Millennium DevelopmentGoals for Women and Girls

Post-2015 Gains and Challenges

Kingdom of Morocco ReportNew York, March 2014

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New York, Monday, September 20th 2010

“We are gathered today, ten years after we adopted the Millennium Declaration, as a consensual agreement to ensure human, sustainable, and globally consistent development. The question that should be raised today is: What specific goals have been achieved under this historical Declaration?

In a spirit of responsibility and openness, this meeting shall pause to make an objective assessment of what has been accomplished, determine the obstacles that need to be overcome, and set the strategies needed to achieve the Millennium Development Goals by the year 2015.

This momentous challenge calls for responsibilities to be shouldered collectively, not only by our partners among the developed countries, that must honor their obligations with respect to financing development projects, but also by developing nations, that have to put

MDGs at the heart of their national policies.

Excerpt from His Majesty King Mohamed VI speech at the summit on

the Millennium Development Goals.

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Table of Contents

Introduction .............................................................................. 53

Chapter I. General Context .................................................... 55

1. National Context for activating the MDGs for Women and Girls .................................................................................. 55

2. The Kingdom’s Efforts in Strengthening Human Rights Principles and Promoting Equality ..................................... 56

Reforming the Judicial and Legislative Systems ..... 56

Adopting a New Immigration Policy ...................... 57

Consolidating a National Integrated Institutional System .................................................................. 57

Promoting a Dynamic of Strategic Planning incorporating Human Rights and Equality ............ 59

Adhering to the International System of Human Rights for Women ............................................................ 59

Morocco’s Interaction with UN Human Rights Mechanisms .......................................................... 60

Adherence to International Standards of Human Rights .................................................................... 60

Chapter II: The Outcome of the Activation of the Millennium Development Goals for Women and Girls ........................ 62

1. Improved equitable and equal access to basic services ...... 62

Decrease in Poverty Indicators .............................. 62

Improved Health and Reproductive Health Services ... 64

Generalized Primary Education and Literacy for Women and Girls .................................................. 66

Fair and Equal Access to Infrastructures ................ 68

Improved Access to Judicial Services ..................... 68

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2. Legal, Political, Economic, Social and Cultural Empowerment for Women and Girls ......................................................... 70

Legal Empowerment of Women to Combat Discrimination, Violence and Exclusion ................. 70

Political Empowerment of Women and Strengthening their Positions in Decision-Making ........................ 72

Economic Empowerment by Improving Indicators of Women’s Employment and Economic Initiatives .... 72

Strengthening Legal and Social Protection for Women Workers ................................................................. 76

The Role of Civil Society in raising the Indicators related to Women’s Participation in Social Development Initiatives ............................................................... 77

Media as a Lever for Gender Equality .................... 78

Chapter III. Millennium Development Goals for women and girls: Constraints and Stakes .......................................... 80

1. Obstacles to applying MDG for Women and Girls ....... 80

Slow integration of equality in development policies and programs and weakness of some results .......... 80

Weak Qualified Human Resources Capacity to Integrate Gender into Policies ................................ 81

Lack of Data and Statistics Related to Gender ....... 81

Lack of financial and budgetary resources .............. 81

Weak mechanisms of Institutional Accountability in Gender Mainstreaming .......................................... 81

Low Convergence in Developing Policies and Programs on Equality ............................................................ 82

2. Stakes of attaining MDGs for Women and Girls .......... 82

Strengthening the regional dimension in developing and applying public policies and development programs ............................................................... 82

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Setting the indicators of women’s empowerment and gender mainstreaming in relation to the goals ........ 82

Developing statistical and information systems relating to various gender indicators ...................... 82

Activating a participatory approach in all equality and parity domains ....................................................... 83

improving governance and government management effectiveness .......................................................... 83

Chapter IV: Recommendations for building an integrated vision for achieving equality and the women empowerment in the post-2015 agenda ......................................................... 84

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Introduction

Since 2000, when it began working towards the Millennium Development Goals, Morocco has been following a policy of economic, political, social and human rights reforms. This set the groundwork for entrenching the pillars of equitable and sustainable human development, reducing disparities between regions and between sexes on one hand, and establishing the core values of democracy and human rights on the other.

The 2011 Constitution enshrines the choice of priority to human development and equitable access to basic services, and ensures equal opportunities between individuals, groups, generations and regions. The Constitutions makes a provision in Article 31 for the State, public institutions and territorial communities to work on “mobilizing all available means to facilitate access for men and women citizens, on an equal footing, to the right to treatment health care, social protection and health coverage, mutual or government- organized solidarity, modern, quality, easily accessible education, upbringing to cling to the Moroccan identity and firm national principles, vocational training, physical and art education, adequate housing and employment, support from public authorities in the search for jobs or in self-employment, access to public office by merit, access to water, a healthy living environment and sustainable development.”

It also consecrated the choice to strengthen women’s rights, considering the advancement of their situation as a stake in achieving any development. Article 19 states that “men and women, on equal terms, should enjoy political, economic, social, cultural and environmental rights and civil liberties,” linking this to the state’s responsibility in the pursuit of parity between men and women, in accordance with a participatory approach based on institutionalized mechanisms put in

place to evaluate and monitor public policies in the field.

The Kingdom of Morocco has made important strides in the process of applying these two options, in close connection with the achievement

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of several Millennial Development Goals, of which this report presents some of the results pertaining to women and girls, some of the main challenges and obstacles faced, and the stakes at hand, as well as presenting some suggestions and recommendations in building the vision for a post-2015 agenda.

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Chapter I. General Context

1. National Context for activating the MDGs for Women and Girls

Since His Majesty King Mohammed VI’s ascension to the Throne, the Kingdom of Morocco has continuously been building a State of Law, and strengthening the foundations of participatory democracy, intensifying the pace of political and economic reforms and social development. The most important feature of this period has been to consider equality between women and men as a principle of promoting human rights, and a fundamental value in the practice of democracy.

Considering woman to be essential partners in achieving the development goals and community development, Morocco has made the advancement of the status of women gender equality an intrinsic part of its reforms, as exemplified by the first set of legal reforms that focused particularly on women’s rights, such as Family law (the Moudawana), the Labor Code in 2004, the Nationality Law reform in 2007, the reform of the Communal Charter; in addition to Morocco’s gradual involvement in the international system of human rights. These reforms were crowned by the 2011 Constitution, which declared Morocco is grounded on «principles of equality, equal chances and social justice», and insists, in its preamble, on «prohibiting and combating all forms of discrimination,» including discrimination based on sex.

These normative constitutional principles, which the government engaged in activating in a participative manner, launched a new dynamic of opening up the national context strengthening these principles and translating them into gender-mainstreaming policies and development programs.

The 2012-2016 Government Plan for Equality, “Ikram”, with a goal towards parity, was a national response that joined initiatives from all

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actors for the advancement of women’s situations in Morocco, through eight fields of work:

1. Institutionalizing and disseminating the principles of equity and equality and establishing the rules of parity;

2. Combatting all forms of discrimination and violence against women

3. Rehabilitating the educational and training system on the basis of equity and equality

4. Promoting fair and equal access to health services

5. Improving basic infrastructure to improve living conditions for women and girls

6. Social and economic empowerment for women

7. Fair and equal access to administrative, political and social decision-making positions

8. Equal opportunities for women and men in the job market

The 22 objectives of this strategic plan - which comply with the aspiration to build a new social dynamic between men and women ensuring full and equitable participation in various fields, and ensure equal benefit from the results and the fruits of this participation – have resulted in 147 actions and their assessment indicators.

2. The Kingdom’s Efforts in Strengthening Human Rights Principles and Promoting Equality

Reforming the Judicial and Legislative Systems

Justice reform has been a national priority, considered an indispensible precondition for the protection of human rights and the consolidation of the rule of law. In May 2013 the national dialogue on reform of the justice system was launched, overseen by a supreme body appointed by His Majesty King Mohammed VI, which, through a participatory approach put together a National Charter of Justice, devoted to factional rights, particularly the rights of women.

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The Charter includes directives to work towards achieving the Millennium Development Goals for women and girls through a variety of recommendations aimed at promoting the rights of women. It recommends working on appropriating national laws and injunctions with the provisions of the Constitution and the principles of ratified and published international human rights conventions. It also provides for a new protectionist criminal policy with a gender approach by revising relevant legal texts, promoting legal protection for female victims of violence or crime, in addition to fragile social categories, children, and the disabled. Additionally, it contains several recommendations that will undoubtedly contribute to strengthening the position of women and ensuring their rights, such as simplifying the procedures for benefiting from Family Solidarity Fund Services, accelerating the application of alimony rulings, applying the Family Code in the direction of reviewing some of its provisions, institutionalizing family mediation, and applying the principle of parity in managing judicial affairs.

Adopting a New Immigration Policy

In early 2014, Morocco adopted a new immigration policy with a humanistic dimension that was highly welcomed by the UN and African countries. The new policy aims at legalizing the irregular migrants in Morocco, particularly women, in order to ensure their economic and social rights. In this regard, the Moroccan authorities prepared and distributed residence cards to the migrants in question.

This exceptional humanistic operation, which reflects the determination of Morocco’s King government and people is a national effort that brings together different actors to solve migration problems, and adoption of a new policy based on preserving the dignity of migrants, who will now enjoy the same rights and responsibilities as Moroccan nationals.

Consolidating a National Integrated Institutional System

The open reforms for rehabilitating the institutional system in charge of strengthening the principles of human rights, and applying the

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fundamentals of good governance, sustainable human development, and participative democracy, are the pillars of institutional reform which focused essentially on establishing institutions and mechanisms for control, mediation, regulation and monitoring. The National Council for Human Rights was restructured as an institution in charge of looking into all cases of defending and protecting human rights, and ensuring their full practice. The Mediator Institution is charged with defending rights in the context of relations between administrations and users, contributing to the consolidation of the rule of law, promoting the principles of justice and fairness, and values of the ethics and transparency, in addition to creating an entity for parity and combating all forms of discrimination, which is entrusted with the task of monitoring the application of the principle of parity between men and women, and the Council for Moroccans Abroad which provides input to public policy directives that enable the Moroccans residing abroad to ensure their rights and maintain their interests.

Other governance and regulation entities have also been constitutionalized for the advancement of sustainable human development and participative democracy. The High Authority for Audiovisual Communication ensures respect for the pluralistic expression of currents of thought and opinion, and the right to information in the field of audiovisuals. The Competition Council is in charge of ensuring transparency and fairness in economic relations. The National Commission for Integrity and Preventing and Combating Corruption coordinates, supervises and monitors the implementation of anti-corruption policies, receives and disseminates information on the subject, contributes to ethicizing public life, and consolidating the principles of good governance, the culture of public utility, and the values of responsible citizenship. The Higher Council for Education and Training and Scientific Research provides input to public policies and national issues related to education, training and scientific research, as well as the public facilities dedicated to the field. The Advisory Board for Family and Childhood is in charge of monitoring the situation of families and childhood, providing input in national

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charts relating to this field, stimulating public discourse about public policies on family, and ensuring the monitoring and achievement of national programs. The Advisory Council on Youth and Associative Work provides recommendations for economic, social and cultural issues directly related to the advancement of youth and associative work, developing their creative energy, motivating them to engage in national life, and the study and monitoring of issues of concern to the domain.

Promoting a Dynamic of Strategic Planning incorporating Human Rights and Equality

In 2008, Morocco launched the process of preparing a national action plan in the area of democracy and human rights, which is currently in its final stages, pending government approval. This initiative is a national group project exemplifying the government’s political will to fulfill its obligations, and providing sustainable mechanisms to consolidate the foundations of the rule of law, and strengthening the process of reform and democratization.

In addition to the Citizen platform to promote the culture of Human Rights which aims at coordinating all activities in the field of promoting the culture of human rights as part of a holistic and consistent vision of education, training and public awareness.

Adhering to the International System of Human Rights for Women

Morocco continues to join and ratify treaties and agreements and participate in drafting and preparing conventions. It has ratified a number of international conventions on equality and anti-discrimination. It has also initiated procedures for the ratification of the Third Optional Protocol to the Convention on the Children’s Rights regarding the submission of communications, the annex Protocol to the International Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women, the Protocol to the International Convention against Torture in addition to lifting its reservations to CEDAW.

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Morocco’s Interaction with UN Human Rights Mechanisms

The Kingdom of Morocco continues its cooperation with the UN system of human rights, and its openness to dialogue and constructive interaction with its mechanisms, particularly the Universal Periodic Review mechanism, treaties entities and special procedures through the submitting periodic reports to the competent bodies, receiving special procedures, and interacting with the recommendations and observations of the UN mechanisms. In its 2008 and 2012 reports, the Kingdom presented its efforts in Human Rights in general and in women’s rights in particular. It is also voluntarily committed to submit a progress report on the implementation of recommendations, which is in its final stages and will be presented next May (2014).

The Kingdom is preparing a comprehensive action plan to monitor the implementation of the recommendations of the United Nations mechanisms for human rights, including recommendations relating to indicators MDGs for women and girls such as indicators of Combatting Violence against Women or indicators of participation.

In February 2012, Morocco received the workgroup on discrimination against women in legislature and in practice. In the report presented in the 20th edition of the Human Rights Council in June 2012, the workgroup praised the political and legislative reforms in Morocco, considering a number of them to be best practices, particularly the provisions of the new constitution that strengthen the rights and status of women.

In June 2013 Morocco also received the United Nations Special Rapporteur on Human Trafficking, particularly women and children, who will present her final report on her visit before the Human Rights Council in June 2014.

Adherence to International Standards of Human Rights

The European Union has granted Morocco advanced status in recognition of the Kingdom’s efforts in structural reforms and its commitment to the fundamentals of democracy and human

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rights. Morocco’s efforts in the field of structural reforms culminated in achieving the status of partner for democracy at the European Council.

An action plan is being designed by Morocco and the European Council titled «2012-2014 Priorities for Morocco in the framework of Neighbor Cooperation «, centered on democracy and human rights, one of axes of which aims at equality between men and women, and combating violence against women.

The US-Moroccan strategic dialogue Morocco has achieved under the leadership of HM King Mohammed VI has fortified the relationship between the two countries. A series of important agreements have been implemented over the last decade, highlighting the growing interest and significant strengthening of relations between the two countries. Most significant of these is the Millennial Challenge Corporation, which places improving equality among its top priorities.

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Chapter II: The Outcome of the Activation of the Millennium Development Goals for Women and Girls

1. Improved equitable and equal access to basic services

Decrease in Poverty Indicators

Reducing extreme poverty and hunger are among the most important goals that Morocco is striving to attain by 2015. It was able to overcome the United Nations poverty rate threshold of $1 per person per day. Measured on the basis of one dollar per person per day according to purchasing power, the rate of poverty in Morocco has decreased significantly, going from 3.5% in 1990 to 0.6% in 2008 (2015 target is approximately 1.8%). Among the factors that contributed to this decline in the poverty rate are: strengthening public investment in social development, geographical and social targeting of socio-economic programs specific to poor citizens and areas. The rate of decline was not the same in urban versus rural areas, or in all regions, making it necessary to monitor and evaluate the outcome of these objectives, not only at the national level but at the regional level as well.

Among the socio-economic programs targeting underprivileged citizens and areas, is the National Initiative for Human Development, launched by H.M. King Mohamed VI in 2005 according to the poverty map. The Initiative is based on a new approach to human development according to a targeted comprehensive method that aims at fighting poverty, vulnerability and social exclusion.

Morocco is currently in the second phase of this Initiative (2011-2015), which added a new pole related to “territorial rehabilitation”

for citizens in isolated regions, with a budget of 17 Billion MAD, via:

Broadening the territorial coverage of the Initiative to cover 701 rural communities versus 403 in the first phase

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Targeting 530 urban neighborhoods, versus 264

Targeting 1M people living in 3,300 isolated villages within 22 provinces.

The National Initiative for Human Development enabled the completion of over 10,567 programs, and development activities for 2.42 M people in 2011-2012. 1,984 were income-generating activities, which the Initiative contributed to with 3.6M MAD. The execution of this program, as of September 2013, enabled the launch of 2010 projects and 311 development activities at the cost of 2 billion MAD benefitting 308,847 people.

The Fund for Supporting Social Cohesion was created in 2012 to improve social cohesion and combating poverty. The Fund finances expenses related to the medical assistance system, supporting the disabled, and fighting school dropout. 3 Million MAD has been reserved for the Fund for 2014, reaching out to more beneficiaries. The Medical Assistance System for the needy “RAMED”, was also launched in 2012 by His Majesty the King, and was generalized in 2013. Over 2 Million families have benefited from its services so far (approximately 5.6 Million people). Over 1 Billion MAD is reserved for 2014 for the purchase of medication within this system.

The Programs for Financing Civil Society Projects related to development and improving the situation of disadvantaged groups have been concerned with improving women’s situations and providing services for people in difficulty, as well as supporting and rehabilitating social welfare institutions. A guide to these programs was published in 2013, dividing the programs by type, regions and provinces; services provided and target categories, listing authorization dates and numbers, as well as the associations in charge of managing

them.

In 2013, a National Report on Social Welfare Institutions was produced, undertaking a description of these institutions’ situations,

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studying and analyzing the legislative frameworks regulating their work, and listing the challenges to evaluating their results. This report is one of the fruits of a complete diagnosis of these institutions’ situations which began in 2012, with an aim to develop a vision for reforming welfare institutions as a whole.

The positive contribution to other infrastructure programs in combating poverty and operations expected in sectorial programs (such as the Green Morocco Plan, the Azure Plan, the second plan for Industrial advancement, the Traditional Handicrafts plan etc.)

Financial management and a gender-responsive budget, adopted in 2005, is one of the most important guarantees of fair access for women and men to basic services, and bridging the gap between them. The principles of equity and equality were among the main directives for integrating this dimension within the framework of a complete results-based budgetary reform launched in 2002, which aimed at a just and fair distribution of resources, taking into account the needs of the various components of the target beneficiaries in establishing, executing and evaluating public policies. A number of achievements have been realized in Morocco, such as improving tools for analyzing budgets by gender, enriching the national information system with budget-sensitive, in addition to preparing gender-based budgetary reports associated with financial laws. In February 2014, the Moroccan Parliament approved a reform of the financial regulatory law which emphasizes the institutionalization of performance-based management taking gender into account.

Improved Health and Reproductive Health Services

Morocco has sustained its efforts in the rehabilitation of health. The government has developed a new strategy for 2012-2016 centered on improving access to health services, improving the health of mothers, children and the disabled, developing mechanisms for disease control, in addition to improving governance, generalizing basic health coverage, providing necessary medication and medical equipment, strengthening the legal framework, consolidating regionalization,

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and partnerships between the public and private sectors. This was accomplished through several measures, such as lowering the cost of 320 medications, soon to increase to 800, launching the national program for assuming medical emergencies in March 2013 with a budget of 500 Million MAD, which is an important step towards consolidating the right to access to treatment and health services.

The Initiative for Saving Mothers’ and Children’s Lives launched by the WHO to accelerate the achievement two of the MGDs related to lowering the maternal and infant mortality rate, which commits to reducing maternal mortality by three quarters by 2015. Within this context, Morocco developed an action plan that extends until 2016, that aims at guaranteeing equality in providing care between urban and rural areas, and facilitating the poorest citizens’ access to medical care, particularly in rural areas, through promoting free emergency obstetric and newborn care, improving the quality of maternal care, and strengthening proximity services related to pregnancy and birth, and improving the regional leadership of the program.

The program resulted in a great improvement of maternal health. Maternal mortality degreased in 20 years by 66% to 332 deaths for 100 000 live births in 1992 and 112 deaths for 100 000 live births in 2010.

Despite this advancement, there remains lack of equal access to advanced care between rural and urban areas, between different social levels. In rural areas for example, the maternal death rate is twice what

it is in urban areas (148 versus 73 deaths for each 100000 live births).

As for access to general and reproductive health services, Morocco has a number of programs aimed at detecting breast and cervical cancer in healthcare institutions serving at least 50% of underprivileged women, integrating HIV virus detection the under the prevention of disease transmission from mother to child in 300 healthcare institutions by 2015. These programs are gradually being generalized to the national level, in addition to attaining national coverage in units offering integrated health services for women and children victims of violence,

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in accordance with adopted standards and regulations. The programs also aim to raise the number of births in a monitored environment to 95%, and contribute to improving the knowledge and skills of young people to adopt healthy and responsible reproductive behavior.

Mainstreaming the system of medical assistance has enabled large segments of the population, especially vulnerable and marginalized groups, to gain free access to a range of treatments within health institutions, which is expected to raise the level of health coverage in less than ten years from 16 to 62 percent.

Generalized Primary Education and Literacy for Women and Girls

The Kingdom of Morocco has made the establishment of gender

equality in access to education one of its priorities, through a series of reforms and measures for gender equality. One such action is a strategic medium-term action plan to institutionalize gender equality by establishing equality in the governance of the educational system, ensuring equitable access to children to a qualified educational system and making schools a space for learning values and behaviors related to gender equality. Another project is the promotion of equality in the education system with an aim to eliminate gender disparity in access to education and fights against school dropout.

These efforts have had a positive outcome. In 2011-2012, the gender parity index for access to education in urban areas reached 91% in primary school, 78% in middle and secondary school, 92% in high school, and 91% in higher education. In comparison with 1990-1991, this index increased by 34 points in higher education, 25 points in primary school, 24 points in high school, and 8 point in secondary school, and 34 points for higher education. In rural areas this index doubled between 1991 and 2012, going from 42% to 89%. The presence of women in higher education exceeded 50% in some areas of studies in public education such as dentistry (73%), finance and management (64%), medicine and pharmacy (57%) and technology (51%).

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The indexes for mainstreaming of schooling and girls’ schooling in Morocco have shown an increase, with primary schooling increasing from 91.2% in 2007-2008 to 99.6% in 2013-2013. For girls, these numbers are 89.9% in 2008-2009 and 99.1% in 2012-2013 with an increase in rural areas from 84.1% to 97.7% during the same period.

The transition to secondary school increased from 81% to 83.8%, with the numbers for girls being 43.4% to 49.3%, approximately a 7 point increase. In rural areas, it increased from 39.7% to 57.8%, over 11 points, during the same period. Over the last decade, the rate of enrollment of girls in high school increased by over 15 points at the national level and 9 points for girls: 45.6% to 53.4% in 2008-2009 and 13.3% to 18.8% in 2012-2013 respectively.

Continuous efforts are being made to combat school dropout, illiteracy and non-formal education program by activating the Second Chance School program, which is aimed at unschooled children or early dropouts (174,000 children benefited from this program, including about 84000 girls), the program for combating school failure and dropout which enabled the follow-up of 876 thousand pupils in primary and lower secondary school, the “1 Million schoolbag” program, which reached out to 3.9 million children, and the “Tayssir” program to support schooling of children in rural areas, in addition to coverage of rural and semi-urban areas as far as schools, and rehabilitating them to respond to the needs of girls, providing school transportation, and establishing communal and boarding schools as well as dormitories for girls who might be prevented from schooling because of their isolated living conditions. 783 students from 460 families have benefiting from the program during the current academic year. There has been a marked decrease in school dropouts from 4.6% in 2008-2009 to 1.9% in 2012-2013, and 5.2% to 2.7% for girls. The percentage of girls completing primary school has actually surpassed the national average of 90.2%, at 90.8% in 2012-2013.

The percentage of girls completing their schooling through the high school level has reached 50.4%in 2012-2013 whereas the national average is 41.9%.

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The rate of illiteracy recorded a significant decline, from 43% in 2004 to less than 28% currently. Morocco is wagering on reducing the illiteracy rate to 20% by 2016 through the goal of reaching million beneficiaries annually. The literacy rate among youth went from 58% in 1994 to 84.6% in 2012. Over the same period, it went from 46% to 79% for girls, and 71% to 90.1% for boys. In rural areas, the rate of illiteracy has been reduced significantly, going from 75% to 51.2% in the same period. This decrease is a result of an increased number of beneficiaries of illiteracy programs, which went from 655,478 (517,985 women) in 2006 to 702,119 (587,008 women) in 2011, and 750,000in 2012, indicating that women were the greatest beneficiaries of illiteracy programs.

Fair and Equal Access to Infrastructures

Morocco has committed to strive to eliminate any form of housing which does not respond to safety and gender-responsive standards. It is currently assessing the effects of programs to fight substandard housing on the living conditions of beneficiary families from a gender perspective.

Over 221 thousand families have benefited from the Cities without Shanty towns program including 43000 families between September 2011 and June 2013. 56324 families are expected to benefit from the units currently under construction. As for squatter settlements, a number of programs have been working to resolve the status and restructure of existing neighborhoods and integrate them into the urban fabric, for 225 thousand families in 2012-2013 at a cost of 5.263 billion MAD. A program for rehabilitation ancient structures threatening destruction was set up during the same period for 32201 families at a cost of 2.91 billion MAD.

Improved Access to Judicial Services

Based on the gains protected in the 2011 constitutional reforms, Morocco elaborated a strategy built upon keeping pace with these reforms to improve women’s access to justice and accelerate the

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consolidation of democracy and good governance, centered on activating legal texts related to protecting women and supporting governance from a gender angle.

Statistical results on family justice show that early marriage is an exception, with underage marriage contracts not exceeding 10.97% in 2012, a decrease of 12.46% in 2011. The majority of requests for underage marriage are from girls aged 16 or more. The same statistics show that the percentage of polygamy remains about the same, 0.34% in 2011 and 0.26% in 2012, which makes it practically non-existent. The requests for authorizations for polygamous marriage contracts totaled 1571, 27.31% compared to 16.88% in 2011.

With regard to implementing family judicial cases, they increased to 74.51% of total cases in 2012, with alimony rulings representing 57.73%. Rulings on determining the wife and children’s entitlements rose to 33.59%.

Furthermore, great efforts were made to entrench the principle of equality in access to justice, crowned by achieving exemplary results. A few of these measures are: documenting marriage contracts, a measure that has been taken to achieve effective treatment for its various problems; activating the Family Solidarity Fund, which benefitted 2539 people as of September 2013; supporting structures that facilitate access to the courts by providing reception spaces; implementation of e-government; providing remote guidance and the role of social workers.

The advancement women’s legal and work status has been an opportunity to highlight the good practices related to the provision of judicial and legal services in some departments of family justice, develop ways to keep up with the implementation of legal texts, and develop a framework for dialogue between the various actors in the field of monitoring the application of the family Code and upholding the values it brought.

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2. Legal, Political, Economic, Social and Cultural Empowerment for Women and Girls

Legal Empowerment of Women to Combat Discrimination, Violence and Exclusion

The legal empowerment of women related to efforts to improve the legal arsenal in letter and practice is one of the main axes in the promotion and advancement of the situation of women. Over the last decade, Morocco has undergone a series of reforms to the legal arsenal (Family Code, the Criminal Code, the Labor Code, the Nationality Code, the Election Code, and the collective Charter ...) culminating in the new constitution of 2011. In 2013, the National Charter to Reform the Justice System was launched, placing women’s issues among its priorities, and the protection of women from discrimination and violence one of its main headings.

To combat violence against women, Morocco launched the National Strategy to Combat Violence Against Women and its action plan, a national institutional roadmap for creating structures for reception and orientation (Courts, hospitals, police stations and gendarmerie, and listening centers ..), developing a statistical and observational system about the spread of phenomena (national research on violence against women, 2010) and institutionalizing the monitoring processes. Currently, work is being done to create creation of a national observatory for violence as an institutional structure, which includes government sectors concerned with the issue as well as civil society associations and university research centers, stemming from its being a multi-sectorial program for combating violence against women and girls by empowering them.

In the context of combating violence, a bill to combat violence against women was presented to the government council in 2013, and is currently awaiting ratification. It aims to criminalize violence, guarantee women’s protection from all types of violence, by developing a conceptual framework for the phenomenon, creating mechanisms

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to provide for women and girls who are victims of violence; and for coordination, reception and guidance; and expanding the legal definition of criminalizing violence to include new manifestations of violence against women (forced marriage, thievery amongst spouses, breach of trust between spouses, violation of the sanctity of the woman’s body, squandering the family’s income and resources in a way that harms wives and children…), expanding the scope of criminalizing sexual harassment and tightening its sanctions (harassment by work colleagues, law enforcement officers, family members etc…); the tightening of sanctions on the perpetrators of violence against pregnant women, wives in front of their children, ex-wives etc; in addition to developing of the legal systems of monitoring violence against women (relying on psychological medical expertise as proof); and new protectionist measures for women victims of violence ((Removing

the abusive husband returned foster care children to the marital

home, and preventing the approach of the victim, listing of the

family property and preventing the aggressor of disposing of it ..).

The integrated inter-sectorial program to combat violence and

discrimination against women was launched in March 2013, and is considered a practical response to an appeal. The four year program centers on awareness, education and counseling, and establishing a culture of equality and anti-discrimination and violence against women. The program is one of the fruits of a series of consultations with different actors to assess the national outcome of combating violence against women, which targeted a joint and collective assessment of the national achievements ten years after the launch of the national strategy to combat violence against women, and objectively identifying the challenges that make violence against women a phenomenon whose indicators are of concern at the national and international level, as well as different directives that can be used in establishing a new plan of action to combat violence against women.

Criminal law has been subject to a number of amendments, in a framework of creating legislative harmony with the human rights of

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women. In early 2014, the parliament unanimously voted to amend article 475 of the criminal law related to marriage of underage victims of rape, eliminating the rapist’s right to marry the rape victim and prosecuting him, in addition to raising the prison sentence from one to five years for kidnapping a minor without sexual assault. Other projects have been laid out to ensure the comprehensive and effective criminal protection for women and guarantee their enjoyment of their fundamental rights.

Morocco has adopted a new path in partnering with the centers for listening, reception and guidance for women and girls who are victims of violence. In 2013 for example, the number of subsidized listening centers reached 50, at a total cost of 3,855,400.00 MAD. Support for vulnerable divorced mothers and offering effective solutions for the delays in implementation of alimony rulings is provided by the Fund for Family Solidarity, which was launched in 2012, and whose beneficiaries reached 562 women in October 2012.

Political Empowerment of Women and Strengthening their Positions in Decision-Making

In the field of political empowerment of women, Morocco has developed a legal arsenal as a gateway to the consolidation of political empowerment of women, and ensuring their equality with men in access to centers of political, social and economic decision-making.

In addition to the chapters of the Constitution of the Kingdom of Morocco in support of the rights of women, the legislative field saw a quantum leap in this area: creating a national constituency made up of 60 women, as well as local constituencies reserved for women; stipulating that the nomination lists for membership of the House of Counselors alternate between men and women; the creation of a support fund for the promotion of women’s representation, which finances projects to strengthen the capacities of women, particularly elected women ; creating equality and equal opportunities committees in each communal council made up of local associative personalities; integrating a gender-based approach to collectivity

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plan for development, which determines the work program for the community over 6 years; making it mandatory for political parties to expand the participation and mainstreaming of women to one-third within its governing entities nationally and regionally; and creating a commission for equality and equal opportunities.

These provisions made it possible for elected women to increase from 0.55% in 2003 to 12.38% in 2009. The number of women in parliament went from 10% in 2007 to 17% in 2011.

In parallel with these projects, the Kingdom of Morocco has worked to promote women’s access to administrative decision-making positions, positions of administrative responsibility and senior positions. This contributed to the evolution of the percentage of women in positions of responsibility from 10% in 2002 to 16% in 2012. The ratio of feminizing ministerial sectors went from 34% in 2002 to 38% in 2012.

With respect to appointing women to senior positions, a regulatory law was put forth in 2012 to promote the activation of the principle of parity in access to decision-making and administrative positions. As of December 31, 2013, the application of this law enabled the nomination of 31 women among 229 nominations, 13.5%., approved by the government council.

Economic Empowerment by Improving Indicators of Women’s Employment and Economic Initiatives

The new constitutional provisions stipulate the combating of all forms of discrimination, emphasizing the state’s role in mobilizing all available means to facilitate male and female citizens benefiting equally from the right to vocational training and employment, support in the search for jobs or in self-employment, and access to public office by merit. This required the establishment of mechanisms to guarantee equal access, pay and career development, particularly in the public sector, and to promote equal opportunities between the sexes in the job market.

However, men’s and women’s participation in economic activity remains disparate. The rate of activity differs by gender and place of

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residence, ranging between 3.25% for women, and 2.74% for men in 2011. The percentage of women who earn less than the minimum wage is 41% versus 31% for men. The differences between men and women in the field of labor haven’t undergone any significant changes over the last ten years, a fact that is explained by the economic situation in the country as far as job opportunities, which have lessened employers’ motivation to hire non-qualified labor, usually women. The participation of women in remunerated economic activity remains low, 24.7 % in 2012.

Unsuitable work conditions, rigid work hours, family responsibilities, most of which are borne by women, difficulties of work-life balance, and the social and cultural environment that limits work opportunities for women are all factors which contribute to widening the gap in job opportunities between men and women.

Despite these challenges to women’s effective participation in economic activity, Morocco continues to strive toward actively promoting the presence of women in the labor market and their access to entrepreneurship, the number of Moroccan women who possess or manage a company approaches 9000 to 10,000, or about 10% of companies, including services (37%), trade (31%), industry, particularly textile (21%).

Public policies, strategies and programs adopted by Morocco have enabled the strengthening of the economic empowerment of women and greater integration of Moroccan women in development. In 2012, the “Ilayki” fund was created to encourage and follow women’s enterprises by giving them access loans to develop their projects, in addition to initiatives of social and solidarity economy and that provide more opportunities for involving women in active life through the creation and development of income-generating activities at the territorial level.

With an aim to promote women’s access to economic sectors and the advancement of social and economic conditions of women, particularly in rural areas, Morocco launched a program for income-

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generating projects in 2012 to improve agricultural activities such as raising livestock, bees or goats. The amount of 800,000.00 MAD was reserved in 2012 to support income-generating activities and provide technical assistance to rural women. A socio-economic program was developed to encourage entrepreneurship and project management in accordance with rural women’s potential and capacities, with an annual budget allowing for the funding of 70 projects per year over 10 years, benefitting about 1400 rural women.

Women’s cooperatives and associations have been given much backing in regional and international fairs (such as International Agricultural Fair of Meknes, the Dates Fair in Erfoud, The International Agricultural Fair of and the Agriculture and Food Industry Fair in Berlin) in order to promote products made by rural women’s projects, develop competence in the field of marketing, and prospect for new markets.

Morocco has supported the creation and strengthening of the capacities of women’s enterprises, cooperatives and associations by launching a number of programs such as

“Baynahun” in, which aims at strengthening the management capacities of women entrepreneurs and cooperatives, which has served 561 women so far;

The “Infitah for Her” program which aims to sensitize very small businesses and cooperatives to the benefits and advantages of information technology in order to obtain a digital license enabling them to access preferential offers with financial support from the state. 10000 digital licenses have been delivered, 253 of 3786, or 6.7% to women;

The “Imtiyaz” program which aims at accompanying small and medium business with high growth potential by granting them support for investment, in addition to a fund for encouraging banks to support women’s projects;

The “Moussanada” project which aims at accompanying small and medium businesses in the process of modernizing and improving their productivity, which benefited 1218 businesses, including 132 run by women, about 10%.

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National standard of social responsibility for businesses dedicated to the advancement of social obligations of businesses, the most important being the dimension of equality

Programs for social integration through economy, such as the “Tathmeen” program aimed at developing local products, and the “Morocco Initiatives” program which focuses on accompanying individuals, etc.

As a result of some of these programs aimed at rehabilitation, reintegration and economic empowerment of women, 1756 women cooperatives were created by end of 2013. These cooperatives involve 31,833 committed women, and 40% of them are craft cooperatives. The women’s agricultural cooperatives represent 35%, while the total capital of the women’s cooperatives is estimated at 15,269,112 Moroccan Dirhams.

There has been valuation of social economy products to make women›s contribution in regional and national exhibitions as well as regional and mobile markets to reach 70 percent of the total participants. Also, the focus of the studies on regional plans for the development of the social and solidarity economy to all points of the Kingdom was on monitoring sectors and promising projects targeted towards women and income-generating activities and job opportunities. Women benefited from more than 40% of the capacity building workshops organized in conjunction with the exhibitions for 1228 beneficiaries.

Strengthening the legal and social protection for women workers

Morocco is keen to preserve and protect the rights of women in the labor market. The Labor Code which prohibits with punitive requirements any discrimination in pay between men and women, and stipulates some protectionist measures for mother employees. The country also engaged in fortifying labor inspection mechanism by expanding its base and enhancing its functional powers to monitor respect of the application of women-related legislative and regulatory requirements. This mechanism is used to collect statistical data regarding breaches

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in order to provide solutions and propose measures for the protection of women at work.

Morocco has also prepared a draft law on domestic workers following a participatory approach that involved all economic and social actors. The law was ratified by the government in May 2013, and it is pending parliament’s approval. Another draft law on labor relations in traditional sectors has been revised will soon be referred to ratify.

The Role of Civil Society in raising the Indicators related to Women’s Participation in Social Development Initiatives

During the last decade, Morocco progressed rapidly in supporting and encouraging the work of civil society and activating its roles, and lot of efforts were made to grant it a place in the state’s programs and plans in a way that achieves principles of democracy and social justice. In 2013, the government launched the National Dialogue on Civil Society which came a result of the constitutional orientation to lay the foundation for a participatory approach between the state and civil society. This dialogue aims to formulate common rules of governance for civil society and the drafting of a national charter of honor for participatory democracy, through different communicative mechanisms targeted at greater involvement of different stakeholders.

In this context, civil society is invited to engage strongly in this workshop that will enable Morocco to make real progress and become a role model in the field of participatory democracy. Development is a joint venture between government and civil society that can only happen with participatory democracy makes the act of civil society at the heart of a dynamic process of reform aimed at improving the conditions of citizens and making them a means and a purpose of development.

In recent years, there has been an increase in the frequency of starting NGOs, and this was accompanied by an increase in the pace of the public support provided to their projects. Today, the number of associations is close to 100 000, and the will of the government is

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determined to enhance the organization of this field and develop precise and transparent mechanisms for funding based on RFPs while clearly identifying beneficiaries and preventing combination of funds.

Today, Request for Proposals are annually announced for projects of civil society associations that aim the reduction of poverty, vulnerability and social exclusion, or the contribution to the achievement of social justice, or women empowerment of and fighting against discrimination and violence against them, or socio-economic reintegration of people in difficult situations, or the strengthening of the development actors and partners for better efficacy. The social pole supported these projects in 2013 alone with a total of 22,996,608 Moroccan Dirhams.

Media as a Lever for Gender Equality

In regards to Morocco’s efforts correcting the image of women in the media, given the important role the latter play in forming public opinion and instilling a culture of equality and fairness, the experience started with the preparation of the National Charter to improve the image of Moroccan women in the media. This charter was prepared and signed by different stakeholders including institutions from the government, advertisers, journalist union, and media agencies. In 2012, the public audiovisual sector has new specifications and requirements that ensure a greater presence of women in the public media and promote the equality and dignity of women. The audiovisual law, under validation, includes requirements to fight stereotypes, discrimination and denigration of the dignity of women in the media. Moreover, the draft law on the professions related to press and publication which is also under validation includes requirements that prevent publicity that abuses women or shows their inferiority or discriminates against them.

Today, the Moroccan government is working on the National Observatory that will improve the image of women in the media and play roles of vigilance and pleading, along with the High Authority for Audiovisual Communication that plays regulatory roles in the national media landscape in respect of the principles of human rights and pluralism.

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However, despite these efforts, there are still challenges on the level of the enactment of laws and standard frameworks governing how to respect the principles of gender equality in the media, as well as the challenge of strengthening the capacity of monitoring and vigilance. Remains the challenge of enhancing the capabilities of media professional women and improving their work conditions and allowing them to access decision-making centers... These are all open workshops today.

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Chapter III. Millennium Development Goals for women and girls: Constraints and Stakes

The results of the activation of the Millennium Development Goals between 2003 and 2013 show the extent of Morocco’s effort in meeting its obligations that these goals translated into numbers and indicators. Thanks to its efforts, Morocco has become a role model for other African countries in view of the political, institutional and legislative reforms it launched in the course of activating these objectives on one hand, and the development boom in various indicators on the other hand.

1. Obstacles to applying MDG for Women and Girls

However, the Moroccan experience in implementing the Millennium Development Goals faced several constraints and challenges, some of which are summarized in the following:

Slow integration of equality in development policies and programs and weakness of some results

The extrapolation of the outcome achieved in the framework of the Millennium Development Goals shows that despite all the efforts, there are delays in indicators related to equality, reducing maternal mortality, universal education for girls, reducing violence against women, fighting poverty, and empowering women to access political, administrative and economic decision-making centers.

Although Morocco put in place early strategies and action plans to promote equality and fight all forms of discrimination and violence against women, the preparation of these strategies was slow in the process of consultation and coordination between various actors. These strategies also faced lengthy processes in the strategic reforms for equality such as the gender-compliant budget, in addition to the difficulty of integrating standards and priorities related to gender in some governmental sectors, not to mention the failure in activating and accomplishing some of the goals.

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The major economic and development projects in Morocco lack transversal integration of equality. In fact, the country launched a leading dynamic of development through major projects but did not develop mechanisms and methods to accommodate the needs of women and men in these projects.

Weak Qualified Human Resources Capacity to Integrate Gender into Policies

The government initiatives and actions associated with integrating gender in public policies exceed capabilities and capacities of available specialized and qualified human resources. This makes it difficult to control the mishaps of implementation associated with the absence or lack of human capacity in activating the indicators.

Lack of data and statistics related to gender

The absence and shortage of data and statistics by gender reduces the awareness of the gender inequalities and the capacity to understand their causes and consequences, and makes it difficult to control and fix them. The difficulty of doing statistical measurements over convergent intervals (such as the annual map of gender differences), or in different geographies affect the way in which public policies deal with the issues of equality.

Limited financial and budgetary resources

Our country has made an important effort for the rehabilitation of the social sectors and allocated important financial resources to them. However, the important credits spent do not meet the desired level, given the size of the shortfall due to limited resources.

Weak mechanisms of Institutional Accountability in Gender Mainstreaming

There is a weakness in the level of monitoring and evaluation of government policy related to gender. This is seen in the absence of the culture of assessment and institutional accountability in the field

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of gender integration in public policies, and the scarcity of skilled manpower specialized in gender issues.

Low Convergence in Developing Policies and Programs on Equality

Achieving convergence between public policies is very important as any development and gender indicators depend on several governmental and local actors. This confirms the need of comprehensive harmony between development strategies and policies to ensure their convergence at design and implementation phases in order to achieve greater integration and interaction between these policies.

2. Stakes of attaining MDGs for Women and Girls

These challenges made Morocco look forward to enhancing its national experience to win the following challenges:

Strengthening the regional dimension in developing and applying public policies and development programs, as the communal domain has become the most effective framework for dealing with fundamental issues of development, and their relationship with regional specificities. This makes it the right framework to develop an alternative strategy for economic, social and regional development in the context of regional extended regionalization that reduces territorial disparities and supports proximity services.

Setting the indicators of women’s empowerment and gender mainstreaming in relation to the goals especially that these indicators are limited and have weak gender and diversity goals. This reflects all the problems of equality and affects the results achieved in gender objectives.

Developing statistical and information systems relating to various gender indicators, which helps monitor the status of equality at economic, social and political levels and estimate the participation and contribution of women in the public and private spaces (adding gender to poverty indicators for example). It is also important to emphasize on the necessity of the local data and the need to develop statistical information

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for core local geographies, allowing the preparation of regional that help adapt policies with needs.

Activating a participatory approach in all equality and parity domains in order to build a national partnership where all institutional, private sector and civil society stakeholders work together.

Improving governance and government management effectiveness at the levels of planning, program design, resource management, fighting corruption, for a better efficiency and cost-effectiveness of public spending. There are also open areas for initiative to improve the governance of the social sectors in fields such as engineering social policies and the level of coordination and convergence of social public policies.

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Chapter IV: Recommendations for building an integrated vision for achieving equality and the women empowerment in the post-2015 agenda

In the context of the preparation for the development plan post-2015, and in order to build a new development model, and identify priorities for development beyond 2015 in a way that is consistent with national priorities, here is a set of recommendations that serve as a contribution to post-2015 development agenda:

To consolidate the process of participatory democracy and to strengthen the foundations of governance and the State of Law, and successfully manage the extended regionalization in order to improve the social and economic rights for women and men, and to reduce regional and gender disparities, and to have a fair and equitable access to productive resources and services and the world of knowledge.

To liberate human potential and participate in accordance with accountability, while ensuring equal and fair participation of women in this process especially as they make up more than half of the population.

To allocate an independent development goal for equality and women empowerment, and use its indicators to track the status of equality and the activation of rights.

To singling out specific indicators of gender and women’s rights horizontally in all the objectives in accordance with the local territorial dimension.

To expand democratic and participatory practices at the central and local levels, to ensure the equitable distribution of resources and achievement of development.

To adopt the targeted approach which is based on giving priority in development programs to the needy and poorer groups, and also to marginalized regions and territories in order to reduce disparities between territorial collectivities.