Organization of a national workshop on the economic dimension of decentralization in Morocco

The Secretary General of UCLG Africa, Mr. Jean-Pierre Elong Mbassi was received by His Excellency Mr. Ahmed Lahlimi Alami, Moroccan High Commissioner for Planning.

Accompanying Mr. Jean-Pierre Elong Mbassi was Programs Director Mr. François Paul Yatta, and Head of Protocol, Mr Mohamed Cherkaoui. Representing the High Commissioner’s Office for Planning were Mr Allalat, Secretary General, and three of his colleagues.

This visit is part of a long-standing tradition of partnership between the High Commissioner’s Office for Planning (HCP) and UCLG Africa. The partnership began in 2010 with the organization of a national workshop to initiate evaluation and foresight of the local economy in Morocco and continued in 2015 and 2016 with the conducting of a pilot study on the development of local economic accounts of the Provinceand of the Municipality of Chefchaouen.

The purpose of the interview was to solicit the support of the High Commissioner’s Office for Planning for the preparation and organization at the end of April 2017 of a national workshop on the economic dimension of decentralization in Morocco following the pilot study of Chefchaouen, and to invite the High Commissioner for Planning to take part in the workshop.

The Secretary General of UCLG Africa explained that the collaboration with HCP should make it possible to add a strong economic dimension to the communal development plans being prepared or potentially revised.UCLG Africa is concerned about the follow-up to the pilot study of Chefchaouen, in particular concerning the application of tools and methods for use and replication in all municipalities and intermediate cities in Morocco.

The High Commissioner for Planning announced the availability of his team to work on this project, which is of paramount importance at a time when Morocco initiates this first phase of the implementation of the country’s option in favor of advanced regionalization.

The design of the economic tables at the level of the communes should make it possible to give to decentralization the necessary economic dimension to ensure the nexus between decentralization, development and improvement of the living conditions of the populations.

The High Commissioner’s Office for Planning has demographic and economic data that drills down to the district level.By making a judicious use of this data and complementing them with appropriate statistical methods, it is possible to develop economic dashboards that enable elected officials to know which levers to mobilize to promote economic development and employment in their communities.It is also possible to undertake a prospective approach on the definition of a vision for the development of communes that would be shared with the population as a whole, as well as the trajectories to be followed in order to achieve the desired development.

Following this exchange of views, the High Commissioner for Planning confirmed his participation in the upcoming workshop and instructed the HCP team to accompany UCLG Africa in the project aimed at developing tools and methods for local economic dashboards for the implementationof territorial foresight exercises.Mister Ahmed Lahlimi Alami also confirmed the availability of the HCP to accompany UCLG Africa in the promotion and dissemination of these tools and methods throughout the African continent within the framework of South-South cooperation.