Poverty affects one Moroccan out of five, survey

One Moroccan out of five lives in poverty, the center of Demographic Studies and Researches (CERD) said in its 2001 National Report on Population Policy.

The report entitled "Poverty fighting: assessment and perspectives" comprises several indicators on the evolution of poverty in Morocco and the poorest social layers.

Poverty in Morocco went up from 13.1% in 1990 to 19% in 1999. The number of poor persons went up from 4.6 millions in 1985 to 5.3 millions in 1998, the document said, adding that the rise is due to several factors such as successive years of drought and higher unemployment rates in cities in the nineties.

The social categories most affected by poverty, the study goes on, are the families with many children, women-headed households and living in shanty towns and families with no steady income.

Poverty persists in rural areas due to the wide gap between these areas and cities in terms of development, the CERD goes on, adding that the rural population, which makes up to 46.6% of the overall population, represents 65.80% of the poor.

In the countryside, poverty affects 27.2% (3 out of 10) while in the cities, the rate is of 12% (1 out of 10).

The survey stresses the necessity for social programs to provide for local policies to generate jobs for the poor, to promote subsistence agriculture, and to back profit-generating activities in cities.