Morocco's approach to decentralisation and development

Decentralisation, i.e. the transfer of competencies from the centre to the regions (regionalism as it is called in Morocco) in the framework of the process of building a direct local democracy, cannot be completed without transferring the competencies and authority of administrative decision-making from the ministries to their local interests, i.e. what is called in Morocco "administrative decentralisation"; to create greater interaction between the elected authority and the designated authority in order to put local development on the right track, i.e. at the service of the citizen.
 
In this context, the "National Initiative for Human Development" launched by King Mohammed VI of Morocco on 18 May 2005 has actively contributed, in all its successive versions, to create a qualitative transformation at the level of human development in Morocco by fighting poverty, fragility and exclusion.

 
Suffice it to say that in its third edition (2019-2023), the initiative financed more than 25,700 projects with a budget of 10.5 billion dirhams (about 1 billion dollars), especially at the level of human and governmental capital support in the framework of renewed approaches, which made it achieve significant qualitative and quantitative successes, despite the challenges of sustainability of projects and increasing their profitability.
 
It remains the second real project to contribute qualitatively to laying the foundations for a renewed territorial approach (the Moroccan Sahara development model). It is a project that has integrated development, economic, geostrategic and political dimensions among them, and its proper implementation will make the Saharawi regions a vital space for "links and exchanges between Europe and sub-Saharan Africa," said the Moroccan monarch.
 
The budget allocated to the programme has reached around 81 billion dirhams ($8 billion), and the project launch rate exceeded 70 per cent by 2021 (despite the severity of the pandemic), while the transfer of financial allocations exceeded 50 per cent. Thus, the activation of the development model for Morocco's southern regions is gaining momentum and contributing to changing the socio-economic equation in the Moroccan Sahara, despite the continuing challenges of its impact on the creation of employment opportunities, especially youth and women's employment.
 
The third real project, specifically dedicated to regionalisation (regions) and the territorial approach to development, is the programme to reduce spatial and social disparities in rural areas.
 
Six years after the launch of the programme, the results were evident, as seven regional plans for the development of rural areas were developed with a budget of more than 48 billion dirhams ($4.8 billion), targeting 1,066 rural communities, 144 village centres and 59 urban communities. The challenges to be addressed this year are the speed of achievement, prioritising the poorest areas, as well as the adoption of a more effective and efficient participatory approach.
 
These real projects structured together formed a solid edifice for the territorial approach to the problems of Economic and Human Development.
 
Regionalisation is a workshop that requires a lot of time and encouragement. The Moroccan government seems determined to support "administrative decentralisation" to keep up with this workshop. The latest action that has been taken is the issuance of the decree on the conditions and methods of delegation of authority and authorisation of signature of the centre to external interests, governors and workers (governors).
 
This is a real transformation and a perfectly structured workshop. There are other procedures pending, namely the process of finding a legal status for decentralised interests at regional (regional) and regional level; meaning that these interests have their own original competences and not only those delegated by the centre.
 
Does this mean changing the Finance Regulatory Act, which should include provisions allowing financial credits to be granted directly to these interests, and does it also mean changing the decrees regulating the ministerial sectors to create decentralised interests with an independent legal status?
 
The government must find answers to these questions and raise the challenge of harmony and coordination between these interests and the territorial (desert) groups.
 
On the other hand, the authorities (regions) have developed development plans, which can amount to tens of billions of dirhams. However, the state budget cannot afford this. The parties have not yet developed their own capacities to finance their ambitions as expected. Therefore, the economic model of the regions must be reconsidered, otherwise the regional plans will remain a dead letter. This new model must be based on the financing of competences that will be transferred from the centre to the entity, on own resources that can come from local taxes or private ownership in the entity, on loans and on grants in the framework of national or international partnerships.
 
In addition, the lack of resources of local (municipal and village) communities, especially rural ones, led most of them to consider the authorities (regions) as donors.
 
Rural communities suffer from severe shortages and the authorities are unable to meet the needs of the communities, especially those related to infrastructure. It was therefore necessary to think of a new model of territorial collectivities, based firstly on integration between villages and towns, i.e. between pashuyats (designated authorities in charge of towns) and districts (designated authorities in charge of village communities), secondly on the more effective and joint use of means, and thirdly on the management of development at a broader territorial level. In this way, Morocco can have access to viable land communities with sufficient resources to plan and implement development projects, while maintaining proximity administrative services as they are today.

 
At the level of community justice, all agree that it is time to focus attention on those who suffer a high level of poverty and marginalisation in order to get more opportunities from public investment. There is a theme I call the "positive clash" of projects, i.e. the accumulation of projects, their interaction and harmony to create a qualitative leap; this is what is happening in Tangier-Tetouan-Al Hoceima, Rabat-Salla-Kenitra, Casablanca-Settat. The same should be said of the other parts.
 
"Positive shock" can only be achieved through the harmonious and immediate implementation of a series of structured projects that have a positive impact on economic dynamism, wealth creation, employment and the improvement of citizens' lives.
 
Article previously published in Asharq Al-Awsat