Morocco: World Bank inaugurates new social-oriented strategy with morocco
Morocco, Economics, 6/20/2001

The World Bank says it is focusing its country assistance strategy with Morocco on the struggle against poverty and unemployment that the Kingdom has firmly engaged but not completely won.

General manager of the World Bank in Morocco, Olivier Gordon, explained in a press conference Tuesday in Casablanca the new strategy focuses on competitiveness, growth, making up for the rural world under-development and reforming the administration. It also seeks to generalize access to schooling, health services and basic facilities, especially in the rural world.

Priority sectors of the strategy also include consolidating partnership with other fund donors, mainly the African Development Bank. The Bank also proposes to concentrate its activities on two scenarios: a basic program with immediate results and a program to support sectorial reforms.

The first program focuses on social development, community participation, good governance and decentralization together with partnership with the emerging civil society. The bank also projects to increase its involvement in macro-economic and structural reforms through an analysis work and financial support the reforms proposed by the government, in accordance with progress in budget and sectorial fields.

Regarding the loan volume, the bank would maintain the same amount of US$ 250 million, compared to US$ 300 million in the previous strategy.

After it noted the recent Dirham devaluation, the World Bank expects the coming finance law to restore a greater budgetary discipline, carry on fiscal reforming and move forward in some structural reforms. The Bank says it is ready to bring its support to these fields when concrete measures are taken.

However, in case these reforms are delayed, the bank would opt for a return to its basic program and re-allocate resources to analysis activities in order to promote the emergence of a consensus on the reforms program, in an increasingly pluralistic society.

The Bank promises support to the government if deeper reforms are to be taken to stimulate growth, and accordingly its annual loaning program would stand at US$ 450 Million for actions directed toward specific programs, adjustment or protection of most vulnerable populations affected by reforms.

The bank would carry on its efforts in support of the private sector and increase its collaboration with the EU in Morocco's economic competitiveness and financial backing to small and medium-sized enterprises.

The World Bank document stresses that health services have not yet reached the results as Morocco has one of the lowest health insurance coverage in the region (15%) while schooling rate and the quality of education are not yet satisfactory despite substantial expenditures in these two sectors (6% of the GDP).

Regarding poverty which regressed from 21 to 13% in the 1984-1991 period, the Bank notes that poverty stood in 1998 at 19% and affected 5.3 million people while vulnerable population increase from nine million to 12 million people.

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