Morocco submits report on women integration strategy in Beirut's conference

A Moroccan report at the Beirut conference on the follow-up of the recommendations of the Beijing women conference said women hold an important place in the public sectors' programs.

The report said there are four priority fields in this strategy, namely education and literacy, reproductive health, integration of women in economic life and consolidation of their political, economic, social and legal status.

The report that was presented by a delegation, led by secretary of state for social protection, family and childhood, Mohamed saad Saadi, assessed the progress in each of the four fields.

Illiteracy rate among women stands at 67% against 41% among men, this rate jumps to 97% in rural areas against 49 % in cities. Schooling rate of girls in the rural world is no more than 35% in basic education and 32.5 % in secondary education. regarding reproductive health, the report says 65.8% of women in cities used a contraception means in 1995, against 50.7% in the countryside.

Regarding women integration in economic activity, the report notes that women contribution remains limited to 17%. The social coverage of women hardly reaches 10% compared to a national rate ranging between 20 to 25%. It was also noted that in 1994, 15.44% of households were cared for by women.

The report also deplores the poor infrastructure as a major factor of poverty since only 9.9% of women have access to drinking water and 12.7 % to electricity and the rates are even lower in rural areas.

The report notes that despite measures enforced to upgrade women's status, the legal status still needs some amendments.

The conference, the second one of the kind, prepared reports that would be submitted to the forthcoming meeting, June 2000, marking the fifth anniversary of the Beijing conference.

The meeting is held by the UN economic and social commission for western Asia in coordination with the arab league and the United Nations fund for women development.