Morocco reduces poverty by 50%

According to the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), Morocco is among the 25 countries that have managed to reduce multidimensional poverty by half during the period 2011-2017/2018. 

The report developed by the Oxford Poverty and Human Development Initiative (OPHI) of the University of Oxford documents estimates on 110 countries on the Multidimensional Poverty Index and calculates the Multidimensional Poverty Index (MPI) from 10 indicators covering the areas of health, education and standard of living. These indicators take into account data such as nutrition, infant mortality rate, years of schooling, drinking water, housing, or access to electricity.  

The data in this report reflect Morocco's development in the fight against poverty in the country. The report highlights the reduction of 25 countries in particular, which have been able to halve their MPI values in 15 years, including China, Honduras, India, Serbia and Morocco. The Alawi kingdom has reduced its index with a value of 0.033 calculated in the last year of the report (2018) compared to 0.078 calculated at the beginning (the closer the value is to 0, the better the performance), which in percentage of population translates to a reduction of almost 10%. The report also shows that only 1.4% of the Moroccan population is in severe poverty. 

The report does not take into account data from the last 5 years due to the difficulty in collecting information caused by the health crisis and complicates the evaluation of the perspectives, therefore, most of the information collected is prior to 2018. Data such as school attendance are difficult to assess due to the health restrictions that took place during the pandemic. 

This report reflects the importance of the fight against poverty and the possibility of achieving the targets of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) and halving poverty. According to 2023 data, more than 18% of the population lives in acute multidimensional poverty in 110 countries, of which the majority are in sub-Saharan Africa and South Asia. Two-thirds of people living in poverty are in middle-income countries, according to the report, "although low-income countries make up only 10% of the population analysed in the MPI, they are home to 35% of the entire population living in poverty". It is also worth noting the age range in which most of these people live, with half of the population under the age of 18, with a child poverty rate of 27.7%. 

The Moroccan government has fought poverty in recent years thanks to the large amounts of capital invested in education and employment and investment in infrastructure. In 2019, Morocco invested 5.26% of its GDP in education, considerably more than the world average. With programmes such as Morocco's National Initiative for Human Development that focus primarily on education, health and entrepreneurship, the North African country is committed to achieving the SDG targets and thus reducing poverty in the country.