I was told that there are spiritual answers to the question, “Why Morocco?” — every person has a story to explain why they are in this country. The hospitality, emphasis on community and religious practice are only a few of the reasons Moroccans and visitors have provided. While personal narratives and my own experience have intertwined to affirm this point, so do the tenants of community and participatory development that I have witnessed as an intern at the High Atlas Foundation, a nonprofit dedicated to local initiatives that community beneficiaries determine and manage.

During my first week in Morocco, after traveling toward the Amazigh village of Akrich, we stopped at a tree nursery. The seemingly small plot of pomegranate and fig saplings is the backdrop to a linkage of cultural cooperation. While Jewish pilgrims visit the mausoleum of Rabbi Raphael Hacohen year after year, a Muslim man, Abderrahim Beddah, serves as the caretaker of the land. This relationship helps the High Atlas Foundation engage a women’s cooperative in the neighboring village. Initiatives are interconnected.

Now, these multicultural nurseries are receiving government support. The National Initiative for Human Development has provided land-assessments to monitor the viability of an organic fruit tree nursery near the mausoleum of Rabbi David-Ou-Moshe in the Ouarzazate province. They will begin implementing a project that will generate more than 1 million trees over five years.

Sustainable development was created through, and continues to depend on, interfaith partnerships. If Beddah did not share the story of Jews crying on the journey to visit their saint and express his deep appreciation for their faith, then this partnership would be unlikely. However, the investment Moroccans make when they support their neighbors is a testament to development that depends on pluralism.

Muslims and Jews in Morocco

This concept resurfaced in a new friendship. The Ministry in Charge of Moroccans Living Abroad and Migration Affairs — in cooperation with the Association of Friends of the Jewish Museum — provides funding to bring Jewish people with Moroccan heritage back to discover their roots, meet government and religious leaders, and encourage local investment.

The High Atlas Foundation interns were invited to attend a Shabbat dinner during the program for these Moroccan Jews, and it was at that dinner that my observations were confirmed. I met a woman who has grown up in France, but her parents were from Agadir, Morocco. This was the first time she traversed the site of her great-great-grandparents’ graves and engaged with her heritage. We got to talking about religious coexistence and respect.

She put it quite simply: “[I]n Morocco, Jews and Muslims are first Moroccan. They live well together because their identity is placed in the fact that they are neighbors.” She told me she believed that allegiance should be first to one’s country and then to religion, at least in how it is outwardly expressed. We both agreed that country needs to be respected and humanity needs to be respected.

Pluralism is a framework written into ˛Ń´Ç°ů´Çł¦ł¦´Ç’s foundational documents. Development requires all parties, faiths and populations of Morocco. I have seen this visiting a women’s cooperative where dialogue and decision-making are priorities. I have seen this in visiting the grave of a venerated Jewish saint, guarded by a Muslim. I have seen this in the logistical processes that allow for the purchasing of carbon credits and maintenance of olive, walnut and carob farms.

In 2008, King Mohammed VI announced a vision for Morocco in which “culture serves as a driving force for development as well as a bridge for dialogue.” Moroccans are stepping up to the plate, imagining and wrestling to manifest this vision. The country’s potential should serve as an example.

But we must not forget that there are villages still plagued by diarrhea, girls not in school and trees left unplanted. These examples remind us that although potential is not lacking, resources are forever necessary. Volunteers should never back down in fear of not doing enough. Passion for understanding others, learning a new language or living immersed in a beautiful expression of religion should be motivation to bring you to Morocco. Finding or supporting organizations like the High Atlas Foundation is integral to this vision.

My spiritual explanation to “Why Morocco?” has come to rest in my hope for this pluralistic and collaborative future of development. Creating cooperatives, living together and working toward a common goal or vision is very “Moroccan.” But it is also very “human.” I wonder how life would look if other countries began to call for pluralistic-driven development in their constitutions, laws, policies and institutions.

The views expressed in this article are the author’s own and do not necessarily reflect Fair Observer’s editorial policy.

The post The Real Strength of Morocco appeared first on 51łÔąĎ.

The king recounted ˛Ń´Ç°ů´Çł¦ł¦´Ç’s achievements in modernizing its infrastructure and implementing key reforms, and added: “Let me say this clearly and frankly: what undermines this positive result is that the effects of the progress and the achievements made have not, unfortunately, been felt by all segments of the Moroccan society.” He went on to say: “Indeed, some citizens may not directly feel their positive impact on their living conditions, or in terms of helping them meet their daily needs, especially in the areas of basic social services, the reduction of social disparities, and the consolidation of the middle class.”

This is not the first time that King Mohammed VI has raised these issues: calling for inclusive economic growth, a streamlined public sector doing its job of providing services efficiently, and building on the strong civic sense of Moroccans to have a better life. Yet there is still a lack of sufficient momentum toward achieving the goals that he himself has set. Whether in carrying out promised development projects or modernizing the education sector to make it more market-friendly, obstacles seem to reduce the pace and scope of needed changes.

So when he exclaimed, “God knows how much I suffer personally when a fraction of the Moroccan people — even if it were just 1% of the Moroccan population — endures hardships and lives in poverty,” the 1% does not include those public officials and friends of the king who have been the targets of outrage and boycotts over the years but still remain in power.

Despite his message of reform and development, there is a disconnect as public officials, members of political parties in the house of representatives and leading private sector figures do not pursue the king’s agenda through equitable, speedy and transparent implementation.

He expressed the contradiction quite well: “As I said in last year’s address, there will be no peace of mind for me so long as we have not properly tackled the hurdles faced and found the right solutions to development and social issues. This, however, cannot be achieved without a comprehensive vision, without qualified human resources, or without meeting the conditions required to carry out planned projects.”

So, as the king has done before when facing obstacles, he announced the creation of a special committee to assess and redefine ˛Ń´Ç°ů´Çł¦ł¦´Ç’s development model. “I expect the committee to be totally impartial and objective, and to report on facts as they are on the ground, however harsh or painful they may be. And when proposing solutions, I want it to be daring and innovative.”

But How?

An immediate question is how will he ensure that this effort will be effective where others have failed — notably in the south where cronyism, corruption, inefficiencies and distortions in public services were all called out, and yet conditions have only marginally improved there? This is compounded by the king’s mention that the committee would be advisory. So without some mandate to drive reforms, how will it be effective?

While the king intends to appoint people “who are able to feel the pulse of society, who understand its expectations and who have the nation’s best interests at heart,” this may appear as more of the same good intentions without real change. What about youth, the marginalized and women speaking for themselves and through elites or the notables in the NGO sector? How will those who struggle with health services, local officials, poor educational facilities and sense a general decline in prospects for their children participate?

To bring about this new resolve, the king recognizes the need to rebuild trust between citizens and the government. “[T]he challenge of enhancing trust and consolidating achievements … is the recipe for success and a condition for fulfilling our ambitions. It concerns trust among citizens and trust in the national institutions that bring them together. It is about having faith in a better future.” He went on to say that a new mentality is critical: “The public sector needs an immediate three-dimensional revolution: a revolution in simplification, a revolution in efficiency and a revolution in ethical standards.”

To underscore the task of moving the country forward, the king spoke of the need for social and regional justice, “to complete the building of a nation of hope and equality for all; a country where there is no place for blatant inequalities, frustrating behavior, rent seeking or time and energy wasting. Therefore, there must be a final break with such negative attitudes and conduct; we must uphold the values of hard work, responsibility, merit and equal opportunity.”

Reenergize the Leadership

Great speech, great themes, great hopes, but will there be any change? Will Morocco become, in his words, “a country that accommodates all its sons and daughters; a country in which all citizens — without exception — enjoy the same rights and have the same obligations, in an environment where freedom and human dignity prevail?”

King Mohammed VI needs to reenergize the commitment of ˛Ń´Ç°ů´Çł¦ł¦´Ç’s political leadership beyond their personal gain. Public officials must also act to a higher standard in delivering projects and services to all Moroccans. And citizens must prod their elected representatives and party leaders to act as their advocates rather than playing to the royal palace. His agenda is on target and his instincts still clear and focused on the Moroccan people. How to get there given the systematic flaws in the government is the greater challenge.

The views expressed in this article are the author’s own and do not necessarily reflect 51łÔąĎ’s editorial policy.

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King Mohammed VI has managed to provide an overall vision for the country’s development that has raised the standard of living, increased high-value jobs in manufacturing and technology, brought order to the national development strategy, and opened up a society that still manifests lingering symptoms of wasta (connections) as a gateway to success despite one’s educational and social achievements.

But the king is no magician, and the number of young people dissatisfied with the country reflects his own impatience with government ministers who are unable to “fix” issues like youth unemployment, a weak educational sector, inefficiencies in public services and blatant abuses by the security services.

Morocco has its flaws. Parliament has never risen to its potential as an equal partner in policy leadership in the country. Its institutions still reflect a culture of deference to the royal palace that leave it lacking an independent judiciary, full protections of civil liberties and robust employment opportunities. Its handling of civil disobedience can be rough, as in responses to the 2016 Hirak Rif movement in the north and the pro-Polisario — a separatist group — demonstrations in the south.

Yet Morocco does not have overcrowded correctional facilities with political prisoners, its media is relatively open and it is creating jobs in new industrial centers, but not at a pace sufficient to meet the demand — a common problem throughout the Arab world.

Morocco has its own internal logic, quite different from Sudan and Algeria. Religious authority rests with the king and its parliament is led by an Islamic party. It has an unofficial Islamic opposition, Al Adl wa Al Ihsane (Justice and Spirituality), that eschews the monarchy and participating in government. And the country has religious training centers that prepare imams and others to promote moderate, Sufi-influenced Maliki Islam in Africa and Europe.

Of course, many of its young people want to leave. This is the reality of the region. Too many young people with mismatched education to job skills would rather test their options elsewhere than take jobs that require vocational and technical skills, again not unlike most of their peers in the Middle East and North Africa.

There are many initiatives to build job opportunities, but even the most optimistic know that the public sector cannot absorb more entrants, the private sector is unable to generate jobs at the same pace as graduates, and emphasizing enterprise and entrepreneurship to fill the gap requires more than words. Enabling new business means systematic, comprehensive, sustainable approaches. And it would help if securing business licenses, loans, permits and services was less arbitrary and more transparent.

So, the BBC has got it wrong about Morocco. While demonstrations are not uncommon, and while young people are frustrated with their options, there is still a strong sense of loyalty to the country, even with its shortcomings.

As a Moroccan friend noted: “The loyalty here is to the king and his vision, to the history that connects the people to the monarchy. But on a social level, I think that Moroccans are conflicted between all the hopeful signs that show we are actually doing much better than others in the region, and between the unmistakable déjà vu of the struggles of the 80s that marked the re-emergence of the social classes and the balance tipping in favor of the palace.”

Where these frustrations lead in the coming years will test the Moroccans’ commitment to the current political order — one that demands more robust and sustainable initiatives that enable youth to fully engage in the country’s future.

The views expressed in this article are the author’s own and do not necessarily reflect 51łÔąĎ’s editorial policy.

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Over 12% of humanity to one of the 3 million cooperatives on the planet. Cooperatives not only stimulate local economies, but also act as a vehicle for bringing opportunity and profit to people worldwide, who otherwise would not be actors in the formal sector of the economy. This tangible empowerment is perhaps best embodied by the Cooperative Aboghlo Women of Ourika in Morocco.

Cooperative Aboghlo

Just a 30-minute drive outside of Marrakech to Tnine Ourika in the Al Haouz province, situated across the street from a furniture retailer is a deceivingly unremarkable storefront. Peering through the glass display case you will find packages of couscous and dried herbs sitting alongside bowls overflowing with chocolate, pistachio, almond and walnut cookies. All of which is made from local Moroccan ingredients.

But this is not the real gem found inside the Cooperative Aboghlo. The true beauty is hidden away on the second floor of the co-op, where 23 women sit in circles and talk back and forth. They are not making casual conversation. Instead, they are debating various aspects of the internal and external marketing for their cooperative enterprise. For hours, these women engage in conversations about how to better spread the word about their product, how to enforce the timeliness of each respective worker, and how to resolve problems of communication and organization — issues every business must grapple with.

This in itself is remarkable, but it is even more so when one is reminded of the context. The discrepancy in opportunities and education of women compared to men is widely experienced throughout the world. This creates an uneven playing field for women. From the time they are little girls, females are not given the same support as their male counterparts.

The consequences are crippling. Unemployment among young women in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) are 80% higher than that of young men. This is compared to the average gender differential of 20% worldwide, according to Brookings.ĚýMost women in Cooperative Aboghlo could not read or write, but now they are taking literacy classes at the co-op and are able to write their names and read street signs.

When considering these astonishing circumstances, it is obvious these women, who are successfully managing their own well-established cooperative, are extraordinary exceptions. But that should not be the case. It is just and right to commend the women of this enterprise, but the ladies of the Cooperative Aboghlo are a much-needed reminder not only of what is possible but of what should be.

The cooperative started in October 2016 with 10 women from one village. Now, there are 33 women from five different villages actively participating. In addition to selling various products from their brick-and-mortar site, the co-op exports directly to internationally-recognized cosmetic companies. These women set an example of what is possible when given education and opportunity.

Women and the Economy

Women’s active participation in the labor force can have a tremendous, positive impact on the developing economies of Morocco and other MENA states. In 2015, McKinsey Global Institute found that supporting women’s could add $12 trillion to global GDP by 2025 and grow the MENA region’s economy by 85%. Closing the gap between men and women in hours worked per day could lead to a 47% increase in the annual GDP of the Middle East and North Africa.

The root of the issue of female participation in the workforce lies in cultural obstacles. Family opposition and traditional gender roles create rigid barriers for women. This is especially the case in rural regions, where their domain is often confined to that of domestic life.

However, globalization and increased pushes for equality have ushered in a new wave of changes. Moudawana, the Moroccan family code, addresses gender equality and rights by raising the minimum legal age of marriage and limiting divorce and polygamy terms, thus giving back the innate rights of women that have long been forgone. Morocco has reduced the barriers to entry for cooperatives, further encouraging women’s involvement in the economy. This is a huge step forward for Morocco in addressing the systemic inequalities that are so deeply integrated.

This progress, though commendable and remarkable, is just the first step. The path to sustainable development and equality is one that is not easily achieved. Through its partnership with the High Atlas Foundation, a Moroccan nongovernmental organization, Cooperative Aboghlo was given a platform and the skills training necessary to grow tremendously. The cooperative embodies what is possible with this support and facilitation of development.

The time for these changes is long overdue. The time for these changes is most certainly now. It starts with the simplest action. It starts with the women of Cooperative Aboghlo Women of Ourika taking initiative and, most importantly, with the education of marginalized people.

The future should not be a mere continuation of the past. It takes a single lifetime of empowered women to spurn generations of empowered girls.

The views expressed in this article are the author’s own and do not necessarily reflect 51łÔąĎ’s editorial policy.

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Two recent reports highlight the challenges of developing an equitable and high-performing economy in North Africa. While Morocco and Tunisia have demonstrated a degree of political will in announcing goals for more equitable societies, there is opposition from traditional elites, and the structures of the economies themselves are obstacles to opening up opportunities for economic growth.

For example, patterns of national investment are skewed toward those sectors in which the government plays a role in minimizing risks or providing subsidies for existing companies, but does not provide financial and regulatory practices that enable the entry of new small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs). From tax policies to licensing and employment policies, these SMEs face challenges that limit imports of useful technology, hold hostage needed IT infrastructure through monopolistic practices that enable corrupt technicians to have leverage over new installations, and make it difficult to obtain needed documentation for construction and engineering permits.

Oxfam Maroc

On the broader societal level,ĚýOxfam Ěýthe growing economic disparity that afflicts many countries, amongst which is Morocco. One example it cites is that it would take 154 years for a normal employee to earn what the richest people in Morocco receive in a year. This is in contrast to the 1.6 million Moroccans who live in poverty, with 12% in a situation of vulnerability.

Abdeljalil Laroussi, campaign manager at Oxfam Maroc, said: “[I]nequalities in the kingdom are not a coincidence. They are the result of inadequate public policies and encouraged by international institutions. … since independence, Morocco has adopted growth models that are deepening inequalities and putting a large part of the population in a situation of extreme vulnerability.”

Moroccan leaders, starting with the king and including a number of ministers and members of parliament, have noted that these inequalities are a danger to the country in that they undermine trust in the government, increase social tensions and support disrespect for rule of law.

The Oxfam was particularly critical of disparities in tax payments. It noted that a total of “82% of corporate tax revenues come from only 2% of companies. The amount of tax losses suffered by Morocco each year due to the tax practices of multinational [companies] is $2.45 billion.” This has been noted by external agencies working with Morocco on tax reforms because, “Tax justice is an excellent way of social cohesion. It helps to correct inequalities by redistributing wealth when it is badly distributed initially, and to raise the resources needed to finance infrastructure and public services that benefit the entire community,” according to Asmae Bouslmati, the head of the Oxfam Governance Program in Morocco.

Latest unemployment data shared by Oxfam indicated that 42.8% of urban youth lack jobs. Additionally, “nearly half of the working population (46%) does not have medical coverage and women’s pensions are 70% lower than men’s. … The report added that only 64% of residents are connected to plumbing with drinkable water.”

The IMF

On the macroeconomic level, theĚýInternational Monetary Fund’s recent visit to MoroccoĚý a number of improvements over the past year despite continuing challenges. Its report highlighted a better business environment with the implementation of the country’s new financial inclusion strategy, financed in large part by international donors, to help promote competition and support the development of SMEs. In addition, improved fiscal management and continuing economic diversification are helping Morocco move in the right direction.

The IMF experts welcomed the reforms “aimed at strengthening the governance and efficiency of the public sector and combating corruption … particularly through the adoption of the law on access to information and the publication of the first report on implementation of the national anti-corruption strategy,”Ěý to a news release.

Among other reforms, the IMF pointed to “the privatization plan and efforts to refocus public enterprises on their core business. It welcomes the progress made with fiscal decentralization, while emphasizing the need to ensure good governance, transparency, and fiscal discipline at the local level.”

Meanwhile, in Tunisia…

The critical political situation in TunisiaĚýhas affected IMF efforts to strengthen that country’s resolve to move forward with needed reforms. Given that the economy remains fragile,Ěýthe International Monetary Fund has Ěýwith the fact that upcoming elections will have a direct impact on certain reforms, and it would be better to postpone some of the changes at this time.

Despite the support of international donors and technical assistance from the IMF, Tunisia lags in the implementation of agreed reforms. Given the current tension between the president and prime minister, which has literally brought parliamentary actions to a standstill, the IMF did not want the reform program to become hostage to the election campaigns. The sociopolitical uncertainty and continued structural limitations in the economy, such as access to finance, integration with the global financial system, high rates of unemployment for men and women and limited activity in new business development, are complex challenges.

The IMF report pointed out that: “The Tunisian economy and job creation remain burdened by significant imbalances. Growth is too dependent on consumption, while investment and exports are insufficiently dynamic. In addition, public and external debts remain high and on an upward trajectory, they generate significant non-productive financing needs and a burden for future generations.”

How Tunisia manages its economic challenges is indeed the primary issue facing the next government.

*[A version of this article was published by .]

The views expressed in this article are the author’s own and do not necessarily reflect 51łÔąĎ’s editorial policy.

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Women should be encouraged to take a greater role in counterterrorism efforts as women and girls are disproportionately affected by terrorist violence. This was the message brought home in aĚý, US under-secretaryĚýfor civilian security, democracy and human rights,Ěýat a recent gathering. She was speaking about the critical importance of including countering violent extremism (CVE) in the agenda for Women, Peace and Security (WPS) programs that exist in many countries.

As Sewall noted: “In too many areas around the world, violent extremists threaten generations of hard-won progress for women and vulnerable minorities. To defend that progress—and to prevent a reversion of what Secretary [of State John] Kerry calls ’medieval thinking’—we must defeat violent extremism.”

She pointed to the grim reality that while military force is effective in defeating terrorists, “it cannot defeat terrorism.” Sewall called for increased funding to strengthen the capacity of “local voices of tolerance and inclusion.” She was concerned with the ability of military power to diminish “underlying grievances” that lead to growing extremist threats.

The role of WPS actors globally, including efforts by the private sector, foundations and nongovernmental organizations, is crucial to addressing marginalized and at-risk communities. Threats from extremists have become so transnational that Sewall believes “we cannot reduce extremist violence without women.”

Terrorism, Countering Violent Extremism and Morocco

In this regard, she made specific reference to an initiative in Morocco. “In Morocco, we’ll help women’s groups speak out against violent ideologies. And in the Morocco program, it’s not just inclusion as process. We’ll make sure that women are not only included in trainings, but also the substance—for example, by ensuring that trainings include a focus on the specific factors that can drive women to terrorist groups. We’ll be sure that women are included in our baseline data, analysis and metrics to evaluate impact. We’re hopeful this North Africa pilot will lead to best practices as we mainstream gender in our CVE programming.”

This initiative—and others like it, including the well-regarded training of imams, both Moroccan and foreign, and women and men religious counselors—brings together a whole society solution to attacking the spread of terrorist ideology. The under-secretary was quite blunt in her assessment of the challenges ahead.

“Violent extremists threaten everything the women’s community has worked to achieve. So let’s work together on behalf of this fundamental truth—defeating violent extremism is essential to women’s empowerment, and women’s empowerment is fundamental to defeating violent extremism.”

Recognizing the Threat of Women Terrorists

The recent arrests in the so-called “,” anĚýĚýagainst a police station in Mombasa, Kenya, and the increasing numbers of women identified as “warriors” on radical websites increasingly challenge counterterrorism officials to forge effective countermeasures.

In Paris, the latest information is that it was a Paris train station, not Notre Dame, that was the target. The fourĚýĚýhave been on the watch lists of the French government and were apprehended quickly when the owner of the car containing the gas cylinders was identified as the father of one of the women arrested. The four have been hailed as warriors by various jihadi websites.

In the Kenya attack,Ěý“that three women wearing hijabs snuck into a police station under the pretext of reporting a stolen phone, then stabbed a local officer and set fire to the building with a petrol bomb before all the three were shot dead.” The attack could have been much worse, as Kenyan authorities also recovered an unexploded suicide vest, two bullet-proof jackets and an unused petrol bomb from the dead suspects.

It is suspected that women are directed more toward suicide attacks because those do not require the same rigorous military-level skills and training available to men.

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This chilling reality, reminiscent of women resistance fighters in the Algerian War for Independence and female bombers (mostly brain-washed girls) used by Boko Haram and the Viet Cong (separated by 60 years, yet still a potent reality), is reflected in several articles inĚýThe Independent, which further reinforce heightened concerns with women terrorist cells.

, women are taking a much more visible role in attacks against civilian and military targets because their physical appearance is perceived as less threatening. This leads to the British experience that, according toĚý, more women were arrested on terrorism charges year-on-year from 2014 to 2015.

Under-Secretary Sewall called on WPS organizations around the world to take a leadership role in integrating CVE into their programs. She stressed that: “In high policy discussion and advocacy, in field work and programming, in mentorship and capacity-building—there are countless opportunities for the WPS community to advance its central objective through CVE. CVE needs your help—your issue advocacy, your expertise, your sustained engagement on this agenda.”

It is a call to action that underscores the centrality of women in promoting security and stability.

The views expressed in this article are the author’s own and do not necessarily reflect 51łÔąĎ’s editorial policy.

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There is so much attention overĚý in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) that it is hard to imagine how their societies would function with at least some greater degree of equality and empowerment. Just as challenging is the conflation of all Arab countries into the stereotype of Saudi Arabia, which serves as the archetype of the low status of women in the region, despite their relatively high levels of education and workforce participation (largely due to the requirement for segregated, women-only businesses).

The promised to be a watershed in . Not only did they have visible leadership roles in Tunisia and Egypt, but their voices were also raised in Morocco, Jordan, Syria and elsewhere. That progress has been shelved and in some countries rolled back despite constitutional changes and visionary statements, largely due to the political and cultural atavists who restrict women’s advancement and commercial networks that are resistant to greater female participation.

In Morocco and Jordan, for example, despite support from Kings Mohammed VI and King Abdullah II, women face obstinate male opposition to greater political and economic participation. Just count the number of women in Jordan’s newly installed government. While Morocco has a very progressive family code, implementation in the courts has been stalled by judges and lawyers who have little or no interest in giving women full rights in a male-dominated society.

, “Women currently make up 49.7% of around 345.5 million people in the Middle East and North Africa region. But despite the many advances made in terms of closing the gender gap in health, political representation, and labor force participation, many other barriers remain.”

Only in countries with mandated quotas for women is there any depth of representation. While the global average for women in parliament is 25%, across the Arab world women have only 7% of parliamentary seats. At 25% of the workforce—the global average is 50%—the lack of employment affects a woman’s ability to have a life based on her contributions rather than as an extension of a spouse, parent or family.

Despite higher levels of education, often higher than their male counterparts, women remain far behind men in employment and earnings, and are not visible at all at the highest levels of the judiciary.

It is is “ranked last overall globally” in the World Economic Forum’s Gender Gap Report despite what seems to be higher expenditures on early education, investments in expanding girls educational programs, and greater emphasis on female entrepreneurship and workforce participation. But these figures mask the lack of opportunities that women face when exiting their formative educational years.

WHERE CHANGE IS HAPPENING

Looking at the annual list of the “,” it should come as no surprise that only 5% of those named are in government. Whether in business, civil society or in academia, women are making their marks in the private sector while men dominate in government, which may help to explain the unspoken regulations against women in terms of access to financing, legal services and company licensing. Although , their participation even in the educational sector still lags.

In business, some women have utilized their family ties and business acumen—acquired largely abroad or with international companies—to leverage their access to capital and corporate expertise to charge ahead in a range of sectors, most prominently in consumer services, IT, banking, specialty retail sales, pharmaceuticals, educational and health services. For , it is by finding like-minded entrepreneurs and others who pull together via incubators, co-working spaces and social media to develop business opportunities that were unavailable a decade ago.

Women entrepreneurs started by building out the space of social entrepreneurship, largely through engaging local artisans and crafts and retooling them for broader markets, including those accessible through social media. While the idea was to make profits to promote social good, the impact has been much broader, encouraging women of all ages to foray into edgy projects in media; organic and other agricultural sectors; baking and value-added food processing for niche markets; and creating artisanal items for consumption by conferences, advertisers and similar clients.

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In Morocco, Manal Elattir started out to train rural women to use the internet to market their handicrafts. Within two years, she realized that her modest social entrepreneurship project had to evolve into a business based on a profit-sharing model if it was to be sustainable. Enlisting support from nongovernmental (NGO) design and production experts, she recently launched her high-end line of Moroccan handicrafts that combine high quality and fashion with traditional designs.

Similar stories are found throughout the MENA region with one thing in common: they are run by women who believe in shaping their own futures for themselves, their families and their communities.

Another global success story from Morocco is the processing and production of argan oil by women-run cooperatives. These first small steps started a series of downstream products such as cosmetic, food supplements, ready-to-wear garments and textile design that all emerged from goats in a tree canopy feasting on argan nuts.

So, women are excelling on the community level, and what has been equally valuable is growing international attention to and support for cementing advances that girls and women have been making to build stronger and more resilient achievements. In Tunisia, Wided Bouchamaoui, the head of the Confederation of Industry, Trade and Handicrafts, was one of the quartet receiving the Nobel Peace Prize. In Morocco, the OPUS prize was awarded to Aicha Ech Chenna for her work with single mothers and girls’ education. These achievements are not lost on girls throughout the region.

Year after year, women in the MENA region are recognized for their leadership, innovations and commitment to advancing human rights, economic empowerment and the intensity they bring to commercial, educational, media and social and human rights campaigns. They are creating something unique: role models that for too long reflected out-of-date traditions not aligned with the knowledge, skills and innovative thinking that girls and women want to demonstrate.

Many communities do not have a role model. Whether it is the local social entrepreneur creating a novel project to empower local craftspeople that increase their incomes and quality of life; the newly educated daughter who wins an international scholarship that enables her to acquire a career by which she is able to support her siblings and parents; or the rising sense of dignity when a girl is told by her parents to be all she can be—these changes are critical.

WOMEN ARE AGENTS OF CHANGE

No one, however, believes that the corner has been turned. As a and activists five years after the Arab Spring fully demonstrated, the positive outcomes have been few, the setbacks many.

If women are to succeed, international recognition and support acts as the leaven to empower girls and women to set and achieve higher goals. In business and commerce, women are already reaching out and accelerating employment and leadership opportunities for other women. Counterparts in the West should emphasize their support for women-led initiatives to help break down barriers to increased success for women-owned businesses.

And governments, increasingly exposed to evaluations based on their gender-based performance, are challenged to demonstrate that incremental changes being implemented must be accelerated, sustained and broadened.

Women are truly agents of change for the better, and they are vital to the economic prosperity, political stability and social integrity of the MENA region and elsewhere.

The views expressed in this article are the author’s own and do not necessarily reflect 51łÔąĎ’s editorial policy.

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The Middle East and North Africa (MENA), a region that is more often in the news for bombs and bullets than booming businesses, is experiencing a startup revolution. Nearly six years since the start of the Arab Uprisings, entrepreneurship is on the minds of those as young as 15. With unemployment and underemployment still being key factors in a region that sits on a powder keg, MENA youth are hungry to shape their own future. Alongside them, however, there is an even hungrier demographic that is having their : women.

Women entrepreneurs provide the MENA region with an economic opportunity. To understand the issue, it is important to look at the underlying problems.

THE YOUTH BULGE

As this author and Casper Wuite explained in , the key catalysts behind the revolts of 2010-11 included poor economic growth, inequality, unemployment and underemployment, and poverty. When food prices go up but getting a well-paid job is like finding a needle in a haystack, frustration is bound to grow. As summed up in the book: “Stagnant economies tend to lack jobs. Most parts of the Arab world suffer from high unemployment … With no prospects for the future, it is not surprising that populations are fractious and prone to revolt.”

Despite the book being published in 2012, not much has changed. War has spread from Libya and Syria to Iraq and Yemen; disenfranchised youth across MENA have joined extremist groups while others have set sail on the migrant trail to Europe due toĚýĚýor conflict; and are still rife.

Beyond the news headlines, unemployment and underemployment are the biggest issues facing the MENA region. With an —half of MENA , which makes the region the second youngest after sub-Saharan Africa—the unemployment of young people can be a boon or bane. Discontent over government economic policy can lead to trouble.ĚýBut, likewise, motivated and empowered youth can help build middle-income countries like Morocco and Jordan and high-income countries like Qatar and Saudi Arabia as they develop and diversify their economies.

INCLUSION OF WOMEN

Aside from the economic issues facing young people, however, women in MENA face an even tougher challenge. As notes, while the “majority of working-age women in the MENA region are educated, the majority of them remain outside the labor force.” In fact, women in the MENA region “are underrepresented in the workforce with only 25% of eligible females employed,” as Maria Khwaja notes at 51łÔąĎ. Egypt in particular has a far than men.

In no other region is the full inclusion of women needed more than the Middle East and North Africa. With the massive potential of educated women in helping to bring economic prosperity to the region, this is an area that needs closer attention.

After all, women can be change-makers for the political, economic and social development of any country. As Lakshmi Puri, deputy executive director of United Nations Women, : “[W]omen … are game-changers in building more resilient, peaceful, inclusive and prosperous countries.” In order to the meet the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), which are global targets set by the United Nations for 2030, it is vital that women in MENA are included at every step of the way. When more women work—along with men—.

Eric Asmar, director of programs at the (Moroccan CISE), reaffirms this in an interview at the organization’s co-working hub in Rabat: “Across the board, the positive effects of women in the labor force are well-documented.”

WOMEN ENTREPRENEURSHIP IN MENA

But while the inclusion and unemployment of women is still an issue, this does not mean that women in MENA are not active players. While unemployment is holding back the economic development of the region, women (and youth) are shaping their own future by entering the start-up industry.

From Morocco and Egypt to Jordan and Qatar, entrepreneurship is seen as the new “fashion” in the region. This can be a good thing and a bad thing. If more start-ups are created, so will more jobs—and with that a more productive impact on the economy. As an added bonus, less pressure is on governments for annual job creation as they struggle to keep up the growing .

At the same time, however, not all start-ups are successful. As this author was told in Amman while conducting field research for his forthcoming book, , countries like Jordan and Lebanon have thousands of new companies being created, but not all are active. Instead of founders creating a successful business, the firms are simply registered in the country but with no work being done.

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In fact, a foreign investor in Paris told this author that “most start-ups in the Middle East and North Africa that are building mobile apps are likely to fail—that’s the reality of it.” The business models are either poorly constructed or there is a metaphorical glass ceiling on how far the product can be taken. The risk here is in brain drain if an entrepreneur fails to make a buck with their business.

But while there is no guarantee that creating a company will lead to success, entrepreneurship is a field that carries much promise for the future of MENA. Despite being in the MENA region compared to other parts of the developing world, Yasmine El Baggari—a budding Moroccan entrepreneur and founder of Voyaj, a that is winning fans at the —talks about the positive buzz surrounding in MENA: “After a discussion withĚýChristopher M. Schroeder, it was clear that female entrepreneurship is thriving across theĚýMiddle East and North Africa, particularly in the technology sector. In his new book,ĚýStartup Rising: The Entrepreneurial Revolution Remaking the Middle East, Schroeder reports that over a third of startups in the region are run by women—a higher percentage than in Silicon Valley.”

Beating might not be that difficult, but the fact that the MENA region is the one that has more start-ups than the Bay Area is telling of the “revolution” that is brewing in the Middle East and North Africa.

The impact that women can have on the region’s economic situation provides light at the end of the tunnel. But their passion, drive and ability to start successful businesses are unmatched for Asmar. He says that “women are uniquely equipped to be entrepreneurs with the way they manage teams, time, finances.”

Having managed many startups as part of Moroccan CISE’s incubator program, Dare Inc., and collaborated with countless others across the region, Asmar goes on to add: “On the MENA level, we have specific challenges that women are well-equipped to address … and with many socioeconomic issues across the board, women are better equipped to bridge those gaps.”

Female entrepreneurs throughout the MENA region are as diverse as their male counterparts. From diligent designers to tech-savvy developers, women entrepreneurs “are moving across different sectors,” Asmar says. “In the previous generation, there was a division: like in women-focused fields such as food, cosmetics, textiles, artisans, handicrafts—the traditional sectors. But in the younger generation, you have women … working in agriculture, in tech.” Other fields include “consulting, communications and coaching,” as Nezha Dermoumi, the chief financial officer of Moroccan CISE, adds. The female start-up industry is clearly changing.

SOCIAL CHALLENGES FOR WOMEN ENTREPRENEURS

While female entrepreneurship does carry promise, there are significant challenges that inevitably go along with it. While global institutions like the World Bank Group’s have substantially highlighted key challenges faced by female entrepreneurs—additional training, human resources, access to finance and high costs—there are other basic issues at the social level that are often overlooked in policy reports.

Many entrepreneurs across the region have told this author that parents often do not want them to take a leap of faith and enter the start-up industry. Parents want their children to have a stable job in traditional fields—law, medicine, education—get married and have a family of their own.

Dermoumi explains this further: “In our culture we have family barriers. For our parents, success is to have a job in government or at big companies with social benefits, pensions, etc.”

Despite not being a gender-specific challenge—or even region-specific—female entrepreneurs often face added family pressure for them to get married before starting a company. Then, after marriage, there is an issue of further challenges of balancing family life with finding the time to write up business plans, as one entrepreneur in the United Arab Emirates told this author.

, co-founder of Supermama, sums it up: “Of course there is the social look of, �Ah she’s an entrepreneur, of course that explains why she’s not married at 30, that’s it.’”

While Dermoumi says that women entrepreneurs in general “face similar difficulties” as their male counterparts, these are added challenges. In smaller towns and cities in MENA, women face problems when some men simply do “not want to deal with them,” Dermoumi adds. This may occur when women are creating and marketing their products or services, and it may also be an issue when seeking external capital. While access to investment is a key challenge for both male and female entrepreneurs, as a highlights, for women in smaller cities it can be even more difficult due to patriarchal conditions.

“People don’t take women seriously,” says Dermoumi. “In Casablanca and Rabat, we don’t see this that much, but in other regions that’s not the case.” In fact, this author was told by a Bahraini entrepreneur that sometimes men will not take a woman seriously unless she is wearing an abaya (long gown).

But while such challenges are context-specific and should not be generalized, as Asmar mentions, some women in the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) states have used these challenges to their advantage. “In Saudi Arabia,” he says, “there is a whole group of women [tech] developers who have started their own conferences—in a context where they are not even allowed to interact with men at conferences, so they create a women-only conference and use the segregation to their advantage with bringing in sponsors themselves.”

Asmar goes on to note: “There are social norms. [But remember] there are diverse contexts across the region. I have spoken to a lot of women in the region about their barriers, and many have told me, �what’s in my head’ and that they have the pieces necessary. Other women have other issues.”

Risk is the keyword for both male and female entrepreneurs—from San Francisco to Hong Kong. “There is a risk aversion in a lot of countries in the region: the idea that the best job is in the government, followed by a big company, and entrepreneurship is way down the line,” Asmar adds. And this is “multiplied when it comes to women, because there are social pressures to marry and to adhere to social standards,” but within social contexts of different countries.

THE NEXT STEP

So, what is needed?

Dermoumi says there needs to be increased “awareness” about the benefits of entrepreneurship when it comes to family pressure. She adds that women entrepreneurs must emphasize that they have the “ambitions to achieve [their] dreams.” The raising of awareness must, for Dermoumi (and other interviewees across MENA), involve the showcasing of “success stories.” To mention a few: , and .

Constructive criticism is essential when it comes to entrepreneurship, and Asmar says that women “need the same support that any entrepreneur needs. Every entrepreneur needs a particular kind of support, but everyone needs mentoring and coaching that’s specific to their individual challenges. And I think that’s the case for women as well.”

Considering that female entrepreneurship is still lower in MENA that other parts of the developing world, more needs to be done to assist women in not only starting a business, but in starting a successful one.

Asmar is unequivocal here: “The policy changes should be focused on education to encourage entrepreneurship and larger policy questions relating to promoting entrepreneurship. So, making it easier to become an entrepreneur—facilitating the ability to start businesses, to trade, to buy shares, to invest [all have] benefits.”

Indeed, as previously mentioned, in order for the Middle East and North Africa to achieve the SDGs by 2030, women must be included and empowered in all aspects of life: political, economic and social. Asmar puts it astutely when he says: “When women participate, you see greater growth. Improving women’s education and participation in entrepreneurship and the workforce has positive effects on all of society, not just women.”

Amelia Stewart, writing for the Adam Smith Institute, is essential: “Not only do more start-ups equate to more jobs for everyone, [but] firms run and owned by women are more likely to employ other educated women [than] firms run by men.” With that, the unemployment rate of women would decrease and the (GDP) would increase.

Organizations like Moroccan CISE, Oasis 500 and INJAZ aim to prepare youth and women of the Middle East and North Africa to shape their future and their country’s future. Greater support for such initiatives will aid the MENA region as it seeks to achieve the Sustainable Development Goals by 2030.

The first step is providing the necessary support to women in both large and small cities. After all, small cities lay the foundations for a better society at large.

The views expressed in this article are the author’s own and do not necessarily reflect 51łÔąĎ’s editorial policy.

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The US presidential campaigns have staked out their positions on Muslim-Americans, Muslim immigrants and, by extension, Muslims worldwide. These positions have been defined by perceptions about Islam and its various components: the Quran, Sharia law, religious terms such as kafir and jihad, and generally not well understood rituals. Most telling are the images daily broadcast and projected by radicals who use Islam as a cloak for their violence and heinous crimes against mostly other Muslims.

The ongoing conflict is not only between Muslims and those who are not. More and more courageous Muslim voices are being raised against radicalism and extremism as not representative of Islam—and actually in deep conflict with the basic values of Islam. These rejections by Muslim leaders and communities are at odds with those who claim that Muslims are not public enough in their condemnation of extremists who claim the mantle of Islam as justification for their actions.

King of Morocco

Lately, there is growing recognition in the West that Muslim leaders from Malaysia to Morocco are indeed making the case against terrorism and Islamic radicals. In this context, theĚýGlobe and MailĚýpublishedĚýĚýwho singled out the king of Morocco, Mohammed VI, as one of many who have boldly challenged the radicals.

He pointed out that the king’s condemnation took on even greater gravitas as he is regarded as a direct descendant of the Prophet Muhammad and has the title “commander of the faithful” as being responsible for the integrity and promotion of Islam, in particular the Maliki school with its strong Sufi texture and emphasis on inclusion, moderation and peace.

King Mohammed spoke on theĚý, commemorating the resistance of Moroccans to the French occupation. Most Western media accounts highlighted his condemnation of terrorism, noting there is no heavenly reward for terrorists. It is reported that the ProphetĚý:Ěý“I guarantee a house in the surroundings of Paradise for those who give up arguing, even ifĚýthey are in the right; and I guarantee a house in the middle of Paradise for those whoĚýabandon lying even when joking; and I guarantee a house in the highest part of Paradise forĚýthose who have good character and manners” (Sunan Abu Daawood: 4800).

Religion is Conduct

So, when the king said that he wanted overseas Moroccans “to remain firmly committed to their religious values and to their time-honored traditions as they face up to this phenomenon which has nothing to do with their culture or background,” he was emphasizing that values lie at the heart of the practice of Islam, and so to distort the rituals is to challenge the moral core of the religion.

In Islam, there is no eternal reward for passively living in the world.Ěý, a noted Muslim scholar, the hadith “religion is conduct” means that “real worship does not consist only of establishing rituals, but it’s about exerting good conduct/behavior or applying good manners towards others.” This hadith adds that, “Ritual worship is not valid unless it’s largely supported by good conduct.” And further, “None of you truly believes until he wishes for his brother what he wishes for himself” (Al-Bukhari and Muslim).

This emphasis on good works is found throughout the Abrahamic faiths. It is no coincidence that in Islam, human behavior—from commercial transactions to how one treats family members—is guided by values that engender good conduct. In Islam, the link Ěýis reflected in hadith such as, “Through his manners and good conduct, the believer can attain the status of a person who frequently fasts and prays at night” (Abu Dawoud).

The backstory to the king’s speech is that there is the explicit need for Muslims to act according to values that promote comity, respect and dignity. We are in this world to do good, not evil, and that we should shun those who would tell us to hurt others. As , the Prophet Muhammad said, “I have been sent to perfect good character.” And, “The best of you is the best among you in conduct” (Al-Bukhari and Muslim).

King Mohammed’s words echo the determination of King Abdullah II of Jordan who, like his Moroccan counterpart, has a unique historical role to both defend Islam and clarify its dynamic role in promoting harmony, justice and respect within the human community.

The views expressed in this article are the author’s own and do not necessarily reflect 51łÔąĎ’s editorial policy.

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In his speech on August 20, King Mohammed VI of Morocco continued his country’s campaign to highlight its political and economic ties to Africa.

The occasion was the commemoration of the People’s Revolution Day, the beginning of the struggle against the French Protectorate.ĚýThe ,Ěýincluding ˛Ń´Ç°ů´Çł¦ł¦´Ç’s historic ties with Algeria, the need for the Moroccan diaspora to oppose extremism, and the centrality of Africa to the Moroccan identify and national strategy.

Moroccan Efforts to Rejoin the African Union

Morocco has been working very hard for a decade to cement relations with African countries to gain their support for ˛Ń´Ç°ů´Çł¦ł¦´Ç’s efforts to join the African Union (AU). ˛Ń´Ç°ů´Çł¦ł¦´Ç’s strongest tools are the economic and commercial benefits that come with strong bilateral relations with the kingdom, amply demonstrated by the fact that, according to theĚý, 85% of the country’s foreign direct investment is in Africa.

And like any other smart policy, these efforts do not come unconditionally. As the king said in his speech, in a clear reference to the AU effort, “Our decision that Morocco should take its natural place, once again, within the African institutional family clearly illustrates our commitment to continue supporting the causes of African peoples.”

He went on to point out that: “For Morocco, Africa means more than just being part of a geographical area, or having historical bonds with the continent. Africa also means sincere affection, appreciation, close human and spiritual relations as well as tangible solidarity. Furthermore, Africa is the natural extension of Morocco and the embodiment of the country’s strategic depth.”

˛Ń´Ç°ů´Çł¦ł¦´Ç’s friendship has many benefits

˛Ń´Ç°ů´Çł¦ł¦´Ç’s efforts are multi-dimensional, involving the private sector; large state corporations such as OCP, the phosphate giant; government health, social and education agencies; counterterrorism cooperation; and cultural exchanges. Moroccan telecoms companies serve more customers in a dozen African countries than they do at home; and Moroccan banks play a significant role in eight West African countries. Additionally, OCP, on its own and in an innovative partnership with Gabon, is producing fertilizer specifically tailored for African needs and is funding a distribution program for small landholders.

The king noted in his speech that: “I believe what is good for Morocco is good for Africa—and vice versa. Theirs is one and the same destiny. I also believe there can be no progress without stability: either the two go together, or they do not exist. We see Africa as a forum for joint action, for promoting development in the region, and for serving African citizens.”

The efforts are making a difference. At the recent AU Summit, Morocco was able to secure 28 countries on a letter promoting ˛Ń´Ç°ů´Çł¦ł¦´Ç’s admission to the AU after its withdrawal from its predecessor organization, the Organization of African Unity (OAU), over the admission of the Polisario-run government of the Sahrawi Arab Democratic Republic.

In hisĚý, Dr. J. Peter Pham, director of the Africa Center at the Atlantic Council, said: “The monarch’s remarks reaffirmed a strategic orientation with significant implications not only for Morocco and other countries of the African continent, but also their global partners, including the United States.”

Morocco Has Friends in Asia

And the story has been carried over into ˛Ń´Ç°ů´Çł¦ł¦´Ç’s growing relations with India, Russia and China. The king had a retinue of 400 business representatives and government officials when he attended the India-Africa Forum in October 2015. Five pacts were agreed and two signed during the forum.

Following on the heels of the India excursion,Ěý, during which a number of agreements, protocols and memorandums of understanding—some 14 in number—were highlighted, as well as the continuation of the Strategic Partnership agreement that has been in effect for 10 years since the king’s last visit in 2006.

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It was a similar story in China during the state visit that began on May 11, 2016. The two countries inked 15 bilateral agreements, accords and memoranda covering the education, economic, cultural, tourism and technical sectors. Most importantly from the king’s perspective was the signing of a Strategic Partnership similar to that with the Kremlin.

While there is much speculation about the timing of these visits, many pundits say these Moroccan initiatives are not surprising considering the America’s reluctance to fully endorse ˛Ń´Ç°ů´Çł¦ł¦´Ç’s autonomy proposal for the Western Sahara, calling it serious, realistic and feasible, but not calling it out as “the” solution to the conflict. However, Russia and China have not called for its unqualified endorsement either.

Morocco is playing the long game. Whether with the AU or the United Nations Security Council, the kingdom knows it needs friends, and the United States’ fickle behavior gives Rabat pause, promoting a fuller, more strategic vision of how to gain friends and influence others.

The views expressed in this article are the author’s own and do not necessarily reflect 51łÔąĎ’s editorial policy.

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Following the success of government spending in post-war Europe, theĚýArab world adopted a state-driven model of economic development.ĚýMorocco implemented this model in the 1960s and 1970s, pursuing expensive projects in industry, infrastructure and social services.

By 1983, ˛Ń´Ç°ů´Çł¦ł¦´Ç’s debt equaled 85% of its gross domestic product (GDP) and its government faced severe budget deficits. In response, Morocco subscribed to the structural adjustment programs of the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund. These programs pushedĚýaĚýfree-market strategy that marginalized populations dependent on public sector employment and services.Ěý˛Ń´Ç°ů´Çł¦ł¦´Ç’s experience resembles those of otherĚýĚýin the Arab world.

Decentralization

In subsequent decades, governments in the Middle East and North Africa attempted to redress the negative outcomes of structural adjustment. They promotedĚýdecentralization as aĚýĚýto the problems of powerlessness and inequality. This policy reinforced the efficientĚýprovision of services and encouraged the participation of citizensĚýin managing local affairs. In Morocco and elsewhere, ostensible local participation became a way to attract foreign donors who encouraged democracy and pluralism. However, participation does not always result in productive exchanges between citizens and governing institutions.

Despite significant barriers to broad inclusion, decentralization has resulted in the proliferation of local development organizations inĚý. There has also been much public-private collaboration to improve access to social and financial services. Still, many programs make formal market inclusion a requisite condition for accessing these services. Thus,Ěýthe most disadvantaged populations do notĚýreap any benefits.

For example, participation inĚýa government program that subsidizes store appliances requires registrationĚýin the National Fund for Social Security. Participants mustĚýalso pay aĚýĚýof 5,000 Moroccan dirhams ($515). These administrative demands immediately disqualify shopkeepers who cannot support the costs of formality. Similar barriers deter participation in other programs that provide managerial and financial assistance for small enterprises. As a result, many people turn to informal sources of support in order to launch and maintain their businesses.

Informality in Morocco

The growth of the informal sector in Morocco followed the neoliberal reforms of the 1980s. The reduction in government jobs and arrival of rural populations led many urban dwellers to engage in informal commercial activities. Today, the volatile nature of the informal sector discourages governments from investing in comprehensive regulation schemes.

Moreover, the informal sector is a major employer and income generator in the Arab world. Heavy-handed efforts to regulate the informal sector could have deleterious effects on local livelihoods and result in political unrest. This was the case in Tunisia following theĚýself-immolation of Mohammed al-Bouazizi, a streetĚývendor.

In Morocco, the urban informalĚýĚýmakes up more than 15% of the GDP. The examples of informality are numerous: street vendors throng weekly markets; smugglers transport goods into northern cities; neighborhood grocers extend lines of credit to their clients. Informality cultivates a shadow economy that buoys up people in precarious financial situations through flexibility and negotiation. However, it does not solve the problems of marginalization or illegal business practices.

Ultimately, informality reflects a wider trend of prioritizing market integration over the equitable provision of services in the Arab world. As countries in the Middle East and North Africa experience climate change, migration and political conflict, their economies will transform. It remains unknown whether the informal sector will withstand these shocks or implode under the pressure of exclusionary development policies.

The views expressed in this article are the author’s own and do not necessarily reflect 51łÔąĎ’s editorial policy.

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Our story starts in 1942 with Europe in the midst of war. We find ourselves in the dusty North African outpost of Casablanca, where a motley assortment of refugees, political agitators and men with secrets gather in a place known as Rick’s Cafe. Here, they exchange news, drink whiskey and juggle illegal paperwork to get them out of the country to a better life.

Casablanca was full of anxiety and uncertainty, a limbo full of those caught between their pre-war pasts and their uncertain futures. So begins the plot of what was to become one of the most popular classic films of all time: Casablanca.

But Rick’s Café never really existed. Casablanca was not shot in Morocco. None of its actors were Moroccan. In fact, the whole thing was constructed in a Hollywood studio, making Casablanca the film as far removed from Casablanca the city as could be imagined.

Nevertheless, the city became synonymous with the film and some of the latter’s glamour rubbed off on the image of Casablanca the city.

Rick’s Cafe comes to life

Six decades after the film was released, Casablanca finally got its own Rick’s CafĂ©. Kathy Kriger, an American ex-diplomat, opened her version of Rick’s in 2004, while the world was still reeling in the wake of the 9/11 attacks and the emergence of the “war on terror.” Kriger left the Foreign Service to devote herself to building Rick’s Cafe as a business and a brand name. She even found a piano player called Sam—or Issam, to be precise.

“I wanted to use it as a way to show Americans how Morocco was different,” Kriger tells me. “I knew they would put all the [Middle East] countries into one basket. So I wanted to help them make the psychological leap and not be scared.”

Now, 12 years later, Rick’s Cafe attracts a regular flow of celebrities, royalty and political bigwigs to Casablanca, along with tourists from all around the world. Many come a long way to visit Rick’s. For some, the movie is the only image that links them with Casablanca at all. While it may be a false image in some ways, the iconic film provides brand awareness for the city, which it otherwise might have lacked. Recognition is a valuable asset for any place looking to make its mark globally.

“We’re known all over the world,” says Kriger. “The Japanese minister of economy is coming here for dinner tomorrow. J-Lo’s been here. Casablanca the movie is so famous that it brings people in from everywhere. They all know of it. Some people come from Europe just to have dinner, spend the night and go back.”

The film’s influence may have spread far and wide globally, but it was never much of a big deal within Morocco until Kriger opened Rick’s. Since then, Casablanca locals have become more aware of the impact that one film had on global perceptions of their city. Some of them have spotted its potential and tried to harness it. So far, Kriger’s restaurant is the only Rick’s in town and likely to remain so now that she owns the rights to its name.

Kriger says: “When I first tried to register the name Rick’s Cafe I found out that someone else already had it. He was from Casablanca and had studied in the US. He used to get embarrassed when people there asked if he hung out at Rick’s Cafe when he went home. So he registered the name when he came back after graduation, hoping to do something with it.”

The real Casablanca

Despite the popularity of the 21st-century Rick’s Café and the large numbers of tourists it attracts, the presence of the restaurant is not enough by itself to define a city with a vibrant culture and ancient history of its own.

Today’s Casablanca mingles strains of the colonial past with a thoroughly modern present. The buzzing medina area, somewhat shabby but always fascinating, is full of market stalls, street vendors and small antique shops. Just outside the medina the streets are lined with white art-deco buildings, relics from the days of the French. A tram line cuts through the area, connecting the wealthy centre with some of the outlying slums.

Toward the coast, the Anfa hills district is full of gated compounds and leafy streets, leading down to one of the city’s main malls, Place d’Anfa. Racine, another well-to-do section, has large shops, Western chains, and luxurious apartment buildings. En route to the airport, there are new developments that can be seen in progress, including a “.” The main highway is lit using solar powered street lamps.

Overall, Casablanca retains a cosmopolitan feel, with its many foreign restaurants, cafes and bars serving hordes of Moroccans and expats alike. The variety is impressive, including sushi bars, Turkish kebab joints, Lebanese cafes, Argentinian steakhouses, Chinese noodle shops and Irish pubs, along with traditional Moroccan seafood, tagines and couscous.

The city’s main local attraction has to be the striking Hassan II Mosque, standing large and imposing with its single minaret looming over the coastline. The DNA of the city is surely rooted in cosmopolitanism, which should be a key feature of any new branding effort. This is the “real” Casablanca, where past meets present and where all travellers are welcomed.

Fortunately, local authorities in the city have already recognized the benefits of city branding and have established a series of initiatives to devise and implement a new strategy.

Rather than focusing on an image rooted in a depiction of colonial wartime Casablanca, the new strategy is determinedly modern in its outlook. IĚýspoke to Khalid Baddou, president of the Moroccan Association for Marketing and Communications, about the city’s goals to promote a refreshed image.

“The problem [with the film] is that it represents Casablanca as a very old-fashioned city,” Baddou tells me. “People get this image of colonial days, with everyone wearing red hats and so on. Although from a brand awareness point of view it’s still positive, for knowing that there’s a city in Morocco called Casablanca.”

Casablanca is known within Morocco as the economic capital. It’s the center of business, and most foreign companies are headquartered there. Casablanca is also an important center for offshoring. Global companies such as IBM are mainly located at Casablanca Nearshore Park, where they outsource a variety of IT, call center and business processes.ĚýIt also has a new business area and an extensive marina under development.

“Since independence, Casablanca has always been positioned as the economic center of the country,” says Baddou. “But that’s no longer sufficient. Today Casablanca must mean something different. We want to reposition the city and make it more attractive, by reinforcing its identity above and beyond the economic one. We will soon have competing regions in the country, with every region having its own resources. When that happens, the game will change.”

Casablanca’s city authorities aim to base its future development on the Dubai model and become known as a hub for Africa. Companies wanting to expand to Africa can use Casablanca as a jumping off point, benefiting from the connections that Morocco has already established with other African countries. According to Jorgen Eriksson, place branding specialist and CEO of Bearing Consulting, the city seems to be on the right track.

Eriksson says: “Casablanca needs to clarify its brand as a vibrant yet classic location for both oriental culture and West African business, where visitors can come as an entry point to modern West Africa. To achieve this, Casablanca needs to overhaul both its infrastructure and how it presents its unique assets to new visitors. All the components are there, but new packaging is needed.”

Casablanca’s goal to become the “new Dubai” does not chime well with the particular aspects of its image promoted in either the Humphrey Bogart film or indeed the city’s wholly authentic medina area and its colonial-era art deco streets. In fact, they are almost polar opposites where one represents modernity while the other is rooted in the past.

The DNA of the city is found in its continuous status as a port city that has seen it used as a trading centre by theĚýPhoenicians and Romans more than 2,000 years ago, and later the Portuguese (who gave it its name), Spanish and French, who colonized it in the 19th century. This is the “real” Casablanca, where pastĚýmeets present and where all travellers are welcomed.

“The film promotes one image, but we want to promote an entirely different one. The name of Casablanca is known, but what the city is all about today is not so well known,” says Baddou.

Those in charge of Brand Casablanca do not plan to cast aside the city’s heritage for the sake of modernity. There are plans already in place to shape the new brand strategy into an extension of the Casablanca that the world already knows.

“Our personal branding recommendation includes the historical heritage,” says Baddou. “We need to build on this image that people have of the city of Casa, but then add to it all the modernity that has happened in the last 60 or 70 years.”

He continues: “Cities need to build their brands based on their real DNA, whether that’s environment, business, industry, tourism or local icons. It has to be recent and fit in with reality. Casablanca the movie is good for awareness, but people also need to have the new image of the city, which is the reality now.”

Unlike the film, which was born in a Hollywood studio, Casablanca’s rebranding strategy will start from the grassroots, by discovering how the people of Casablanca actually view their own city. An important aspect of any city branding initiative, including this step can spell the difference between failure and success.

Baddou says: “We want to find out how local people view and talk about their city. For us white-collar workers, Casablanca could be very different from what the vast majority think. Everyone sees the city from a different angle. So the strategy can’t be top down. It must be built from the bottom, by first listening to the people and seeing what they say.”

*[This article was originally published by .]

The views expressed in this article are the author’s own and do not necessarily reflect 51łÔąĎ’s editorial policy.

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Issues of are often viewed as arising from the people who they affect. This results in the pathologization of vulnerable populations and diverts attention away from far-reaching factors that contribute to these issues. In , administrative intricacies can make medical care and social services difficult to access, especially for single mothers and their children. The official pathway to public services is registration in l’état civil, the civil registry. Although enrollment is compulsory, the requirements can be overwhelming for single mothers to complete, let alone within the registration deadline of 30 days after giving birth.

Despite the existence of an official route for single mothers to register their children, strong connections between society, religion and patriarchy create stigma that can cause cooperation problems between concerned parties in the registration process. These connections are reinforced by Moroccan law, which deems punishable sexual relations out of wedlock. Due to shame and fear of legal retribution, many single mothers abandon or hide their children. Fortunately, punishing mothers has become less of a priority since the 2004 Family Code reforms, which aimed to put the wellbeing of children first and give single mothers more autonomy in registering their children.

Ostensibly, the reformed Family Code simplifies the registration process by allowing a single mother to declare her child by inventing a name for the father using an approved list and a the first name to begin with Abd (e.g. Abd al-Haq). Still, the reforms do not permit mothers to obtain a Livre de Famille, the and proves their civil status. Only men can obtain this book upon marriage. Additionally, there are still many issues with implementing the reforms, due to the lack of coordinated policies between different municipalities and the in the judiciary to adapt to a new set of procedures.

Rural Morocco

Hannah Bradley is an employee at the (MCT) who coordinates the , which aims to promote a more efficient national civil registration process through raising public awareness, training statutory service professionals and advising difficult cases. She suggests that economic restrictions on single mothers may make costs associated with registration procedures prohibitive. Often, the civil registry office requires a tuberculosis vaccination record to complete the registration process. Vaccinations must be administered in the child’s place of residence, whereas registration must be processed at the child’s place of birth. These requirements are significantly more costly for women who live far away from where they gave birth.

The challenge of registration is even more onerous in rural areas due to several factors. Rural areas tend to be more community oriented, thus a single mother risks damaging the honor of more people and facing more stigmatization. Additionally, rural communities are still recovering from decades of inadequate investment in education and infrastructure. As a result, single mothers in rural areas are more likely to be illiterate and less likely to have access to organizations that support women and children.

Finally, the proportion of is higher than working urban women due to rural women’s involvement in agricultural activities. These activities reduce the amount of time single mothers in rural areas can commit to understanding and completing the registration process. All this points to the need for more effective information that utilize non-written materials, and for more organizations that support single mothers in rural areas to register their children on time.

Registration is a crucial step in ensuring future access to education, public health and social services. Unregistered children grow up as second-class citizens, without possession of administrative documents that authorize their rights to hospital care, education beyond primary school and employment. MCT, in collaboration with La Fondation Amane pour la Protection de l’Enfance (FAPE), is one of the organizations working to support vulnerable women and children by combating issues that lead to their marginalization and increasing awareness of the national birth registration system across Morocco.

Based on an initial pilot project and a regional conference, MCT and FAPE made several the efficiency of the national registration system. Bradley emphasized the importance of making the process more accessible through mobile registration and information campaigns in maternity wards and schools.

She also pointed to lack of mobility and time away from work as significant obstacles to single mothers completing the registration process. Finally, she drew attention to one of MCT’s recommendations for change regarding the current naming procedure to reduce prejudice against children with single mothers. In the case of a child with an unknown father, the space for a paternal grandfather on the national identity card is left blank. In order to eliminate discrimination and protect confidentiality, MCT proposes that identity cards not distinguish people based on paternal origin.

The issue of national registration is part of a larger discussion on the equitable and efficient provision of services in Morocco, and the elimination of discrimination against “illegitimate” children through an improved registration process. Nevertheless, costs, stigma and lack of access to information about the process can be significant barriers to registration for single mothers. More coordination between government and associations is needed in dealing with the complex cases of single women and their children, in order to ensure that children do not lose out on their basic rights as citizens.

The views expressed in this article are the author’s own and do not necessarily reflect 51łÔąĎ’s editorial policy.

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Generally speaking, Arabic hip hop comes in two categories. There are rappers in the Gulf who like to brag about how great it is to be really, really rich. Then there are artists in places like Palestine and Algeria who use their work to talk aboutĚýthe endemic problems they face in their communities: disenfranchisement, discrimination, destitution and violence.

Index on Censorship Arts award winnerĚýĚýfalls under the latter category. Hailing from Morocco, where the youth have been keen consumers of hip hopĚýfor many years, El Haqed has had a lot of attention since the Arab Spring of 2011. Rapping about poverty, police corruption and oppression in Morocco, the 24-year-old has felt the full force of the law. Arrested for the first time in 2011, he spent two years in prison before beingĚýarrested twice moreĚýbecause of his music.

The Index on CensorshipĚýĚýwhen he had just returned to Morocco in high spirits following a tour of Norway, Sweden and Denmark, and was looking forward to performing for the first time in his hometown of Casablanca. Unfortunately,Ěýthe Moroccan state went to extraordinary lengths—blocking off roads and ordering an electricity company to shut off power—to ensure the concert didn’t go ahead. He is effectively banned from performing live or appearing on TV or radio.

Asked why the Moroccan government wants to silence him so badly, El Haqed said: “Because I continue to speak out against them and fight for freedom of expression.” On several occasions, the authorities have asked El Haqed to renounce his views. “They want me to say that we live in a democracy and that everything is OK, but I have always refused.”

An all too frequent but often unavoidable fact of life as an artist under siege is that there will be times when keeping a low profile seems necessary. While El Haqed is still writing and recording music, he isn’t currently posting to YouTube as he was before. “Publishing music at the minute would only cause more problems,” he explains. He adds, however, that this is only a temporary setback, and publishing on YouTube and to his tens of thousands of social media followers is very much a part of his future plans.

Always Come Back to Morocco

One area of extreme difficulty has been finding the right people—including a producer—to work with. El Haqed used to write music with other artists in Morocco, but this has become an inconvenience. “Musicians were told by the authorities to stop working with me, or they would be made to,” he says.

Although in the past El Haqed pushed the authorities to give him permission to perform in Morocco, he is resigned to the fact this may never happen. But there is hope. Visa applications pending, he has been invited to spend a week in Florence, Italy, in October for an exchange with Italian musicians—a debate on the music of the new generation and to perform in concert. A major focus of this visit will be to facilitate artistic collaboration.

He has also been invited to perform in Belgium in October by at the 25^thĚýanniversary of the Moroccan Association of Human Rights due to him being a “committed musician and human rights defender.”

Like one in five people his age in Morocco, El Haqed doesn’t currently have a job and relies heavily on family and friends for support. While it may be easier if he left Morocco to pursue a career in music, he has no intention of relocating.

“I love my country, and while I want to perform abroad, I will always come back to Morocco.”

*[Nominations for the are open until October 20, 2015.ĚýThis article was originally published by .]

The views expressed in this article are the author’s own and do not necessarily reflect 51łÔąĎ’s editorial policy.

Photo Credit: Ěý/

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Global Shapers Rabat, an initiative of the World Economic Forum, is pleased to announce that the Kingdom of Morocco will host the 4^th edition of “,” the regional event of the Global Shapers Community.

The event, under the theme “Investing in Africa,” will be an opportunity to create a network of youth African entrepreneurs who share the same objective: break down the barriers between countries to develop the continent.

The 4^th edition of the SHAPE Africa will examine various issues of the African entrepreneurial diaspora, such as access to financing, innovation, using information technology, sustainability and local community development.

The summit will be opened by Her Excellency Mbarka Bouaida, Minister Delegate to the Minister of Foreign Affairs and Cooperation of the Kingdom of Morocco. She is also part of the World Economic Forum as the Young Global Leader.

SHAPE Africa will also launch an online platform that will gather young African entrepreneurs to promote their businesses and initiate collaborations with fellow entrepreneurs from other countries around the continent.

The event will be hosted in Rabat, Morocco on Sept 18–19.

For further information, please visit .

*[Note: 51łÔąĎ is a media partner of SHAPE Africa 2015 and will soon be launching a , our signature feature where you get context and insights from around the world.]

The views expressed in this article are the author’s own and do not necessarily reflect 51łÔąĎ’s editorial policy.

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“In the old days, women were very good,” says Oumaima’s father. “Now, women have changed.”

Oumaima is from Rabat, Morocco and is one of the local women trying to break stereotypes about Islam and what women are and aren’t allowed to do.

First taken to the beach by her older brother, Oumaima now sees surfing as a therapy to get over his tragic death. “Being Muslim comes from the heart,” she says. “I like surfing because it makes me happy.”

Things have changed for this generation of Moroccans. There are now female pilots, coast guards and police officers.

The palpable pride and happiness you see on the face of Oumaima’s mother when she talks about the possibilities open to her daughters speaks volumes about the importance of what young Arab women are setting out to achieve.

The views expressed in this article are the author’s own and do not necessarily reflect 51łÔąĎ’s editorial policy.

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Shaima is 18 years old and a single mother. Her own family says she is lost and her son is a “bastard.”

“I have lost my value,” the young woman says. “I’m worthless.”

The problem runs deeper than a man’s unwillingness to take responsibility. With high unemployment rates, most men can’t afford to marry even if they wish to.

There is also a law in Morocco that designates unwed mothers as prostitutes—a lack of marriage certificate serving as “proof.” As long as this is the case, men will be able to get away with shirking fatherhood.

Refusing to be shamed and asserting themselves takes courage. Aicha Ech Chenna’s organization helps Moroccan women rebuild their lives and regain respect within their communities.

The views expressed in this article are the author’s own and do not necessarily reflect 51łÔąĎ’s editorial policy.

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You have just arrived in a city. It’s hot and you want to buy a bottle of water. The first place you go is a corner grocery store, called hanout in Moroccan Arabic.

Hanouts form an important part of proximity commerce. They are hubs of social and economic activity that build customer networks through locational convenience and trust. They also provide easy access to small quantities of staple foods and household supplies. Shopping at a hanout is a quick, customized experience with the benefit of special services like delivery of gas canisters for heating water and cooking.

Hanouts offer their clients several other advantages. They create a sense of neighborhood safety by keeping late hours and accommodating rhythms of daily life, such as prayer and meal times. They also give advice as rental agents and matchmakers.

Finally, hanouts provide food security in cash scarce communities by extending credit to their clients. In the absence of formal contracts, credit depends on trust and further reinforces the socially embedded nature of the hanout.

The retail in Morocco represents over 10% of gross domestic product (GDP) and employs roughly 13% of the labor force. Within the sector, large retailers control less than 15% of the . Despite the significance of small retailing in Morocco, the dominant narrative of retail development is that supermarkets will replace small shops. Thus, previous development studies focus primarily on modernizing distribution channels without incorporating local knowledge and institutions.

My fieldwork on corner groceries reveals some issues that might inform future development approaches that are more sensitive to small retailers. In May, I attended a meeting at the headquarters of the Professional Association of Grocers in . Association members said that certain suppliers do not give invoices with small deliveries. Invoices let grocers track their purchases and they allow suppliers to monitor their sales for tax purposes. In place of an invoice, grocers receive a bon de livraison or a delivery slip, which is not as rigorous for accounting purposes. Another common complaint was that suppliers refuse to replace expired products, especially in low-income neighborhoods.

Grocers are afraid of exploitation by companies and banks. A program called began in 2007 as a private sector attempt to transform hanouts into a recognized chain. Participants received a loan from BMCE Bank to purchase new store appliances and products. Participants said they were overcharged for appliances, and they accused the program of delivering nearly expired products and making false promises. When the program failed and was dismantled in 2012, participants still had to pay back their loans.

In February 2015, a group of small retailers formed a collective to in front of parliament in Rabat. Their demands included stopping the fast growth of supermarkets and their concentration in popular neighborhoods; limiting oppressive tax audits; providing basic social protections; developing the trade sector with respect to maintaining a balance between large and small retailers; and opening a serious dialogue for their participation in the process of addressing these demands.

Despite recent trends in local development, small retailers remain marginalized from decision-making processes. Moreover, their experiences are largely absent from literature dealing with retail development.

Hanouts are places for social and economic transactions, for exchanges of money and advice, for drinking tea and making conversation. As much as they are vital hubs of local culture, hanouts are considered undeveloped spaces and inefficient businesses that do not keep up with modern marketing and merchandising. In other words, they do not fit into the neoliberal order of mass retailing and consumption.

However, this regime is not the only force of change in Morocco. Small retailers play an important role in shaping the direction of change too; their resilience in the face of efforts to transform retailing across the country demands more inclusive approaches to development.

The views expressed in this article are the author’s own and do not necessarily reflect 51łÔąĎ’s editorial policy.

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Experiencing a Moroccan city on foot is probably the best thing to do when you’re really looking to explore. If you want to take in the sights and sounds, get out of the taxi and start walking — a word of advice, though, bring some boots.

In Casablanca, by taking a stroll along the coast by the Hassan II Mosque, you will probably encounter young couples holding hands and enjoying each other’s company. Or you might see men who sit alone and gaze at the breathtaking Atlantic Ocean as the waves strike the shore — perhaps imagining what life is like on the other side.

By wandering down the busy boulevards of the city center, you will come across men and women of different ages, mingling over a cup of Moroccan mint tea and having a bite to eat, or perhaps even expats in a fancy French brasserie.

Or you might stroll through what is probably Casablanca’s equivalent to the “Orange County,” before heading to Morocco Mall, the largest shopping center in Africa. After which, you might pass by Ain Diab beach to see a young, female surfer as she wipes down her board — yes, not all Arab and Muslim women wear hijabs (headscarves).

Then, when you’re done with all this — and when your legs are probably aching — you might hop along to the medina, or old city, and wander around the many rues (street), having passed the beautiful palm trees that grace the busy roads.

In these streets, by the souq (market), there’s plenty of graffiti that add color to the old white walls of this part of town. Having spotted the street art, and other similar pieces around town, I decided to take some snaps — well, that was until a man started to preach to me about not taking photos for religious reasons (or that’s what I took away from him speaking Moroccan Arabic).

As I said in an earlier , the Middle East — well, and North Africa — is about far more than just bombs and bullets.

*[A version of this article was originally published by .]

The views expressed in this article are the author’s own and do not necessarily reflect 51łÔąĎ’s editorial policy.

Photo Credit: Abul-Hasanat Siddique

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The Ěýand ‘sĚýconstitutional monarchies are the upheaval of the . and , two key allies in the region, are popularly billed as constitutional . The two kingdoms are generally regarded as “islands of stability” in an imploding region that offer consistent support for US in the world, particularly in the realm of regional security.

Although these two kingdoms are separated by over 2,500 miles on opposite ends of the greater Middle East, they are frequently billed as being the same type of regime following a similar strategy of coopting challenges to their ruling system. States like Morocco and Jordan are key because, until now, they have managed to retain a qualitative advantage in the institutional capacity of their respective states, crystallizing the regime’s rule while preserving a sense of legitimacy. It is this model of the state, where the ruling regime is buttressed by legitimacy created from strong state institutions, that will lead to long-term stability in the Middle East.

Morocco and Jordan are held in high regard as of monarchies that will “fade” into a republican, democratic government over time through a commitment to a phased transitional . These constitutional monarchies are believed to have the ability to slowly their societies into a more participatory form of governance, in an effort to instability and rebellion before it devolves into violence. This slow and methodical process of democratization is stated to be a safeguard for the security of these nations while undergirding the social contract between the monarch and the of the people.

Accordingly, these two countries should represent the type of regime that can prevent the bloodshed and radicalization that is associated with the popular revolutions and counterrevolutions that have occurred in the Middle East since December .

The popular legitimacy of the monarchies in Morocco and Jordan has traditionally been based upon a historical and cultural mechanism of deference to a ruler with a very specific type of credential. This is based upon the position of the monarch as a strong and rightly guided commander of their faithful subjects with from the through theĚý, in the case of Morocco, or from the prestige of holding direct descent from the bloodline and tribal lineage of al-Sharif — descendants of the venerated Quraysh tribe, which the prophet was a member of — in the case of Jordan.

˛Ń´Ç°ů´Çł¦ł¦´Ç’s , according to this metric, is the Ěý(Leader of the Faithful) presiding over a strong state that has since the 17^th century and which enjoys significant international backing and security assistance. Moroccans are believed to view the current king as being more tolerant of open political discussion than his father, enjoying wider popular support while still exerting power over his country. Jordan’s claims descent from the Prophet Muhammad through the Hashemite clan, a subgroup of the Quraysh tribe, whose rule extended from Jordan to and prior to the founding of the modern Jordanian state.

King Abdullah / Flickr

A fundamental element of Jordanian nationalism asserts the symbolic potency of the history of the Hashemite monarchy’s important and esteemed tribal lineage as the sociopolitical of its kingdom. Despite the mounting internal economic and demographic and external political pressures that have been caused by the , the rapid growth of Amman as a regional center of — and as the country of for hundreds of thousands of people fleeing conflict in neighboring Iraq and Syria — Jordan has thus far remained stable, indicating the potential for a long-term and enduring monarchical regime presided over by the Hashemite dynasty. Although Jordan operates an efficient and active internal security service, the economic and demographic pressure of high youth unemployment, widespread economic inequality and the growing antipathy of the monarchy’s traditional Arab tribal constituency toward it place increasing stress on Jordanian sociopolitics.

Emphasizing the importance of stability in Morocco and Jordan, in 2014, the (GCC) voted to its membership to include these two constitutional monarchies. The promise of much needed financial aid from the GCC could be enough of an incentive for both Jordan and Morocco to seriously consider joining. Most important to the GCC countries is that Morocco and Jordan are considered to have excellent security services, with long track records of aggressively confronting domestic Islamist and challenges to their rule. Both countries are also enthusiastic participants in the ongoing US-led coalition air campaign against the (IS).

The Islamic State as a Legitimacy Challenge

The maturation of IS into a quasi-state, however, challenges the legitimacy of these two constitutional monarchical regimes. The leader of IS, the self-declared “Caliph Ibrahim” — aka — claims to have similar tribal lineage to the Prophet Muhammad and has self-styled as the Leader of the Faithful of the umma (global Muslim community). Baghdadi’s assertion is that his rule is an inevitably successful, divinely guided world mission that is authentic to the cultural and sociopolitical traditions of the Arab people. The cultural mechanisms of legitimacy that are cultivated by the Moroccan and Jordanian monarchies may not be a powerful enough argument against the appeal of the Islamic revolution led by IS’ caliph.

King Mohammed VI / Flickr

As a self-declared Hashemite with descent from the Prophet Muhammad, a religious scholar and a successful military commander, Baghdadi offers an alternative role model for frustrated, politically active Islamists and Salafists in Morocco and Jordan. Baghdadi’s “Islamic State” continues to expand by building state-like institutions in eastern Syria, despite battlefield losses in Iraq that have for the time being curbed its growth there. IS’ setbacks on the battlefield in Iraq are more accurately described as operational, not strategic.

The militant Salafist group is slowly, but surely, accepting the allegiance of like-minded organizations throughout the trans-Sahara region, including in the , the Shura Council for Islamic Youth in Derna and the “Fezzan Province” militia in . In time, IS’ ability to access the trans-Sahara network of smuggling and jihadist activity from Mauritania to the Sinai will give it another line of access to ˛Ń´Ç°ů´Çł¦ł¦´Ç’s population.

For these reasons, Jordan and Morocco will continue to be important front lines to contain IS. Jordan is at an important location at the crossroads of the and the , and it is positioned as Saudi Arabia’s northern flank against the expansion of IS. ˛Ń´Ç°ů´Çł¦ł¦´Ç’s relationship to Europe in terms of its close economic ties to the European Union and diaspora communities in and represents the southern flank of Europe. and Amman are active security partners in trans-national security agreements impacting their wider regions of the Middle East. A successful containment strategy will necessitate bulwarks, like Morocco and Jordan, in order to limit the penetration of IS into Europe or Saudi Arabia, respectively.

A strong indicator that the foundations of these monarchical systems are less secure than they had appeared is the flow of jihadists from Morocco and Jordan into Syria to fight under Baghdadi’s command. Morocco and Jordan are some of the exporters of foreign fighters to Syria, with the former contributing 1,500 jihadists and the latter more than 2,000. There are a number of reasons why rural and urban and join IS, particularly disenfranchised youth. These include scarcity in economic opportunity at home, severe political discontent with their monarchical regimes, the search for adventure and a pan-Islamic desire to fight against what they view as the murderous Syrian government. A common theme in the foreign fighter phenomenon spanning multiple continents, however, is the growing potency of militant Salafism.

In Morocco and Jordan, where tough counterterrorism initiatives have landed scores of Salafists in prison, momentum generated from the Arab Spring and the success of IS-led military offenses have infused a new breath of life in Islamist political aspirations. In , prison has become a staging point for enhanced radicalization, enabling Salafist leaders to build deep networks that have since become epicenters of jihadi recruitment. In Jordan, existing Salafist hubs like Ma’an and Zarqa — two of Jordan’s most economically vulnerable areas that consequentially lie along historic routes of transit and commerce — continue to advocate for the of the Jordanian monarchy. Jordan’s geographic proximity to IS’ frontlines and the challenge of accommodating Syrian refugees are additional sources of tension on the Hashemite Kingdom that can be used as recruiting tools for the militant group.

Jordan, for example, has already begun to experience domestic backlash, after an April 2014 amendment to its Anti-Terrorism Law quickly drew that it could be used to silence political opposition in the media. Regardless, continuing to send jihadists to prison will not eliminate the problem and will only continue the cycle of radicalization and jihad. Jordan’s large youth population is also a likely for IS propaganda efforts, undermining the monarchy’s legitimacy and using the promise of generous salaries as enticement to join the militant Salafist organization. Emigration of large quantities of foreign fighters to join IS and similar armed groups — likeĚý affiliate and Jund al-Aqsa in Syria — and the rejuvenation of large Salafist networks seem to suggest that bases of legitimacy are shifting from the old monarchical system to the new IS-branded Islamic caliphate.

The Potential for Destabilization

The most pressing challenge facing these regimes, however, is not the threat of jihadists returning home and setting up shop; rather, it is how these regimes will respond when they do. While Morocco and Jordan can increase security precautions and strengthen counterterrorism measures, doing so could inadvertently alienate seculars by undermining civil liberties and increase the call for domestic reforms. The increasing prevalence of security forces on the streets of cities such as Rabat, and Marrakech in Morocco, and Amman, Zarqa, and Ma’an in Jordan, also can send another pernicious message: the monarchical regime is starting to lose control, and the caliphate’s power is ascending.

The potential for the destabilization of the monarchical regimes in Morocco or Jordan, or both countries, as a result of the long-term efforts of IS and its sophisticated propaganda efforts, presents a strategic dilemma for the United States and its allies in the greater Middle East. Cultural mechanisms of legitimacy that are cultivated by the Moroccan and Jordanian monarchies may not be a powerful enough argument against the appeal of the Islamic revolution led by IS’ caliph. Sooner rather than later, Baghdadi’s arguments will threaten the ideological, cultural underpinning of regimes throughout the region, including those of Morocco and Jordan.

51łÔąĎ is a nonprofit organization dedicated to informing and educating global citizens about the critical issues of our time. PleaseĚýĚýto keep us going.

The views expressed in this article are the author’s own and do not necessarily reflect 51łÔąĎ’s editorial policy.

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I live in an affluent, middle-class area of with a number of fancy 4x4s and sports cars. People who live here clearly have money. If you walk 20 minutes in one direction, you will reach Casablanca’s “Knightsbridge,” and if you walk 20 minutes in the other direction, you will arrive at the city’s answer to the “Orange County.”

Yet going back to where I live in Casablanca, it is striking that despite the flash cars and purchasing power of the town’s many residents, around the corner from my apartment there are people living in what looks like a derelict construction site. They hang their clothes out to dry, sit around to eat and also sleep there — men, women and children.

Perhaps they are rural migrants who can’t afford urban city accommodation prices and don’t have a job. But, as I stated in a recent , the disparity in social classes in — as with many countries in the developing world — is striking.

On the one hand, the danger that poor, Moroccan face when moving to a metropolis is that they won’t be able to afford the higher living costs — this is the same situation in the developing and developed worlds. On the other hand, moving to more urbanized surroundings has its perks in the quality of life indicators such as transport, health care and schools.

In fact, I recently met a young man from on a train heading from to Casablanca. A man from the old city, he was looking to “reinvent” himself in the search for a new job and just needed to get away from the day-to-day life in Fez. We instantly connected and discussed a variety of random things from youth and entrepreneurship to The Matrix — a “” or cultural exchange moment, as Yasmine El Baggari, a young, budding Moroccan , might call it.

In Morocco, rural migrants may be forced to endure poverty in small towns in the south, have inadequate access to basic services such as safe drinking water and live far away from suitable schools. In a globalized world where access to information is made easy with the Internet and satellite television, these migrants can see how people live in places such as Casablanca, Rabat and .

In fact, this is clearly the case with migrants from sub-Saharan , who travel to countries such as Morocco, and , and illegally jump on a boat to southern , swayed by the attraction of a better way of life in a distant land — and many of them die on the way due to overcrowding.

In a nation of 33 millionĚýpeople, over 400,000 MoroccanĚýchildrenĚýdrop out of school every year. This is striking for a country that carries so much potential in its youth.

With high illiteracy rates in Morocco, rural migrants traveling to the big city are at risk of not finding a suitable job and ending up homeless. As early as 2011, ˛Ń´Ç°ů´Çł¦ł¦´Ç’s official adult rate stood at only 67%, one of the lowest in the Arab world. While this statistic in itself is alarming, El Baggari’s field research in Morocco suggests the figure may be even lower. As she in 51łÔąĎ: “In 1960, the estimated illiteracy rate among the Moroccan population was 87%. Today, that number has, encouragingly, decreased to approximately 56%.”

While the youth literacy shows signs of improvement — despite a large gap between males and females — many children in Morocco fail to finish school. is free and compulsory from the age of 6-15, and 95% of children are enrolled in school. However, to the United States Agency for International Development (USAID): “Drop-out rates are still high and only 53 percent of students enrolled in middle school continue on to high school and less than 15 percent of first grade students are likely to graduate from high school.” In a nation of 33 million , over 400,000 Moroccan drop out of school every year. This is striking for a country that carries so much potential in its youth.

As a Moroccan analyst recently told me, children in rural areas may have to travel as far as ten kilometers just to attend school. So when they are unable to go, they fall behind in their learning. Or if they are from a poor family, they are unlikely to finish school, since education is costly when it comes to learning material, travel and food. In the end, they may feel that school is a waste of time and drop out. Moreover, if their parents are unemployed, rural Moroccan youth may start working to make some cash and support their family — perhaps selling their wares down the street or shining shoes, as you often see around the country.

The young man I met on that train from Rabat to Casablanca received an education and I hope he finds a suitable job in the big city. But for other migrants who aim to hop on a train and travel to the busy urban boulevards, they must finish their education before thinking about moving to a metropolis. And, more importantly, they need better guidance from the government and civil society organizations, so they don’t end up living in a derelict construction site in Casablanca.

*[This article was originally published by .]

The views expressed in this article are the author’s own and do not necessarily reflect 51łÔąĎ’s editorial policy.

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As around the world mark Eid al-Adha, is building itself up for the big feast. This is my first time in a Muslim-majority country on Eid and the vibe is warm, hospitable and friendly. In , ˛Ń´Ç°ů´Çł¦ł¦´Ç’s largest city, there is anticipation as families and friends get together for the holiday that begins on October 5 in the country.

Eid al-Adha, a festival that commemorates Abraham’s willingness to sacrifice his son in obedience to God, is a time for prayer, fun and feasts. Just like , Hanukkah and Thanksgiving, it’s a time to be thankful and spend precious moments with loved ones.

On “Eid Eve,” Casablanca’s streets are busy — families out shopping, young couples spending time together and children running around. With mothers and fathers in a rush to buy presents and food, the medina and other neighborhoods around town are more packed than ever. Stall owners in the souq (market) shout out their best offers, in a bid to entice last minute shoppers. Morocco certainly has its fair share of last minute shoppers, just like the late ones on Christmas Eve.

Around Casablanca, whichever street you walk down, you’ll probably stumble upon “pop-up” sheep stalls. Yes, there are pop-up stalls that are selling sheep, calves and cows. Ironically, one of these stalls has turned a burger shop into a temporary outlet with about a dozen or so animals inside, as fathers turn up with their children to haggle a price — it’s actually amusing watching a child run away from a sheep.

Once bought, the animal is loaded onto a small truck and taken home, before being slaughtered for a feast — an act that is supposed to commemorate Abraham’s willingness to sacrifice his son, Ishmael. Now, I am not a vegetarian — far from it, I love my kebabs too much — but I really wonder what goes through the poor sheep’s mind at that point. Nonetheless, Eid al-Adha in Morocco is certainly a moment full of joy, love and laughter.

Inequality in North Africa

In the backdrop of this, however, you cannot help but notice the poor: The people who sit at the side of the street in no shoes and tatty clothes; those who rummage through the trash in the hope of finding food; mothers who stand outside mosques begging for spare change, as they need to feed their children; or young men who shine shoes to earn a buck or two.

Due to a variety of reasons, including migration from rural towns to urban cities, there are sizeable populations in each of these countries that live in poverty. When poor people living in rural areas move to a metropolis like Rabat, Tunis, Tripoli or Cairo, they will continue to live in unbearable conditions but with different surroundings.

In Morocco, as with other countries in , inequality is striking. In Casablanca, you might walk along one street and see a flashy Maserati, only to walk down another to see a homeless man sleeping on the floor with derelict buildings around him — such drastic and differing conditions in the quality of lifeĚýare shocking. While 1.7 million moved out of over the past decade, there still remains a visible divide between the haves and the have-nots. Without tackling wider socioeconomic issues in the correct manner, including illiteracy rates and an education system that needs a complete overhaul, there is a clear risk of poverty increasing instead of decreasing.

Morocco is not alone here. In , and , a disparity in wealth was a key factor behind the uprisings in 2010-11. According to , Egypt’s poverty rate stood at over 26% in 2012-13. Due to a variety of reasons, including migration from rural towns to urban cities, there are sizeable populations in each of these countries that live in poverty. When poor people living in rural areas move to a metropolis like Rabat, Tunis, Tripoli or Cairo, they will continue to live in unbearable conditions but with different surroundings. In fact, there are many Moroccan women who move from small villages to cities such as Casablanca, only to find out that they can’t put food on their children’s plate — some of these women even end up in as a result.

The Moroccan government must ensure that rural migrants are well-prepared before moving to urban cities. While MoroccoĚýisn’t the richest of the bunch, governmental and nongovernmental organizations are required to educate citizens in rural regions, so they are able to find suitable jobs in cities such as Rabat and Casablanca. Initiatives in empowering women, education and entrepreneurship will be key. If left untreated, underlying problems that lead to poverty willĚýresult in a continuation of inequality that could spiral out of control.

The views expressed in this article are the author’s own and do not necessarily reflect 51łÔąĎ’s editorial policy.

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Jean is a young African student, hailing from the Ivory Coast, and now living, studying, and working in Rabat, . He claims he has never been the victim of racial slurs, and has never felt discriminated against. “Thank GOD,” he said in an interview with 51łÔąĎ, “I’ve never been discriminated against, and that will never happen.” Unfortunately, Jean is among the minority who share that sentiment.

For decades, Morocco has been a popular destination for Sub-Saharan Africans to migrate in search of employment and education. ˛Ń´Ç°ů´Çł¦ł¦´Ç’s proximity to makes it a favorable tourist destination, and its multilingual heritage bodes well for migrants from African francophone nations. Since the the number of students and laborers from African countries has increased as rapidly as the African refugees fleeing conflict, seeking refuge in Morocco. Historically, many migrants’ final destination was Europe, but with latter’sĚýown economic problems, their final destination is often ˛Ń´Ç°ů´Çł¦ł¦´Ç’s largest cities, Casablanca, Fes, Tangier, Marrakesh or Rabat.

Transit Country

When Morocco became a frequent “” country for Sub-Saharan migrants in the 1990s, the Moroccan government issued “coordinated security measures and border management” in order to curb the number of migrants entering and leaving the country. Some of these efforts resulted in police violence against migrants in attempt to control the borders, and while some migrants were able to complete their journey across the border, many remained in Morocco or were deported. Those that remained were often marginalized by not only the government, which until recently did not provide any form of legal protection for unregistered inhabitants of Morocco, but also socioeconomic marginalization. Many, for lack of financial resources, were forced to live in bidonvillesĚýor slums outside of many Moroccan cities. Human Rights Watch many of these sites where migrants often lived in “tents improvised from sticks, branches, and plastic tarps” meant to house several families.

With the significant increase in migrants,who settled in Morocco rather than pass through, there also came a shift in the Moroccan workforce. A number of Sub-Saharan migrants entered the informal workforce, securing jobs as laborers in construction, domestic service, or similar work; however, the nature of the informal sector — jobs that often paid under the table, required no government oversight, nor were they regulated by labor restrictions — did well to keep the growing migrant population marginalized from Moroccan political life and society. Often lacking proper legal status, many Sub-Saharan migrants then became the frequent target of racism, discrimination, and violence in Morocco — Moroccan society ferociously rejecting the migrant’s alien culture, religions, and customs.

Public discourse only perpetuated the notion of an ”alien” culture imposing itself on Moroccan society, presupposing that Morocco consisted of a homogenous population. In 2012, “the cover of the Moroccan Maroc Hebdo represented sub-Saharan migrants as “the Black ,” suggesting that they increase drug trafficking, prostitution, and pose a human and security problem. Additionally, many Moroccan public spoke out to express similar sentiments, expressing that African migrants increased unemployment among Moroccans, which is estimated to be as of early 2014, and vowing to take measures to further close off the formal sector to non-Moroccans.

The “Black Danger” issue of Maroc Hebdo cited ˛Ń´Ç°ů´Çł¦ł¦´Ç’s Interior Ministry’s figures, putting the number of illegal sub-Saharan living in Morocco at 10,000, while human rights organizations put the number closer to 15,000. Other controversial estimates by the Moroccan Home Office estimates 25,000-45,000 irregular migrants are present in the country. The thousands of migrants living in Morocco encounter daily racism at all levels of society. On the streets, it is not uncommon to hear “ about the fear of having a black baby, about black smell, and about women using a harmful, cheap face cream that whitens the skin.” The abuse extends beyond the streets, however; recent of Moroccan security forces emerged of systematic physical abuse of migrants in the northeastern part of Morocco.

The difficulty that Sub-Saharan migrants face in entering the formal workforce, gaining legal status, or merely staying in Morocco voluntarily is perpetuated by a society governed by racial hierarchy.

A series of violent attacks against migrants made international headlines in the past few months. Human Rights Watch the cases of young men who were forced over the Moroccan border into by Moroccan security authorities, police raids of unofficial migrant camps in the areas outside of Oujda and Nador in northeastern Morocco where police destroyed migrant’s temporary housing, looted their belongings, and arrested and then forcefully deported them, overlooking judicial due process under the law.

State Efforts and Complicity

However, the law falls short where the government fails to protect those under it. Early this year, the Moroccan government the offices for the regularization of migrants. The law stipulates that Sub-Saharan migrants are able to obtain residence permits as well as access to education, healthcare, and other public services. Despite efforts from the government to further integrate migrants as productive members of Moroccan society, the abuse did not subside.

In response to increased marginalization and institutionalized racism, the migrant community united to support each other. Jean spoke of the harmony that exists between the migrant students and workers, all from different countries all over Africa. He said: “There is understanding, solidarity because we are all strangers in a land that is not ours.” A migrant-community civil society to emerge in Morocco, composed of human rights organizations and support groups such as the Association Beni Znassen pour la Culture, ĚýleĚýDĂ©veloppement et la SolidaritĂ© () and the Groupe antiraciste de dĂ©fense et d’accompagnement des Ă©trangers et migrants () — providing assistance in advocating for migrant rights and providing access to public services such as housing, healthcare, and legal assistance. Initiatives for migrants to support other migrants, however, do little to ease the lack of integration of immigrants into Moroccan society.

As it stands, the situation that migrants in Morocco are facing is caught between the state’s efforts to legally integrate the African community into Moroccan society, and the state’s complicity in permitting societal discrimination. The difficulty that Sub-Saharan migrants face in entering the formal workforce, gaining legal status, or merely staying in Morocco voluntarily is perpetuated by a society governed by racial hierarchy. Moroccan media and culture all lend to the discourse of an “inferior race,” which trickles down to the streets, schools, and labor market.

Jean’s experiences represent, perhaps, the future of Morocco, if the law were to change society. However, racial discrimination is not an inconvenient reality, but a systematic form of abuse that is exacted by all levels of Moroccan society from the government, to security forces, to the average citizen. Although the Moroccan government has recently made concerted efforts to regularize portions of the migrant community in Morocco, motivating substantive social transformation to foster more inclusive social, economic, and political arena will require a targeted effort from the government to initiate top-down social change.

Only the widening of the formal labor market to provide access to more economic opportunities for sub-Saharan migrants will, in theory, create a shift of migrants seeking integration into Moroccan cities, which may lead to increased presence in the formal economy, education sector, and political life. However, this is not a change that will occur with one government action to regularize some undocumented migrants. The Moroccan state and society must be of one mind to generate social transformation, but this is a process that will occur slowly, if the current discourse surrounding the migrant community in Morocco is any indication of the immediate future.

An anonymous interviewed by a French newspaper, highlights the abuse he faces, saying: “often, when I’m just walking down the street, people will call me a �dirty black man’ or call me a slave. Young Moroccans have physically assaulted me on several occasions, for no reason, and passers-by who saw this didn’t lift a finger to help me. All my friends are black and they have all had similar experiences.”

The views expressed in this article are the author’s own and do not necessarily reflect 51łÔąĎ’s editorial policy.
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When this author spoke to Ambassador David Welch, who served as the Assistant US Secretary of State for Near Eastern Affairs from 2005-2008, about the situation between and the Polisario, the ambassador said:Ěý“…we [the US] didn’t think the most constructive way to address the status of the Western was by the piecemeal use of resolutions of one sort or another, to accomplish the goal of a movement [the Polisario] that we – laugh – we didn’t agree with, and with whose policies we had some difficulties.”

After further probing about what the disagreement with the Polisario – the Sahrawi leadership – involved, the ambassador stated that “we think the future of the Western Sahara lies within Morocco.” While the US still endorses the self-determination of the Sahrawis, that endorsement really includes anything short of independence. However, this has not always been the case. As Congressman Edward R. Royce in a hearing before the Committee on Foreign Affairs in 2007: “Once, the UN and US position was, frankly, to back a free and fair referendum on independence. Our position is now to back an autonomy plan.” This shift in the US position appears to coincide with a major effort by Morocco. The most significant impact can be seen in the push by some members of the US Congress to not only undermine the procedural component of self-determination – a referendum resulting in independence, autonomy or integration – but also to take the step of Ěýfurther alienating the Polisario.

Former Congressman Lincoln Diaz-Balart, for example, before retiring from Congress in 2011, the Polisario’s ambition as one aimed at setting up a “fake, illusory microstate that is financed by and propped up by Castro.” After retiring from Congress, Balart maintained his relationship with Moroccan lobbyists and has set up his own lobbying firm called Western Hemisphere Strategies. The firm was hired by a Moroccan NGO called the Moroccan American Cultural Center, which has circulated aimed at connecting the Polisario with Cuba and – a claim Balart has endorsed.

By successfully spreading the image of ties between the Polisario, Cuba and al-Qaeda, Morocco is able to leverage those alleged ties to its advantage. It can portray itself as fighting terrorists, and this has resulted in the wavering regarding the expansion of the UN Mission for the Referendum in Western Sahara () mandate to include the observance of the human rights situation. The mandate of the mission, which was established in 1991, was extended in April 2014 for another year, but despite the Polisario’s efforts a human rights monitoring mechanism was not included in the mission’s mandate. MINURSO remains one of only two UN peacekeeping operations in the world without a human rights monitoring mechanism.

At present, there is no United Nations Security Council (UNSC) resolution calling the Moroccan presence in the Western Sahara illegal and demanding a withdrawal. The closest to such a measure, UNSC resolution , was passed on November 6, 1975, the day the Green March into the Western Sahara occurred – the resolution called on the Moroccan king to withdraw all participants from the march, which saw approximately 350,000 Moroccans and 20,000 troops advance into the Western Sahara. On the Moroccan side, the aim of the march was to the territory colonized by . Subsequent resolutions and agreements have emphasized the rights of the Sahrawis to self-determination and the need for holding a referendum, with the substantive issues not explicitly addressed.

Third Party Investments In The Status Quo

One of the means at the disposal of the occupier to continue the occupation is by having other states invest in the status quo. When this author asked about the implications of having US hydro carbon exploration companies operate off the shore of the Western Sahara, Ambassador Welch stated: “I think that Rabat would consider that Moroccan territory […and] those companies that are operating there, I presume have accommodated themselves to that.” The ambassador further explained that foreign investments in the Sahara could benefit the Sahrawis. From the outset, some third party states were willing to invest in the Sahara’s resources while under Moroccan control.

When Spain decided to cede the Sahara to Morocco, for example, it did so in exchange for fishery rights and shares in the phosphate mining industry in the Western Sahara. These shares were by the Spanish state. The phosphate mine Spain owned shares in is Bou-Craa, the largest in the Western Sahara. Ěýowned 35% of the industry’s shares. This situation is comparable to the Australian position regarding their exploitation of oil resources in the East Timor gap, which was mentioned above.

The limits of self-determination within the colonial context depend on the success of the occupying power in legitimating the occupation, getting other states to invest in the status quo and quelling the people’s effective control over the territory through the use of force.

With the absence of a UN Security Council resolution calling for divestment from the Sahara, private companies have teetered. , a US based energy company, has engaged in offshore oil exploration since 2001, but decided in 2005 to not renew its contract for drilling and exploring rights due to the piling on the corporation. In the meantime, Kosmos Energy, another American oil and gas exploration , has picked up where Kerr-McGee left off.

Use Of Force

Another means at the disposal of the occupier to maintain the status quo is the use of force. In addition to making it difficult for the Polisario fighters to cross the , Omeima Abdeslam, the Polisario representative to the UN and Switzerland, kept mentioning the overwhelming and disproportionate use of measures by the Moroccans to maintain control of the territory. She expressed her frustration with the Moroccan success in presenting itself as a fighter against terrorism, and explained that in reality Morocco is more of a police state. In her words: “they created this image of themselves as this perfect democracy in North Africa which is not true. I invite you Abdulaziz, you can go to Morocco and you can see for yourself how the Moroccans are suffering from their own policies, from their own “mekhzan” – “mekhzan” is some kind of very archaic way of security who has in its lines more than two million people who are paid just to supervise and to see and to maintain the situation which is not good for neither the Moroccans or the Sahrawis.”

This secret police , sometimes in plain clothes, tried to break up peaceful protests by the Sahrawis in the past.ĚýAs for ˛Ń´Ç°ů´Çł¦ł¦´Ç’s own campaign to gain the favor of the Sahrawis in order to have their pursuit of independence wane, Abdeslam explained that the Moroccan state hasĚý“… tried to buy Sahrawi loyalty from all over the world. They have tried – that’s why there are some divisions within the Polisario Front, [some Sahrawis] have gone back to Morocco [for] the money. Morocco has resources and they use it to buy whatever they find in their way.”

Still, she maintained that the referendum should be pursued, and that those who have defected and acquiesced to Moroccan incentives would join in the move for independence.

The limits of self-determination within the colonial context depend on the success of the occupying power in legitimating the occupation, getting other states to invest in the status quo and quelling the people’s effective control over the territory through the use of force. ˛Ń´Ç°ů´Çł¦ł¦´Ç’s occupation of the territory appears to have succeeded, and the prospects for Sahrawis to include independence as an option on the referendum look dim. What this leaves the Polisario with is either latching on to the formalism of self-determination, and insisting “independence” be included as an option on the referendum; or they could leverage the Morocco Initiative and gain autonomy in the Western Sahara.

Autonomy means more self-government for the Sahrawis short of having the economic, political and legal decision-making authority a fully independent state would have. Given ˛Ń´Ç°ů´Çł¦ł¦´Ç’s success in maintaining the occupation, with no visible signs of any change in the future, this author believes the Polisario should work with Morocco and pursue the autonomy of the Sahara.

The views expressedĚýin this article are the author’s own and do not necessarily reflectĚý51łÔąĎ’sĚýeditorial policy.
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At the beginning of August, the of Mr. and Mrs. with ’s Prime Minister Abdellilah Benkirane and his wife in the White House toured the web and trended on Moroccan and American social media platforms. This picture renewed the public opinion’s interest, that of the West in particular, in the Moroccan prime minister and the party he represents.

The Justice and Development Party (PJD) has been the ruling party in Morocco since November 2011. The party advocates a form of democracy, and has placed economic and legal issues at the core of its platform.ĚýAs for several other newly installed parties in this region, the PJD’s initial ideologies were inspired by ‘s ruling party, the Justice and Development Party (), albeit, nowadays, there are some important differences between the two.ĚýIn the Moroccan case, the party strongly bases its legitimacy on religious principles, unlike the Turkish version which is more firmly rooted in the Turkish post-Ottoman secular tradition.ĚýThe Moroccan party’s ideology is, therefore, more intimately knotted with Islamic tradition.ĚýHowever, this has not prevented the Moroccan PJD from adopting some liberal models of market economy.

A couple of details remain unclear about the party’s identity.ĚýFor example, it is open to questionĚýto what extent the party relies on the (Islamic Law) for its legal doctrine, or what exactly its relation to the is.ĚýBeing a political party with an Islamic basis, the PJD shares some of the same ideologies of the Muslim Brotherhood, but affirms to operate “with different principles.” In February 2013, the Moroccan prime minister and secretary-general of the Justice and Development Party denied that his party belongs to theĚýMuslim Brotherhood, emphasizing that each movement has “its own political thought.”

It is also of note that the Moroccan monarchy is not an eager supporter of the Muslim Brotherhood.ĚýWhen , a Muslim Brotherhood official and the first president of post-January 25 revolution , was ousted from his post, King Mohammed VI of Morocco was the first leader to welcome the interimĚýpresident,Ěý, hailing the Egyptian military for what he called “swift and decisive action.”

The PJD’s Rise To Power

In order to fully understand the PJD, it is important to comprehend the relationship between the party and the monarchy.ĚýMorocco is a country where the monarchy still holds considerable power over political and economic affairs.ĚýAt the end of the French colonial era, Hassan II took charge of developing infrastructure and the overall economy, and through the state apparatus, was effectively the main employer in the country.

Writing forĚý51łÔąĎ, explains that, as the population and general living standards started to increase, so did the Moroccan public sector, which became progressively more bloated and less and less competitive. Advisors claimed that the only way to avoid certain economic collapse was to initiate privatization of national industry.ĚýThereafter, many newly privatized industries ended up in the hands of a small circle of families loyal to the monarchy.

The protests showed that many Moroccans were not satisfied with the PJD’s achievements. They felt that the promises were not being delivered upon.

The aforementioned reforms were insufficient to root out some of the more persistent problems in the Moroccan economy, such as the looming state deficit, lack of economic competitiveness and high unemployment rates.ĚýAs a result, several popular movements sprung out of the general discontent, with many pushing to reform the country into a constitutional monarchy.ĚýIn the push for reform, Morocco was not exempt from the wave of protests that swept through the region during the at the beginning of this decade.

According to Manuel Langendorf, King Mohammed VI by promising a constitutional referendum and, put in motion a reform agenda to promote a more independent judiciary and a more autonomous parliament.ĚýHe also mentions that a number of important powers were still to remain firmly in the hands of the king.ĚýFor example, the power to dissolve parliament, dismiss ministers, call for new elections and the right to rule on a large array of religious and security issues.

The PJD rose to prominence in this period of post-uprisings in Morocco.ĚýThe party won the parliamentary elections of November 2011, and was chosen as the country’s first Islamist prime minister. The party formed a coalition with three other parties, which includes theĚýIndependence Party (Istiqlal), the Popular Movement Party (originally a part of the PJD before it split from it), and the Party of Progress and Socialism (previously the Communist Party), with the aim to reduce unemployment and target an average economic growth rate of 5.5%. A period of relative political and social stability prevailed until May 2012 when trade unions organized mass protests.ĚýIf we at the popularity of the PJD over the past two years, we can in fact notice a trending decline in and around May 2012.

The protests showed that many Moroccans were not satisfied with the PJD’s achievements. They felt that the promises were not being delivered upon.ĚýSome, however, point out that they are doing what they can, and that in many ways their hands are tied.ĚýPolitical analyst Boubakr Jamai, a fellow at Harvard Ash Center and founder of the Moroccan news website Lakome.com, explains that their power is rather limited since many important government functions are controlled by the King. “You cannot claim to have the government,” he , “if you don’t control some important ministries.”

An Ambitious Economic Strategy Turned Bankrupt?

Perhaps for this reason, the PJD has been concentrating its efforts on economic matters.ĚýIn recent years, the nation has embarked on an ambitious drive toward economic liberalization, opening its markets and ports to global trade. International investors, mainly from the , are attracted to what Morocco has to offer in terms of logistics and infrastructure. The has in 475 international companies, and the government is encouraging even more foreign investment.

The PJD believes that Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) plays an important role in job creation and revenue generation. The Moroccan government is thus constantly seeking foreign investors, and implementing different strategies to attract as many as possible.ĚýThe government has offered perks to investors such as income tax breaks, import duty exemptions and cash subsidies. These strategies were implemented under the notion that the positive consequences of FDI, such as job creation and GDP growth, would far outweigh the costs of these concessions.

There are, however, hidden costs to this policy. In particular, the cost of living has increased while unemployment rates have remained high, a mix which by all means has the potential to lead to social frustrations.ĚýThe series of self-immolations that took place in reflect these frustrations. In order to defuse these grievances, and avoid the kind of social unrest that ousted rulers in places like and Egypt, the government has increased public spending. Morocco has spent heavily on energy subsidies and higher public sector salaries in order to counter the effect of inflation and stave off discontent. To do this, the government had to take out a large line of credit from the IMF. Two years ago, the IMF approved aĚý$6.2 billionĚý lineĚýfor Morocco.

According to CPI Financial, donors, ratings agencies and institutional investors allĚýexpectĚýthat by the end of 2014 the fiscal deficit will have contracted by 2.4% of GDP compared to 2012, while the current account deficit would have declined by 3.9% of GDP in the same time frame.

Most observers agree that this kind of spending alone is insufficient to address some of the more deeply rooted institutional problems. In particular, the government has been criticized for moving too slowly on its promised reforms. to political analyst Jamal Farhani, the government is well behind schedule in terms of implementing the provisions of the constitution. Most of the drafted laws have not yet been enacted. The government is also late on implementing the pension fund reform.

According toĚýMorocco World News, the secretary general of Istiqlal, Hamid Chabat that the economic, social and political indexes give clear signs that ˛Ń´Ç°ů´Çł¦ł¦´Ç’s situation is “worrying” and it will be “worse” in the future. He claims that the government is actually diminishing the citizens’ ability to weather economic hardship by allowing the price of staple goods to increase.ĚýChabat added that Morocco, after the government strained the country’s resources with huge amounts of external loans, has become a “hostage” in the hands of international financial institutions.ĚýThis, he says, is pushing the country close to the “precipice” of a national economic crisis. It is worth noting that Chabat is a strong political opponent of Benkirane’s — especially since the dissolution of the government coalition in 2013 — as both have engaged in a lengthy “political row” aiming at ruining the other’s reputation.

Despite such criticisms, the numbers do not lie. According to CPI Financial, donors, ratings agencies and institutional investors all that by the end of 2014 the fiscal deficit will have contracted by 2.4% of GDP compared to 2012, while the current account deficit would have declined by 3.9% of GDP in the same time frame. As a result, external and fiscal financing needs will decline, and be met by the domestic banking system, continuing FDI inflows and donor support.

Riding this wave of economic success, on November 25, 2013, the PJD won the most seats in the parliamentary elections of Morocco. This time, the “new government has a true will for reform and we will keep all the promises we made,” ĚýPrime Minister BenkiraneĚýafter the party’s swearing in. We inĚýThe World PostĚýthat the PJD “will do everything to encourage foreign and domestic investment to create a climate of prosperity.” This period of acceptance and growth lasted up until June 2013, when a political deadlock followed the collapse of the ruling coalition which included both the PJD and Istiqlal.

At the moment, the Party enjoys a very promising position in the Moroccan political landscape, according to a report by the Association of Concerned Africa Scholars.ĚýHicham MnaouarĚý that “historical conditions have provided the party with a suitable environment to achieve some progress … It has adopted a gradual approach to political action, and not conflicted with the Moroccan regimeĚýsince its establishment;Ěýrather it has acknowledged the monarchy of the state and supported the idea of a constitutional monarchy.” Its weakness perhaps, includes a penchant for making promises that are very difficult to deliver upon — for example, the apparent absurdity of trying to open the nation to the global financial system and at the same time keep prices and corruption low.ĚýHowever, as Napolean said, in politics, absurdity is not a handicap.

*[This article was prepared byĚýĚýin collaboration with theĚýĚý(IRGG) of the ESCA School of Management, Casablanca, using web intelligence provided byĚý. The article was published by 51łÔąĎ in partnership withĚýEthnographic Edge.]

The views expressedĚýin this article are the author’s own and do not necessarily reflectĚý51łÔąĎ’sĚýeditorial policy.
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In 1963, the General Assembly listed the Western , at the time a Spanish colony, as a non-self-governing territory. , the administrator of the territory, was supposed to “develop self-government, to take due account of the political aspirations of the peoples, and to assist them in the progressive development of their free political institutions.” More than 50 years have passed since then, during which the Sahrawi leadership proclaimed the Sahrawi Arab Democratic Republic in 1976. Yet the people’s rights are still pending because , which occupied the territory from 1975 on, has resisted the Sahrawi political aspirations, namely their pursuit of independence. As a result, Morocco has exploited the resources in the Sahara while the Sahrawis lacked a political voice in the territory’s administration.

A key issue here is the self-determination of peoples, the watchword during the decolonization period. Self-determination outside of the colonial framework is contentious because it could be and has been interpreted by nationalist groups and other minorities as a right to secession. For this reason, this author addresses the situation in the Western Sahara within the colonial context since the rights in such a context are clear and uncontroversial. The rights in such a context are made up of a procedural right – a referendum resulting in independence, autonomy or integration – and a substantive right, which would include control over the resources in the territory. Although “colonialism” may evoke an image of imperial Europe exploiting other countries’ resources, colonialism is also applicable to this current issue.

To fully understand the situation, it is important recognize the basis of the Sahrawi claims for independence. Moreover, it is necessary to address the occupier’s methods for maintaining a favorable image of the occupation. Such means include legitimizing the occupation by alienating the independence movement – an example is ’s success in portraying the Palestinian Liberation Organization () as either terrorists or a wannabe government; encouraging third-party investment in the occupied territory; and maintaining a strong military relative to the occupied people. These methods can threaten a people’s right to self-determination. For the occupied people, this can result in a negotiated settlement that overlooks either the substantive or the procedural content of their rights or both.

To avoid the loss of all their rights, the Sahrawi leadership needs to compromise on the procedural component. This means being willing to have “independence” taken off the referendum and accept the Moroccan allowing for Sahrawi autonomy. In practical terms, autonomy means more self-government for the Sahrawis short of having the economic, political and legal decision-making authority a fully independent state would have. If the Sahrawi leadership does not accept the initiative, they could risk the continued exploitation of their mineral resources by Morocco. They could also risk becoming an increasingly marginalized group recognized by a dwindling number of states, with a significant refugee situation on their hands.

The Right To Self-Determination

A colonized people’s pursuit of self-determination can rely on a combination of nonviolent resistance, a war of independence or assimilation of the occupiers with the local population. It is important to consider whether the colonialists are only exploiting resources in the territory, or whether they regard the territory as living space in which their own people can settle. This distinction becomes clear when comparing French Algeria with British India; the latter is an example of orthodox colonialism which mainly exploited resources and cheap labor, while the former also used the colonized territory as living space for itsĚýown people.

With the practice of granting independence to colonized territories, coupled with a sense of legal obligation (opinio juris), self-determination emerged as customary international law.

In the case of the Western Sahara, the incentives for Moroccans to work and settle there are strong. According to the US State Department, Moroccans working in the Western Sahara 85% more than their counterparts outside the territory. They are not expected to pay an income or value-added tax, and receive subsidies on many goods and services. In response to this Moroccan settlement policy, the Sahrawis pursued violent resistance as the Algerians did against the French, hoping the settlers, which today dwarf the native Sahrawi population in the Western Sahara by three to one, would flee back to Morocco proper. However, this violent resistance failed, and now the Sahrawi leadership and a sizable portion of the Sahrawi people are living in refugee camps in .

The Sahrawi demands are nothing unexpected – merely the self-determination of their people. The self-determination of peoples is clearly recognized as a principle in the United Nations (UN) . There is on whether the original scope of self-determination in article 1(2) of the charter is legally binding, or whether it is “a statement of a political aim [which does not necessarily] create legal obligations.” Malcolm N. Shaw :Ěý“It is disputed whether the reference to the principle in these very general terms was sufficient to entail its recognition as a binding right, but the majority view is against this.” Regardless of the principle’s original scope in the charter self-determination today has evolved as a right of peoples, as opposed to a general principle, in both treaty and customary law.

The emergence of self-determination as a right is attributable to the UN Charter itself, which, according to Antonio Cassese,ĚýĚýthe “driving force behind the emergence of growing opinion about the importance of self-determination.” Such an opinion was initially expressed through UN General Assembly (UNGA) declarations. UNGA resolution , entitled “Declaration on the Granting of Independence to Colonial Countries and Peoples,” stated that “All peoples have a right to self-determination,” and that by virtue of this right, peoples are entitled to “freely determine their political status.”

Only a day after the passing of resolution 1514, the General Assembly passed resolution , which identified non-self-governing territories as having attained full self-government if they emerged as a sovereign independent state, became associated with an independent state or were integrated into an independent state. Two treaties were subsequently formulated by the UN Commission on Human Rights, which referred to the self-determination of peoples as a right. With the practice of granting independence to colonized territories, coupled with a sense of legal obligation (opinio juris), self-determination emerged as customary international law.

In addition, self-determination encompasses a right to the territory’s material resources. This point was highlighted in one International Court of Justice () case. In response to the Australian contention that Australian exploitation of oil resources in the Timor Gap did not impede the East Timorese from their procedural rights, Judge Rosalyn Higgins characterized this argument as “legal deconstructionism” that would “empty the right of self-determination of any meaningful content.”

The Sahrawis

In 1991, a ceasefire was reached between the Sahrawi leadership, known as the Popular Front for the Liberation of Saguia el-Hamraand RĂ­o de Oro (Polisario), and Morocco. After 16 years of fighting, the two sides agreed upon a settlement plan for the self-determination of the Sahrawis. The Polisario only exercised effective control over one-third of the territory they claimed when the ceasefire was reached. Despite the settlement plan which agreed on the holding of a referendum, the Moroccan government and the Polisario have been unable to agree on who can vote in the referendum determining the status of the Western Sahara as either autonomous, independent or integrated with Morocco. While Morocco wants to include the non-Sahrawis in the territory, the Polisario wants to include only the 74,000 Sahrawis and their descendants.

Essentially, the Sahrawis need to waive part of their procedural rights – a referendum entailing independence, autonomy or integration – in exchange for securing their substantive rights – the administration of the territory and their resources.

Furthermore, the two parties have been unable to agree on the nature of self-determination. While King Hassan II of Morocco appeared to be receptive to the notion of self-determination entailing autonomy, integration or independence of the Sahrawis, the independence option died with him in 1999. His successor, King Mohammed VI, rejected independence as a possibility and replaced it with the less explicit “self-determination.” This was by the Moroccan Initiative in the Western Sahara, which was prepared by the Royal Advisory Council for Saharan Affairs (CORCAS) in 2006, and is essentially an autonomy plan for the Sahrawis. According to the initiative:

“The autonomous government would control local administration, local police, education, cultural development, economic development, regional planning, tourism, investment, trade, public works and transportation, housing, health, sports and social welfare. It would have taxing authorities to support these functions and would continue to receive funding from the central budget as well. It would be able to establish foreign regional trade relations offices and would have consultative rights on other sovereign foreign agreements affecting the region.”

The Polisario, however, rejected the initiative and has maintained that independence must be included as an option on the referendum.ĚýToday the Polisario remain the administrators of several refugee camps located in Algeria. According to the UN Refugee Agency (), some 90,000 Sahrawis live in these refugee camps. By rejecting the autonomy plan, the Polisario would concede the immediate return of those refugees to their land and the administration of the territory. They would concede the revenue from exploited mineral and fishery resources to Morocco.

So the question here is whether the Polisario should reconsider their situation and agree to the autonomy plan. As of now, there are several reasons why they should accept it:

(1)ĚýĚý The fighting has ended, and with the of the sand berm and a desert laden with , it is difficult to think of a scenario similar to French Algeria. Instead, the model of South Africa is more feasible. Whereas Algerians pursued the expulsion of the settlers, South Africans sought a one-state solution that included the settlers.

(2)ĚýĚý Unlike the situation in , in which Israel is seeking to maintain a “Jewish state,” Morocco must accommodate different peoples within its borders. In fact, if there were a case for ethnic preferences, it would be for the Arabic language and peoples over the majority Amazigh, which is due to the king’s own background. This means that the identity of the citizen that Morocco would want the people to have is relatively inclusive of the Sahrawis and their linguistic preference.

(3)ĚýĚý Following the precedent of a culturally heterogeneous state, Morocco has encouraged the Sahrawi refugees to return.

(4)ĚýĚý With the immediate return and development of the autonomous region, the Sahrawis can ensure that their identity is preserved. This means preventing the assimilation of the Sahrawi people into the broader Moroccan identity.

Essentially, the Sahrawis need to waive part of their procedural rights – a referendum entailing independence, autonomy or integration – in exchange for securing their substantive rights – the administration of the territory and their resources.

The views expressedĚýin this article are the author’s own and do not necessarily reflectĚý51łÔąĎ’sĚýeditorial policy.
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According to theĚý, is the top recipient of foreign direct investment (FDI) in , with as the leading contributor.ĚýMorocco has become a coveted investment destination in the region due to its political stability, steady economic growth, strategic geographic position and thriving ports.

Free Trade Zone

The Moroccan government started to develop the Tanger Med port in the early 2000s, designating it as the centerpiece for future FDI in the country. Despite its advantageous location, northern Morocco was relatively underdeveloped in terms of infrastructure, and the project was designed to fill this gap. The government envisions the port as becoming the largest in . Located less than ten miles from , it is already one of the busiest ports in the African continent. Authorities expect it to have an 8 million container capacity by 2017.

In tandem with the port, the government is also seeking to further develop its Free Trade Zone in the region. The Tangier Exportation Free Zone is a protected free trade environment, where companies from around the world can operate tax-free. It functions as an industrial platform that offers numerous logistical benefits.ĚýCovering 345 hectares of land at the junction of the biggest maritime route in the world, several multinational companies have invested in this zone.ĚýĚýhas recently poured in $1.5 billion.

Renault’s interests in Morocco are primarily formed by its desire to consolidate control of the Moroccan automotive market, and by the unique opportunities afforded to it by operating out of Tangier. Renault is currently the dominant company in the Moroccan car market. The Dacia and Renault brands, both owned and operated by Renault, account for 20% and 17% of the market, respectively. Renault already operates a plant in Casablanca, and the increased output out of this new plant will allow the company to maintain its market share as the Moroccan automotive industry grows.

However, this plant serves a far greater purpose for Renault than simply maintaining control of the Moroccan market. The Tangier industrial zone offers a number of significant benefits for industrial operations. First and foremost, Renault’s plant is located very close to the Tanger Med port, allowing for easy and efficient shipment of goods. This port is situated in a key geostrategic location, at the intersection between Africa and Europe.

Renault plans to leverage the location of this port, as it will ship to Europe, Turkey, Africa and South America from Tangier. Furthermore, the port has developed a number of logistics and post-processing services dedicated to the automotive industry, which add greater value to Renault’s operations in Tangier.

Moroccan Economy

The Renault plant is also of great importance to ˛Ń´Ç°ů´Çł¦ł¦´Ç’s interests in relation to their overall economic standing, and the role that Tanger Med is designed to play in their economy moving forward.

This dramatic increase in Moroccan production is easy to explain. Actu-Eco reports that automobile factory workers in France are paid an average of $40.72 per hour. In Morocco, salaries for the same work are as low as $6.10 per hour. The Renault plant alone has created over 6,000 direct jobs and 30,000 indirect jobs.

The development of the port has not been without problems. Labor strikes slowed the construction process, and the global economic crisis served to delay the expansion of projects in the region. ˛Ń´Ç°ů´Çł¦ł¦´Ç’s economy was also negatively affected through the decreased levels of trade with France and other European Union countries, which resulted from the poor performance of these developed economies throughout and in the aftermath of the financial crisis.

The presence of such a well-known European brand like Renault has helped boost the image of the Tanger Med area as a legitimate destination for foreign investment. Renault was one of the first companies to enter the space and has been very successful since establishing its operations. In 2013, Renault experienced anĚý81% Ěýin the number of vehicles transported through the Tanger Med port. The presence of a successful Renault operation signals that the region can facilitate and catalyze successful business. This serves to attract even more FDI to the country.ĚýAs such, it is essential for Morocco to support the continued success of the Renault plant.

The win-win nature of this relationship has meant that over the past three years, the French automobile giant has moved much of its operations out of Europe and into Morocco. According to the Committee of French Automobile Manufacturers, Renault produced over 100,000 vehicles at its Tangier factory in 2013 alone. That is 485 vehicles per day, roughly twice the number of cars built there in 2012.

The French news corporationĚýĚýclaims that Renault will continue to increase production at the factory, in hopes of eventually producing 400,000 vehicles a year. Not incidentally, the Renault stock price has performed remarkably in the past two years, far outpacing the CAC 40. The French benchmark has risen by 20%, while the carmaker’s stock (RNO.PA) has grown 60%.

This dramatic increase in Moroccan production is easy to explain. Actu-Eco reports that automobile factory workers in France are paid an average of $40.72 per hour. In Morocco, salaries for the same work are as low as $6.10 per hour. The Renault plant alone has created over 6,000 direct jobs and 30,000 indirect jobs, according to Tanger Automotive City. A recent article inĚýEl PaisĚýclaims that migrant workers are flooding into Tangier from all over Morocco and the rest of Africa.

Challenges for Tangier

Economic development has been accompanied by a sharp rise in the population of Tangier, which has doubled over the past 20 years and now numbers more than 1 million inhabitants. This has led to a number of complications. While many come to the city for employment, many others see the ports as a crossing point into Europe. A good number of migrants are without documents or economic means, and are forced to undertake prolonged stays in the city. Some neighborhoods have been transformed into multicultural refuges, resulting in growing friction with the police.

Moroccan authorities, eager to focus on the economic development of the region, are addressing these problems. The governor of Tangier, Mohammed Yaakoubi, has recognized the need to meet the challenges arising from the demographic boom.ĚýIn November 2013, the government said an “exceptional operation” would take place in the new year to sort out the status of the tens of thousands of sub-Saharan Africans residing illegally in Morocco. The government had promised to revise its immigration policy in response to concerns expressed by King Mohammed VI about the conditions of migrants in the country.

As long as international companies continue to be drawn to the region, so too will the many workers who will come to fill those factories. As the port continues to see an increase in traffic for Europe, more and more individuals will seek to cross those crucial ten miles. Authorities need to address these issues in tandem.

*[This article was prepared byĚýĚýin collaboration with theĚýĚý(IRGG) of the ESCA School of Management, Casablanca, using web intelligence provided byĚý. The article was published by 51łÔąĎ in partnership withĚýEthnographic Edge.]

The views expressed in this article are the author’s own and do not necessarily reflect 51łÔąĎ’s editorial policy.

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While there has been much debate within the international community over what should be done in Syria, France has adopted a more assertive, if not , position. From the very beginning of the Syrian conflict, the French government was the the Syrian National Coalition in November 2012. It was also the first government to promise arms to the rebels.

Later, French President François Hollande to “punish” the Assad regime, while most of his European counterparts remained very skeptical of such an intervention. Nonetheless, the French government finally decided not to deliver arms to the insurgents. Following the on Syria’s chemical weapons in September 2013, the idea of a military intervention was abandoned.

Meanwhile, in Africa, France launched a military intervention in Mali in January 2013 and has been involved in the Central African Republic since December 2013.

To many, French foreign policy seems to be quite messy and inconsistent. However, there are very rational explanations behind it that can justify these mixed foreign policy decisions. France’s strategy in Syria — and elsewhere — has been shaped by long-standing and well-identified interests.

Nonetheless, by promoting France’s interests, President Hollande has probably done more harm than good to his own country as well as to Europe and, above all, the Syrian people.

Drivers of French Foreign Policy

France’s strategy in Syria has been defined according to a set of three key drivers. The first is related to French interests in the Middle East. Following its colonial legacy and historical tradition, France has always conducted, especially since Charles de Gaulle’s time in office, a pro-active policy toward Arab states. The French “Arab policy” has taken the form of economic, military and diplomatic relations with Morocco, Tunisia, Algeria, Libya, Syria, Iraq, Saudi Arabia and, more recently, Qatar.

Thus, what has sometimes been called France’s “aggressive” policy on Syria is nothing but a reflection of its well-established interests in the region. France has certain ; before the war, it also expected to use the country as a “hub” for oil and gas transit.

In addition to that, France has deep in neighboring Lebanon. Since the end of the mandate period in the 1930s, Paris has constantly sought to maintain and develop strong diplomatic and cultural ties with Lebanon in order to establish its influence in the region.

Lastly, Syria takes on a prominent geostrategic dimension, especially in respect to its role within the Russian-Iranian axis. Indeed, the three countries share a common interest in counterbalancing Western powers on the world stage. They have been developing a strong relationship for the last decade. France’s influence and interests in the Middle East are threatened by this new geopolitical axis.

This explains why the French government was initially willing to deliver arms to rebels in Syria. It eventually backed down for three reasons. First, French experts feared the delivery of arms would trigger a flare-up in the entire region. The had already proven that it was really hard to control arms flows after their delivery. Second, following the stagnation of the conflict, it became unclear whether arms would benefit the “right” opposition groups or the jihadists, against which France has been fighting for the last decade. Third, France was forced to abandon its project due to the reticence of the international community.

A second driver of France’s foreign policy is its desire to be recognized as a global power. While such a claim was relevant under de Gaulle and even before his time, the role of France on the international stage has become unclear since then.

A subsequent priority for French leaders was and still is to guarantee France’s independence in decision-making. This explains why France had been so assertive in promoting a military strike against the Syrian government. It wanted to show that it could take the initiative on matters as important as the Syrian crisis. Paris had to step back eventually.

Once again, domestic tensions arose as the possibility of another military intervention was mentioned. Further, the compromise found by Russia and the US regarding a deal on Syria’s chemical weapons made a military intervention obsolete.

External factors are not the only elements that have shaped Hollande’s strategy in Syria. Logically, the foreign policy of any given country, and France makes no exception, is intrinsically connected to, if not determined by, the situation at the domestic level.

Ever since Hollande became president in 2012, he has faced growing challenges at home, especially regarding the economic situation. Despite the measures he took, unemployment remains high and economic growth has barely recovered. He has not been able to satisfy neither the left-wing, which sees him as having reneged on his electoral promises, nor the right-wing, which blames him for not going far enough. Overall, Hollande is often depicted as ineffective, not to say feeble.

This explains France’s current policy in Syria in three ways. First, by focusing on serious issues abroad, Hollande attempts to distract from the problems at home. Second, the idea that France has a significant role to play in international affairs enjoys a . Third, for Hollande, being a on the international stage clears himself of being too soft on the domestic scene and gives him a bit more legitimacy and credibility.

Thus, France’s policy toward Syria is not irrational. It is the result of political and geopolitical calculations coupled with domestic considerations. Yet whether this strategy has been successful is much more debatable. In fact, the main issue is that President Hollande has been far too gung-ho to deal with the Syrian crisis. This has not been without consequences.

Hollande’s Gung-Ho Strategy

France’s strategy in Syria has had several boomerang effects. To begin with, recent events have shown that France does not have the political means, nor the material capacity to play by its own rules. While Hollande was ready to launch a military strike in August 2013, US President Barack Obama stepped back and waited for the approval of Congress.

Hollande found himself in a very embarrassing situation. This event exemplified France’s dependency on the US. In other words, it seems that without the support of Washington, or at least of some of its allies, France is .

Moreover, the question was finally solved by the US-Russian deal on Syria’s chemical weapons. For most of the international community, the deal represented a good compromise between a potentially damaging military intervention and the human costs of a “doing-nothing” policy.

However, for the French government, the situation was particularly humiliating since it . Thus, this event not only revealed France’s lack of influence on the international stage, but also showed that the international community could merely do without it.

Overall, the way the French government dealt with the entire crisis contributed to its de-legitimization. The fact that the French president was ready to launch a military strike without seeking parliamentary consent was seen as highly undemocratic. Besides, President Hollande did not appear to give much credit to international law when he declared that it “” rather than being a constraint to a military intervention.

By bypassing both principles of democracy and legality, France deeply damaged its credibility. In sum, the way the French government has managed the Syrian crisis has only succeeded in deepening its .

France’s strategy toward Syria has also negatively impacted Europe. Hollande’s assertive policy has . On the question of arming the rebels, Germany, Sweden and Austria had always been very cautious and disapproved of French — and British — rushed statements about the need to help the insurgency fight back against the Assad regime. Likewise, the Germans and Italians were very critical of France’s military activism. The the French warmongers would threaten the security of European troops in Lebanon.

While France has justified its policy regarding the need to protect the Syrian population, one must not forget that the road to hell is paved with good intentions. Ultimately, the Syrian people have been the very first victim of France’s ineffective strategy in their country.

The views expressed in this article are the author’s own and do not necessarily reflect 51łÔąĎ’s editorial policy.

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Moving on from , can we debate that the French system is only benefiting the middle- and upper-class in Morocco?

The French system generally requires students to be in the classroom approximately 30 hours a week and also demands they dedicate a considerable portion of their time to homework outside of class. The quantity of homework assigned is often difficult given the time constraints the students have, as they are in the classroom on a full-time basis.

In addition, the style of learning in the Moroccan version of the French system is largely based on rote memorization which discourages creativity and independent thinking, as students are solely focused on regurgitating facts and knowledge in order to attain passing exam scores.

Arabic is the fundamental language of instruction at the primary and secondary level. This author’s study proposes the following suggestion: Should it not be natural to utilize Arabic at the university level as a way of providing a sense of continuity and, thereby, security for the students who get thrown off with the sudden change of language?

French will remain to be the dominant language in Moroccan culture as most of society uses it for verbal and written exchange. This article does not argue that the French language should lose its prominence on the societal level, but should potentially be offered as an option at the educational university level, besides other languages, rather than having classes in just the French language.

Bifurcated Education System: A Systemic Hurdle

While the Moroccan government has taken steps to modify education to suit the needs of the people, the bifurcated nature of the educational system has proven a major systemic hurdle to further progress.

In public schools throughout Morocco, Arabic is used as the primary language through the secondary level. From the university level onwards, however, French is used as the dominant language in academia. This practice presents a frustrating dilemma for Moroccan students, and even more so for the poorer women in rural Morocco.

The change in language to which Moroccan students must adjust in order to advance from one educational level to another is an unnecessary and counterproductive hurdle. While the sample size of students interviewed was small, their thoughts appear to represent the frustrations of many Moroccan students toward this divided and ineffective system.

An Akhawayn graduate student indicates that the education system is a complete “mess” and the differences in technical language between French and Arabic make it confusing and challenging for students. Their time is consumed by adjusting to the unnecessary transition from one language to another, when they could otherwise be spending this time focusing on their studies.

Meanwhile, another university student at Akhawayn suggests that Moroccans focus on their own language of Arabic and have the French language as an option as opposed to a requirement in academics. At the University of Rabat, another professor declares that implementing the French system while having only had Arabic schooling before is not effective.

Because students in the more highly educated urban centers struggle to adapt to changing linguistic environments, it is only logical that poorly educated women in rural Morocco will only struggle more. Rural women have less exposure to the French language and also do not have the privileges of urban students.

The lack of continuous streams in language through the Moroccan educational system makes it difficult for Moroccans to attain an education when they must overcome such linguistic hurdles.

To further complicate matters, the 2011 Constitution of Morocco recognized Tamazight as the second official language of the country. As many of the Tamazight speakers are from rural areas, the introduction of the largely oral Tamazight language into mainstream Moroccan society is still limited. This presents another challenge on how and to what extent Tamazight will be incorporated into the educational system.

The new government reforms help rural women gain better access to education; yet in order for these women to excel in that education and become active citizens in society, the primary language of instruction in the academic world must be continuous throughout the educational system, whether in French, Arabic or English.

Other institutional hurdles must also be eliminated to pave the way for rural women and other Moroccans to have easier access to an education. Moroccan students in their senior year of high school are currently required to take a baccalaureate exam in order to continue at university level in Morocco. Performance on this exam is supposedly meant to dictate to which particular universities a student has access.

However, there is a consensus between interviewed students and professors that this exam is unnecessary, as it does not guarantee admission to the top universities in Morocco, even with competitive scores. Furthermore, the baccalaureate exam does not accurately reflect students’ intelligence or their potential to succeed, and thus cannot give universities a reliable metric by which to judge students for admissions.

Discussion

It should be recognized that the knowledge of the French language does in fact benefit working Moroccans, at a familial or societal level, given France’s colonial influence on Moroccan society. This language is only dominant in select countries across the world.

However, it is an undeniable fact that English has established itself as a universal language. Business, academia, and resources on the Internet are predominantly in English. English is such an important language to know in the professional and academic world, as the current global situation is very “Americentric.”

The world is rapidly globalizing, and many countries are trying to emulate things in America. One major factor is the educational system, which is widely recognized as one of the best in the world. In order for Moroccan students to look for higher education and professional attainment, knowing English is important while they absolutely need to be adept problem-solvers and critical thinkers — two skills that are highly valued in an American-like academic and professional world.

These skills can be learned in an American educational system, as they are emphasized in American-system schools from the day a student starts attending school. With a mastery of both the Arabic and English languages as more universities adopt an alternative to study English, Moroccan students will benefit with more opportunities to enter a rapidly globalizing world where characteristics such as freethinking is valued, something the American-based system embraces.

The American system will be less elitist than the French system, mainly because of the number of scholarships and financial aid American universities provide to qualified students who are unable to afford a private university education in Morocco or abroad.

In an economically struggling nation such as Morocco, such a benefit is vital for students who possess the intelligence and work ethic to excel at the higher level but do not enjoy the means to pay for their education. Students are able to get Fulbright scholarships to go to the best universities in the United States, and often come back to Morocco to improve their country economically.

The system instituted is a positive example of how a different educational system can and should be introduced across Morocco to engage all social classes. Thus, the benefits that will come with literacy across all levels can only be favorable.

Needless to say, however, in spite of the challenges the Moroccan government still faces within the educational system, it is taking promising steps to come to the support of women’s rights and empowerment, and is not alone in its efforts. In fact, nonprofit organizations are key allies in the fight for women’s empowerment through education.

*[This article was originally published by .]

The views expressed in this article are the author’s own and do not necessarily reflect 51łÔąĎ’s editorial policy.

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In Morocco, policymakers have implemented several groundbreaking initiatives aiming to create educational programs to empower rural women. Despite progress in this realm, there are still ongoing tensions within the Moroccan educational system. As a Moroccan who was educated in a multilingual system, the author has experienced its flaws firsthand and recognizes the need for its analysis.

This study, therefore, assesses the quality of the Moroccan educational sector and the implications of a bifurcated educational system. The educational system is conducted in Fus-ha Arabic (Modern Standard Arabic) in public schools throughout secondary education and in French predominantly at the university level. It is important to understand how this acts as an obstacle to significant educational attainment.

The author bases the analysis on data collected in fieldwork, which was completed in seven Moroccan cities: Fez, Rabat, Casablanca, Ifrane, Meknes, Tetouan and Tangier. Research methods incorporated both qualitative and quantitative approaches. This involved structured interviews with government officials and professors, focus groups with students, directors, as well as data collected from various ministries and organizations.

These interviews were conducted with multiple nongovernmental organizations (NGOs), women’s rights groups, and grassroots organizations to assess ongoing initiatives aimed at women’s socioeconomic empowerment. Policies regarding rural women’s empowerment were also examined. In addition, government officials were interviewed to investigate any potential disconnect between policies and performance.

Illiteracy in Morocco

Currently, one of ˛Ń´Ç°ů´Çł¦ł¦´Ç’s most pressing national problems is its high illiteracy rate, particularly amongst women in the rural regions of the country. However, in the past several decades, the country has made progress in improving the literacy rate of the general population.

In 1960, the estimated illiteracy rate among the Moroccan population was 87%. Today, that number has, encouragingly, decreased to approximately* 56%.

However, these numbers can be deceptive in the case of Moroccan women. According to the Director of the General Secretariat of Morocco, unofficial sources show that 65-70% of all Moroccan women are illiterate. As women comprise 56% of the total population of Morocco, this is not a negligible statistic.

Furthermore, the illiteracy rate is reported to be much higher amongst the female population in rural Morocco, with government officials and all interviewees estimating an astronomical 90%. These extremely high illiteracy rates hinder the empowerment of these women.

Without an adequate education, rural women cannot fully comprehend their own rights or engage actively socially, politically or economically. From reforms and policies passed through legislation within the national government to the regional and local efforts made by NGOs and other small organizations, women’s empowerment has seen unprecedented progress in Morocco.

By collaborating with some NGOs, building schools, adding teachers, requiring girls to attend schools and enforcing a mandatory education for illiterate adults, the government of Morocco has recognized the crippling problem of illiteracy within the country, and various reforms, policies and objectives have been implemented to combat this issue.

Government Reforms

King Mohammed VI adopted the National Initiative for Human Development (INDH) in 2005 with the objective of improving the living conditions of citizens. He also implemented a new reform to complement existing programs; known as the National Education and Training Charter (CNEF), which declared 2000-2009 the decade for education and training.

The charter was passed as a reform act in order to create positive changes that could improve education quality and adapt the educational system to the needs of the Moroccan economy.

Furthermore, this new reform reviewed educational methods in order to represent women as equal citizens. The charter officially requires men and women in both urban and rural areas to attend school through the sixth grade.

The CNEF aimed at establishing practical strategies to promote positive social attitudes and policies toward women through media and outreach. In addition, the Bold Education Emergency Plan reform was assessed in January 2009 to bridge the gap between the acceleration of educational reform and the effective use of resources, covering the period 2009-2012; it also represented a vital shift in policy.

Previously, Morocco followed the French educational system but failed to adapt it to Moroccan cultural and social standards. For any educational system in Morocco to be effective, it must be in accordance with the cultural and social standards of the country, while addressing the needs of the Moroccan people.

In 1957, the Ministry of Education, led by Mohamed el-Fassi, decided to Arabize primary and secondary education. The Istiqlal Party supported this process of Arabization as a necessary step to preserve the cultural identity of Morocco. Since 1956, cultural and linguistic conflicts have impeded the educational system.

The Importance of French

While the presence and use of the French language is an understandable linguistic and cultural condition created by France’s colonial influence on Moroccan history, the fundamental problem of having multiple languages of instruction in the educational system is a result of a divide between different socioeconomic and cultural groups in Moroccan society.

It is the privileged and more well-to-do section of society who are given the opportunity to the foreign languages, while the lesser privileged do not receive this advantage.

French at the university level is mostly benefiting students in the middle and upper socioeconomic levels. If students of a lower socioeconomic status manage to work hard enough to get into a Moroccan university, are they on even ground with other “privileged” students who may have had private French language instruction prior to university?

Is this approach not establishing a greater socioeconomic divide by benefiting upper-class students at university level and making it more difficult for lower-classes to attain socioeconomic mobility?

In order to explain the existing systems, from middle school, private school-educated students are taught in French and transition to Arabic in high school. Public schools teach Arabic throughout. At university level, classes are taught only in French. Therefore, most students experience difficulty with this abrupt transition.

The Moroccan government has sought to take a positive step with the CNEF in answering the issue of a misplaced French educational system in a predominantly Arab nation. However, the majority of students still graduate from high school with fluency and academic experience in Arabic only, especially in public schools.

Currently in Morocco, most universities follow the French educational model, with only one exception opting for an American-based English system. Neither arrangement is specifically linguistically accessible to students, particularly rural, publicly-educated students.

It is argued that schools modeled on the French system have proven ineffective in Morocco in creating an environment that only favors a privileged social class, the European community, and middle- and upper-class Moroccans.

The privileged class does not have to pursue academics out of a desperation to make financial ends meet as they come from a position of economic security. This allows them the luxuries of intellectualism academia, which gives them an opportunity to shape their learning into a career of their preference and choice.

On the other hand, the lower classes can struggle in such a system because a large proportion of the students who manage to enter universities also have additional responsibilities outside of school, which they cannot discard as their outside work is mostly done to support their families’ struggling financial situation. These students complain of having too many responsibilities and cannot focus solely on advancing their education.

*[Note: *This statistic is based on the author’s field research in Morocco. Read the on March 17. This article was originally published by .]

The views expressed in this article are the author’s own and do not necessarily reflect 51łÔąĎ’s editorial policy.

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In November 2013, President Barack Obama met with Morocco’s King Mohammed VI in Washington for their first face-to-face meeting. The result was a bitter disappointment for supporters of human rights and international law.

Two days before the summit, Human Rights Watch (HRW) issued  calling on the US president to tell the king that "US support for the reform process in Morocco depends on moving beyond rhetoric and making tangible change." Specifically, the human rights group called for "stronger legal protections for rights and an end to impunity for police who use violence and commit other abuses."

Instead, according to , Obama applauded the Moroccan monarch for "deepening democracy" and "promoting economic progress and human development."

Western Sahara: Denied Self-Determination

The most critical issue facing northwestern Africa involves Western Sahara, a sparsely populated country on the Atlantic coast that has been under Moroccan occupation since the kingdom invaded the former Spanish colony in 1975, just prior to its scheduled independence.

Defying a series of , , and international mediation efforts, the Moroccans have continued to deny the people of the territory their right of self-determination through a UN-sponsored referendum. No country recognizes Moroccan sovereignty over the territory, and more than 80 nations, as well as the African Union, have formally recognized Western Sahara as an independent state.

When the nationalist Polisario Front, which had been fighting for the occupied nation’s independence, agreed to end its armed struggle in 1991 in return for a referendum, the UN brought in a peacekeeping force known as MINURSO to enforce the ceasefire and oversee the scheduled plebiscite, which never came.

The United States and France, both of which hold veto power in the UN Security Council, blocked the United Nations from enforcing a series of resolutions demanding that Morocco provide the Western Saharan people an opportunity to exercise their right of self-determination.

MINURSO is the only UN peacekeeping operation in the world without a mandate to monitor the human rights situation in its areas of operation. And when Washington sponsored the UN Security Council resolution renewing MINURSO operations earlier this year, the  in the original draft that would have added such a mandate.

Repression in Western Sahara

While the human rights situation within Morocco itself has improved somewhat since King Mohammed came to power in 1999, Human Rights Watch, Amnesty International, and other reputable human rights groups have highlighted ongoing severe repression in the occupied Western Sahara.

Even the  acknowledges "limitations on the freedom of speech, press, assembly, and association" and "the use of arbitrary and prolonged detention to quell dissent." Observing that support for self-determination is ruthlessly suppressed, the report goes on to note that security forces have "engaged in torture, beatings, and other mistreatment of detainees" with impunity.

Despite this, a  following the conclusion of the summit pledged that the United States and Morocco would "work together to continue to protect and promote human rights in the territory."

As an alternative to allowing the Western Saharan people to go forward with a referendum on the fate of their country, the Moroccans have proposed what they refer to as  that would cede limited local control of the region to the Western Saharans.

Unfortunately, not only are important matters such as control of Western Sahara’s natural resources and security rather ambiguous under the Moroccan proposal, all powers not specifically vested in the proposed autonomous region would remain with the king.

Furthermore, based on Morocco’s broken promises on the UN-mandated referendum and its related obligations from the ceasefire agreement 22 years ago, there is little to inspire confidence that Morocco would live up to its promises to provide genuine autonomy for Western Sahara.

More problematically, the proposal is based on the presumption that Western Sahara is part of Morocco, a contention that has long been rejected by the United Nations, the World Court, the African Union, and a broad consensus of international legal opinion.

Endorsing the Expansion of Territory by Military Force

To accept Morocco’s autonomy plan would mean that, for the first time since the founding of the United Nations and the ratification of the UN Charter more than 68 years ago, the international community would be endorsing the expansion of a country’s territory by military force, thereby establishing a very dangerous and destabilizing precedent.

If the Western Saharans accepted an autonomy agreement over independence as a result of a free and fair referendum, it would constitute a legitimate act of self-determination. However, Morocco has explicitly stated that its autonomy proposal "rules out, by definition, the possibility for the independence option to be submitted" to the people of Western Sahara, the vast majority of whom — according to knowledgeable international observers — favor outright independence.

Despite this,  announced that President Obama believes "Morocco’s autonomy plan is serious, realistic, and credible. It represents a potential approach that can satisfy the aspirations of the people in the Western Sahara to run their own affairs in peace and dignity."

It appears, then, that the Obama’s administration’s policy on Western Sahara constitutes nothing less than a rejection of fundamental principles of international law that prohibit territorial expansion by force, thereby constituting a de facto acceptance of the right of conquest.

In the comparable case of East Timor, it was only after human rights organizations, church groups, and activists in the United States and abroad successfully pressured their governments to end their support for Indonesia’s occupation that the Indonesian regime was finally willing to offer a referendum to give the East Timorese their right to self-determination.

It may take a similar grassroots campaign to ensure that United States lives up to its international legal obligations and pressures Morocco to allow the people of Western Sahara their right to determine their own destiny.

*[This article was originally published by .]

The views expressed in this article are the author's own and do not necessarily reflect 51łÔąĎ’s editorial policy. 

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The wave of popular revolts that sparked in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) in 2011 had different repercussions on each country, depending on the prevalent economic, political and social structures. Indeed, some of these protests toppled regimes, as was the case in Tunisia, Egypt and Libya, while others were successfully terminated either by the means of oppression or pseudo-political reforms by established ruling institutions like in Morocco and Algeria.

The motors of these protests have been extensively covered for the wide region of the Middle East. The general rhetoric in this sense assimilates social unrest with the deteriorated economic conditions of most of the population, coupled with theĚýĚýas the working age segment of society grows faster in the Middle East than anywhere else in the world.

A closer look into the main slogans chanted by protesters, however, would reveal that there is much more to the social unrest in the MENA region than mere economic factors, and that the political economy approach offers a more comprehensive analysis.

The aim of the present article is to explore some of the political economy motors of the protests, and assess the evolution of the North African institutional environment and its impact on regional economic performance.

Ěýwere repeatedly identified as the main “fuel” of the demonstrations. The issue that comes to mind here is whether these popular revolts were capable of altering the existing social contracts and economic structures, and replace them with viable economic and political models.

While events are still unraveling and social unrest is still ongoing in the region, it would be ill-advised to attempt to predict the future. What would be helpful, however, is to examine the rooted political economy structures of countries in the region, in order to understand the implications of the current policies on macro-economic outlook and political stability. As experts have extensively covered the wider Middle East, this article focuses on North African countries.

Underlying Political Economy Structures

Analysts have listed several political economy factors that led to the outburst of regime-changing revolts in Tunisia, Egypt, and Libya and are threatening the sustainability of existing regimes in Morocco and Algeria. These factors include a demographic transition coupled with a significant lack of employment opportunities, rooted institutional deficits, the relative expansion of the middle-class, and of private entrepreneurship faced with an ever-growing monopoly of the state over the economic sector.

That said, and despite acknowledging that no unique reason is sufficient to explain the social unrest that sparked in 2011 and is still ongoing in the region,ĚýĚýtend to single out inequality and poverty as the main explanatory factors and ignore or marginalize the political charge of the revolts.

Ěýranks Libya in position 64, Algeria in 93, followed closely by Tunisia in 94, Egypt in 112, and Morocco in 130. These ranks have barely changed since the mid-2000s.

Although some indicators have improved over the last few decades, including health, life expectancy and GDP per capita growth, other factors remain far below the average of medium human development countries. Official figures also reveal significant disparities between the North African countries as factors like education, income per capita, and life expectancy vary from one neighbor to the other.

Education is a case in point with theĚýĚýbeing 51.2% in Egypt, 49.6% in Libya, followed by Tunisia and Algeria with 37% and 24.1% respectively, and finally Morocco with only 28%.

There is room to argue that it is very unlikely that poverty and inequality are the main motors of the social unrest in North Africa. Although it is undeniable that the region suffers from chronic poverty and inequality, these remain less flagrant than in other regions of the world.

The universal measure of inequality, theĚý, “measures the extent to which the distribution of income or consumption expenditure among individuals or households within an economy deviates from a perfectly equal distribution.” It reveals that emerging countries like China and Brazil suffer from more inequality than North African countries.

Further, these theories do not explain the timing of the protests and why the uprisings happened. On many occasions over the past decades,ĚýĚýbut did not deliver. Protesting in some North African countries can be part of the culture, as almost every day of the week is marked by some kind of popular manifestation of varying sizes and for varying reasons (for example, unemployment, human rights violations and bread riots).

As argued byĚý, political transitions do not occur according to calculated agendas and do not adhere to a “one-fits-all” model. Where the cost of revolting is lower than that of the existing political economic structure, individuals would attempt to alter the present order.

Therefore, North African countries, characterized by a combination of high unemployment, a growing young population, and increasing inequality are more prone to instability and revolt movements.ĚýĚýargues, with regards to the Arab revolts: “The cost of autocracy simply no longer compensated for the meager economic benefits delivered by North African governments.”

A Significant Lack in Structural And Institutional Reforms

Over the past few decades, North African countries have engaged in a number of economic and financial reforms and fully integrated into the world economy, although at varying levels. Ěýhave prioritized macro-economic stability and attempted to subscribe to international financial standards, through measures ranging from liberalization of exchange rates, tax reforms and privatization, among others.

The levels of implementation of these reforms are country-dependent. Nevertheless, the region managed to maintain relatively high economic growth rates during the recent international financial crisis and developed resilience to external shocks,Ěýalthough at the of small- and medium-size enterprises, informal sector workers and householdsĚýThe banking systems of Egypt, Morocco and Tunisia, in particular, have also subscribed to the Basel II banking regulation and supervision reforms which, in theory, gives them the stamp of “good students” in the international financial system.

The picture painted by the various economic and financial reforms implemented in the region, however, ignores rooted institutional deficiencies. These are crucial to fully understand the social unrest that has swept the region.

Rooted Institutional Deficiencies

A brief overview of the institutional quality of each of the studied countries provides a better insight into the impact of the implemented financial and economic reforms.ĚýThe Worldwide Governance IndicatorsĚý by the World Bank Development Research Group aim at reporting on the institutional health within individual countries through six main aggregate governance indicators, including voice and accountability, political stability and absence of violence.

In 2011, Egypt scored the lowest among its North African neighbors in terms of “control of corruption.” All countries score worryingly low levels on “voice and accountability,” with Egypt being rated the worst, followed by Morocco and Tunisia. The rule of law indicator is not sufficiently developed either, with all North African countries flirting with the 50th percentile rank in 2011.

The low level of participation, transparency, and information-sharingĚý by the institutional infrastructure in North African countries provide fertile grounds for pressure and lobbying from powerful interest groups pursuing personal interests.

Vicious Circles

The absence of checks and balances facilitated the establishment of whatĚýĚýcalled “vicious circles.” These circles are based on extractive institutions controlled by a small elite that pursue their vested private interests at the expense of the wider population.

These circles are recurrent in North Africa and benefited the Ben Ali family network, Mubarak’s business interests, and Qaddafi’s tribal setting. Many argue that similar networks are perpetuated in Algeria through President Abdelaziz Bouteflika’s family ties and network of generals and politically connected businessmen; in Egypt through rooted military control of strategic industrial sectors ranging from the construction and steel industry to tourism and agriculture; and in Morocco by prioritization of the palace’s economic and commercial interests and ambitions.

It is worth noting that if the political structure of North African countries was characterized by strong and efficient checks and balances, politicians and policy-makers would have less freedom to influence the countries’ political economy according to their own interests. Individual economic and social agents would then have less leeway to behave in a manner serving their private interest by exercising disproportionate lobbying influence on politicians.

In the same fashion,Ěýthe existence of a strong legal and judicial Ěýthat enforces property rights would allow the efficient supervision of international, economic, and financial standards and provide private market participants with the ability to monitor and control economic activities. Levels of corruption would also be brought down and the economic and banking sectors’ performance would improve.

Going beyond mere economic factors, the lack of transparency, symmetrical access to information and practical accountability to the public — as exclusive networks hold power over the political economy structures — represent a significant stumbling block to political transition and make North African economies more prone to economic and social instability.

The views expressed in this article are the author’s own and do not necessarily reflect 51łÔąĎ’s editorial policy.

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