Morocco sets itself the goal of reducing the unemployment rate from 13% to 9%
Aziz Akhannouch, Prime Minister of Morocco, sent a circular to members of the government and to those in charge of public establishments and companies, detailing the measures included in the roadmap for employment.
The aim of this roadmap, which consists of eight initiatives, is to reverse the growing trend of unemployment in the country and significantly reduce the figure, which currently stands at 13.3%, according to data from Trading Economics.
The roadmap
The document identifies the sectors and institutions responsible for its implementation, as well as their respective roles and responsibilities, in addition to specifying the missions of the roadmap's management and governance bodies, as well as their methods of operation.
The aim of the policy that the Moroccan government is implementing to combat unemployment is to reduce the rate to 9% by creating 1.45 million additional jobs between now and 2030.
The budget for this roadmap is 15 billion dirhams, of which 12 billion will be used to stimulate investment, in accordance with the system set out in the new Investment Charter, which makes employment a priority. Another 1 billion will be allocated to preserving employment and the remaining 2 billion will be used to improve the effectiveness of job recovery programmes.
To oversee the implementation of the roadmap and coordinate the interventions of the various stakeholders, a three-part governance system has been set up: a Ministerial Employment Commission, chaired by the head of government, which will meet every three months; a Steering Committee that will assist the commission in the practical preparation of its meetings, in the follow-up of decisions and in the preparation of reports and technical studies; and a Data Collection Unit, controlled by the Department of Studies and Financial Forecasts.
Some of the initiatives
One of the initiatives on the roadmap is to encourage investment in microenterprises and SMEs, through two main axes: one to implement the provisions of the Investment Charter for projects with a value of between 1 and 50 million dirhams, while the governance and deployment modalities of this new support mechanism are being outlined; and the other, to support SMEs and facilitate their access to aid mechanisms, improve their management capacities and simplify their access to public markets and export opportunities.
The roadmap also envisages reducing the duration of integration contracts from 24 to 12 months to speed up the integration of apprentices into companies, as well as increasing to 100,000 the number of participants in the career progression system established in the ‘Tadrij’ programme and raising the compensation per apprentice from 4,000 to 5,000 dirhams.
The preservation of agricultural jobs is another of the initiatives, as the aim is to increase the area cultivated with cereals to four million hectares. To this end, the Department of Agriculture is invited to propose an action programme to select job-creating projects in the rural areas most affected by the drought, as well as to implement an electronic platform to coordinate the supply and demand of agricultural labour.
Likewise, the integration of active employment policies in a unified programme is also part of the measures, as this is intended to improve the use of state resources, through a unified system that integrates effective programmes, allowing the number of beneficiaries to increase by between 400,000 and 500,000 per year.
Finally, another of the initiatives aims to eliminate the obstacles faced by women who want to access the labour market, which number around 700,000, through improvements in transport and childcare.
On this last aspect, the roadmap for employment foresees a series of measures to tackle early school leaving and adapt training to the needs of the labour market.
ANAPEC in the initiatives
Active employment policies, together with the generalisation of professional progression, are another initiative contemplated in the roadmap, which aims to make these policies more inclusive, extending them to people without qualifications, as well as extending professional progression to all sectors with the aim of improving the employability of those entering the labour market for the first time. This will enable the creation of 422,500 jobs by 2025.
For this reason, the Ministry of Economic Inclusion, Small Business, Employment and Skills and the Moroccan Public Employment Agency (ANAPEC) have been asked to extend employment programmes to people without diplomas, with the aim of reaching 160,000 beneficiaries of the ‘Idmaj’ programme, 25,000 beneficiaries of the ‘Tahfiz’ programme and 30,000 beneficiaries of the ‘Taehil’ programme.
With regard to ANAPEC, the aim is to strengthen its role through an initiative in which an integrated itinerary of employment mediation is applied, from the school stage, to guide people seeking employment.
To this end, support is being requested from the Department of Higher Education, Scientific Research and Innovation, together with the Department of Economic Inclusion, Small Businesses, Employment and Skills, to implement professional centres throughout the country and develop a regulatory framework for their operation.