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REFLECTIONS ON RURAL POVERTY IN MOROCCO

Linda LIKAR, World Bank & Institute of Economic Policy andProspective Analysis, Al Akhawayn University,Ifrane, Morocco

TABLE RONDE #1 - 30 Mars 2001ROUND TABLE #1 - March 30th 2001

PAUVRETÉS MÉDITERRANÉENNESPOVERTY IN THE MEDITERRANEAN

REFLECTIONS ON RURAL POVERTY IN MOROCCO

SECOND CONFERENCE OF THEEURO-MEDITERRANEAN FORUM

OF ECONOMIC INSTITUTESMarseilles, March 29-30, 2001

Linda Likar, Principal Economist, World Bank &Institute of Economic Policy and Prospective Analysis,

Al Akhawayn University, Ifrane, Morocco

This document was prepared with the support of the World Bank and the Institute ofEconomic Policy and Prospective Analysis, Al Akhawayn University, Ifrane, Morocco. Thepaper represents the views of its author and is not to be quoted without the expressedpermission of the author.

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REFLECTIONS ON RURAL POVERTY IN MOROCCO

A. Introduction1

The 1990s brought several major political changes to Morocco, marked in April 1998 withthe first socialist-led coalition government (alternance) in the country’s history. Then, in July 1999,the unexpected death of the late King Hassan II ended his 38 year reign. A young, more modernKing, Mohammed VI came to the throne to lead a young population in the middle of a fast changing,“globalizing” world. Many new, informal initiatives were underway in the country that were evenbeginning to affect some of the most remote rural areas. Already in the early 1990s, the late KingHassan II encouraged village associations and other non governmental organizations (NGOs) t oundertake community level actions to improve their living conditions. King Mohammed VI brought anew elan to poverty reduction efforts, through his early speeches, through the mobilization of fundsand through the establishment of new foundations with strong NGO representation. He also stronglyencouraged the government to scrutinize its existing social programs, budget allocations and spendinglevels, and he is adding development objectives to the traditional security role of his provincialgovernors. He and the alternance government have brought visible improvements to the justicesystem, human rights, and tolerance for open discussions about social problems in the media.

As the 1990s came to a close, the new King looked back on a decade of domestic stability ina fast changing world, but also on declining growth, rising numbers of poor, high unemployment inurban areas, and widespread underemployment in rural areas. The number of poor is estimated t ohave increased by 50% since 1991 (from 3.5 to 5.3 million people). Rural areas are the hardest hit,both in terms of the numbers and severity of poverty. An estimated 27% of the rural population and12% of the urban population are classified as living below the poverty line in 1998 compared to 18%and 8% respectively in 1991 (Table 1A). The reason for the increase is largely the decline in percapita annual GDP growth rates of around 2 percentage points during the 1990s compared to the1980s. This drop contrasts sharply with the high average annual growth rates achieved in manyAsian and Latin American countries during this same period. The decline in growth was driven by thevery sharp drop in agriculture, but even non-agricultural GDP growth declined, as sectors likeagriculture, services, and construction, where the poor are mainly employed, have all grown moreslowly during the 1990s (Table 1B).

Table 1A: 1984/85 1990/91 1998/99Poverty Indicators Total Rural Urban Total Rural Urban Total Rural Urban % poor 21% 33% 17% 13% 18% 7.6% 19% 27% 12%No. millions 4.6 4.0 1.7 3.4 2.5 0.9 5.3 3.5 1.8

Table 1B: Selected Macroeconomic Indicators 1986-91 1991-98

Real GDP growth 4.1 1.9Agriculture 4.0 -1.8Industry 3.6 3.1Manufacturing 4.5 2.6Construction 3.8 1.7Services 4.5 2.6

Real GDP non-agriculture growth 4.2 2.8Real per capita GDP growth 2.1 0.1

LSMS 1998/99 and Economic Indicators, World Bank April 2000

1Direction de la Statistique, Enquête sur le Niveau de Vie (LSMS) 1998 and 1991; “Developpement Agricole et

Developpement Rural au Maroc”, M. Serghini, paper presented at the MDF 9/98; Stratégie de la ProtectionSociale : les ONGs et Développement dans le Monde Rural, working paper, March 2000; Protection Socialedans le Monde Rural, working paper for the Social Assessment, November 1999 Messrs. Herzenni andAmahan; World Bank Report, “Rural Development: From Vision to Action”, 1997.

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The above poverty and growth trends pose manageable, yet complex economic, social, andenvironmental challenges for government. This paper attempts to look at some of the issues facingMorocco’s rural population, including: climatic/environmental risks; food security and relatedagricultural policies; the distribution of productive assets; access to basic services; and the availabilityof transfers. It discusses these different elements by looking at the main risks rural people face, thegovernment programs and other mechanisms in place to help them cope with these risks, and someof the recent local community initiatives which are bringing development solutions to some ofMorocco’s poorest and more remote communities. These new approaches have the potential t oimprove the cost effectiveness, impact and the outcomes of many of the government’s moretraditional programs.

B. Main Risks The rural population is overwhelmingly young, and because the majority of the rural

population is employed in agriculture, they are vulnerable to many risks which threaten theirincomes and well-being (Table 2). Roughly 60-70% of farm families have poor productive assets, andthis situation is likely to worsen as the new generation divides up their parents’ holdings into evensmaller plots. Increasingly frequent droughts have caused rain fed agricultural production t odeteriorate significantly. Natural resources are particularly degraded, meaning women today mustwalk much farther to collect firewood or to fetch potable water. Marketing channels are poorlydeveloped, meaning when farmers have bumper crops, there are inadequate means for storage,processing and marketing surpluses. So far, out migration in search of jobs has been the only optionand has accounted for the growing numbers of urban poor. Steady out-migration brought the relativesize of the rural population to just under 13 million people (46% of the total), and this figure isexpected to remain constant during the next decade, as higher birth rates (about 3% p.a.) in ruralareas off-set the continued out migration. Are there affordable ways to reduce out migration ofbreadwinners by diversifying farm revenues and increasing access to services?Table 2: Rural Profile, Risks,and ProgramsRURAL POPULATIONTOTAL % millionAge profile< 15 38 4.915 < 39 39 5.140 – 60 16 2.1> 60 7 0.8

100% 12.9- -- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -27% (3.5 million) < poverty line28% (3.6 million) 50% >line- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -79% ( 10.1 million) ruralinhabitants depend directly onagricultural activities.

RISKS1. Climate (drought, flood)2. Reliable availability of water3. Degradation of the land4. Overpopulation relative to

land5. Commercialization of Crops6. Exclusion to knowledge,

information, infrastructureservices

7. Health, Nutrition, old age andphysical handicaps

8. Urban unemployment &lower financial transfers

9. Slow-down in int’l migration& lower financial transfers

PROGRAMS/MEASURES1. Price Supports, subsidized

agroindustrial development2. Family transfers from urban areas

or from abroad (out migration)3. Irrigation Expansion4. Agriculture Extension5. Anti drought emergency fund6. Ministries of health, education

(BAJ)7. Rural infrastructure (water,

electricity, roads), some smallirrigation development.

8. Promotion Nationale public works

Agricultural Risks: Climate, Water Shortages, Land Degradation, Overpopulation Morocco’s endemic vulnerability to drought and occasional flooding have made agriculture ahighly risky endeavor, all the more so for the poor, subsistence farmers relying on small rain fedplots for their livelihood (60% of all farmers). The increased frequency and severity of droughts(nearly one every two years), have made the consistent availability of irrigated water doubtful, evenfor farmers in the zones that are equipped with modern irrigation systems. Limitations to thepumping of groundwater mean that by 2010 Morocco will become a water short country.

Worldwide, for the last half-century, the principal challenge has been raising the productivityof land (getting more crops out of each hectare of land). The new frontier for the 21st Century willbe boosting water productivity--getting more benefit from every liter of water devoted to crop

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production. Today agriculture accounts for 90% of water resource use in Morocco, but in the future,significant stretches of land may need to be pulled out of irrigation, as a result of competing demandsfor water from other sectors of the economy. Roughly 30% of irrigated land in Morocco is devotedto cereals, yet 1,000 tonnes of water are needed to produce 1 tonne of wheat. Can the Moroccaneconomy afford to grow irrigated wheat or other water thirsty crops like sugar cane or sugar beet?These cropping patterns are possible largely due to government subsidies that keep water pricesartificially low and cereal support prices high. But these policies discourage sustainable watermanagement practices.

The very high population growth rates in the 1960s and 1970s outpaced cereal productionincreases and led to food shortages. In 1983, the Moroccan authorities undertook a series of measuresdesigned to increase food security, largely by increasing dry land farming. The measure mostfrequently cited as having helped increase the degradation of land and the country’s vulnerabilityto drought was significant price supports designed to increase soft wheat production. Farmersexpanded cereals onto previously fallow land and onto marginal, low rainfall range land. These soilscan only sustain cultivation if higher than normal rainfall prevails, which has not been the case.Lower rainfall levels, like those experienced over the past two decades, have meant highly irregularoutput and the forced abandonment of these more fragile lands to wind, erosion, and desertification.In 1989, support prices for soft wheat increased further, encouraging the expansion of irrigated softwheat production. Today, Morocco needs to import on average about half of its domestic cerealrequirements, in spite of keeping domestic cereal prices at nearly 2 times international prices.

Overpopulation relative to cultivable land. During the past 40 years, rural populationshave increased rapidly, with larger numbers moving on to more marginal land. Although populationgrowth rates are coming down, they are still high in rural areas (around 3%/year). One millionfarmers or 70% of the total have to survive with poor productive assets: no (or highly uncertain)irrigation; small holdings, often in mountainous areas; and little or no education. This contrasts withonly 4% of farmers who have better land and larger holdings, often equipped with irrigation. (Table3).Table 3: Land Distribution by numbers of Farmers and Levels of Education Achieved

Exclusion to Basic Services Rural infrastructure. Lack of potable water, basic roads, and electricity create anenvironment of exclusion for the effected rural communities which has adverse impacts on thehealth and educational achievements of rural populations. Access to potable water and sanitation arealso key determinants to health outcomes, and they are virtually assured in Morocco’s urban areas,while in rural and periurban areas, access is low. An estimated 30% of the rural population has pipedpotable water, and there are very few examples of pit latrines or other sanitation systems. Only 20%of the rural population has electricity, and many communities have only donkey paths as their solemeans of getting to market towns. Spot surveys frequently site these three services (water, roads,electricity) as top development priorities. Education. Lack of access to information and know-how represents a major risk t oMorocco’s rural population—to their income earning potential, to their ability to improve crop

Land Size (ha) No. Farmers % Share of Total Farmers %

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yields and productivity, to commercialize their products, and to diversify even further their incomesources. Rural populations have developed a range of traditional survival techniques and somediversification of income sources through handicraft activities. But the poor quality and limitedaccess to relevant education and training has made it difficult for rural families to significantlyimprove the quality and marketability of their crafts and to diversify their on farm activities.Domestic transport systems, packaging services, and export marketing channels are weak, largely dueto the lack of know-how and organization.

The education levels for small farmers are exceptionally low (Table 3). Nearly 70% of therural population and 83% of rural females (> age 10) are illiterate. In an age where human capital andknowledge are the key determining factors for economic growth and development, the lack of accessto a basic education causes rural populations to fall further behind. Recent efforts to increase schoolenrollments in rural areas are starting to pay off, as net primary enrollment rates for rural femaleshave gone up from 28% in1990/91 to 47% in 1998/99. Overall net primary enrollment rates are77% for the country as a whole, 60% in rural areas. Unfortunately, few rural children reach grade7—in fact by age 12, only 30% of the girls are in school, compared to 60% for the boys. A family’sopportunity cost for sending a girl to school is very high, given the time and distances involved, thecost of school materials, and the number of chores young girls are expected to carry out.

Health Care. Maintenance of good health is an important way to conserve the onlyresource that poor people ultimately own: their own labor. Rural populations face numerous basichealth risks which affect incomes and push families into poverty: high maternal mortality rates;chronic malnutrition and vitamin deficiencies; work related accidents; handicaps; upper respiratoryinfections; and old age. Morocco has made important improvements in developing its healthsystem’s capacity and increasing life expectancy from 60 years in the 1970s to 69 years today. Yet,shortfalls in several health outcomes continue to have an adverse effect on school performance andthe earning potential of rural children.

! Chronic malnutrition largely in the rural and peri-urban regions have contributed to Morocco’shigh under five mortality rate (46 per 1000 population) and to poorer school performance. Inthe Philippines, a 12 year study of more than 2,000 children linked stunting during infancy witha marked increase in school dropout rates, late enrollment, and poor performance.

! A USAID study found widespread vitamin A and iron deficiencies in several regions which stiflechildren’s mental and physical development and increase susceptibility to disease and death.Iodine deficiency is another major public health problem in Morocco and one of the leadingpreventable causes of mental retardation. Regulations requiring industries to iodize salt were onlypassed in 1995, but frequently companies don’t always comply with the regulations. A WorldBank study in Indonesia reported that children with significant levels of iodine deficiency averagethree fewer years in school than their peers in comparable, non-deficient communities.

! Morocco’s physician to population ratio is lower than other comparable income countries, andthere are 4:1 urban-rural differentials with respect ot physicians, beds per person, access to care,health outcomes, and spending. The maternal mortality rate in rural areas is the highest in theregion after Yemen at 334/100,000 live births. An estimated 80% of rural women deliver theirchildren at home with traditional (untrained) midwives.

Status of Women. The Moroccan authorities are working to improve the health, educationand economic conditions for rural women as part of a broader action program to promote women’sdevelopment. International experience shows that the benefits from such programs are potentiallyvery high. Cross-country studies on malnutrition and nutrient deficiencies tend to conclude thatmalnutrition is determined more by the status accorded to women in the society, than by actual foodshortages or a country’s agricultural endowment. An FAO study estimates that in rural areas, 80% ofAfrica’s, Latin America’s and Asia’s food is produced by women, yet women have little or no accessto land ownership, credit, agricultural training, education or social privileges. The study showed that

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women reinvest nearly all of their income to meet household needs, whereas men often set aside upto a quarter of their income for other non household expenses.2

Old age and handicapped. The rural world is a highly physical world, so when people arephysically unable or are too old to work, they become an additional burden to their families. Socialsecurity and health insurance coverage in rural areas is negligible. The expectation is that the elderlywill be looked after by their children, hence Moroccan rural families have little savings for old age.

Banking services are virtually non-existent in rural areas (except in some of the largertowns). Traditional savings methods are used (stocking cereal/purchasing an extra lamb). Savingsmobilization efforts and measures to promote banking services for small businesses and small saversneed to be developed as a critical element in the country’s economic growth strategy.

C. Agricultural Policies, Government Programs, and Community Initiatives To reduce the outflow of rural migrants to the already overcrowded cities and ensure thecountry’s production of staples, the authorities have opted for a series of policies. The mostimportant and largest has been the set of agricultural policies which offer price supports for cerealproduction and high protection rates for staple crops, the expansion of modern irrigation, occasionalemergency drought relief, and rural public works programs. In around 1996/97, the authorities added abig push towards improving access to services under the Social Priorities Program (BAJ), increasingexpenditures for schools, health clinics and rural infrastructure. During the latter half of the 1990s,more integrated rural development initiatives have been undertaken by local rural communities withimpressive results.

Agricultural PoliciesThe most recent food security program was announced in early 1999 “Securisation de la

production Cerealiere à 60 million de Quintaux”, aiming for 6 million tonnes compared to averageproduction of 3-4 million tonnes/year. Faced with persistent export limitations of fresh fruits andvegetables to their main EU market and domestic food shortages for several staples, the authoritiesfelt obliged to encourage the production of crops that are in high demand in the local diet (sugar,wheat flour, and cooking oil). While this logic is understandable, these policies face productionconstraints, equity concerns, and high opportunity costs for water. Will this program actually helppoorer farmers? The authorities expect to increase wheat yields from 1.5 to 2 tonnes/ha in thefavorable rain fed areas and from 0.1 to more than .5/ha in the other rain fed areas (Table 4).However, population growth, the lack of viable new cropland, and the increasing frequency ofdroughts (one out of every two years since 1980) make such a goal questionable.

Wheat price supports and incentives, such as improved seeds and other inputs, are themain policy instruments used to achieve the food security objective. Absolute and relative priceshave significantly favored soft wheat, which is much less drought resistant than traditionally growncrops such as hard wheat, barely or pulses. High support prices also have the stated objective ofinjecting badly needed revenues into rural areas, as a kind of social protection system for farmers thatprovide minimum income support and encourage farmers to remain on the land. However, the shifttowards soft wheat production on unsuitable, fragile lands has increased the variability of production,

2 FAO, “Women Feed the World”, Rome, World Food Day, Ocotber 16, 1998.

Table 4: Cereal Food Security Program-- 6 million tonnes/yearMorocco Area (million ha) yields (tonnes/ha) Total tonnes million

1998/99 2002/03 1998/99 2002/03 1998/99 2002/03Irrigated 0.25 0.30 4.5 5.0 1.1 1.5Good Rainfed 1.60 1.60 1.5 2.0 2.4 3.2Other Rainfed 2.40 2.40 .1 >.5 .2 1.3

4.25 4.30 3.8 6.0Ministry of Agriculture 1999

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especially for the 60-70% of farmers who depend on adequate rainfall. A bad year quickly places thisgroup of farmers at risk.

Food security policies have not been able to ensure domestic cereal supplies nor provide asignificant source of revenues for the majority of poor rural farmers or landless labor. A modest 1.6million tons (16 million Quintals, 1 quintal = 100kg) of cereal are in commercial markets at anygiven time, since 80% of total cereal production stays with the farmer. Most small farmers consumewhat they grow and store any extra production. Occasionally, poor farmers sell small quantities t otraders in their local “souk” (market), and in that sense may benefit from the small amounts ofwheat sold to traders at a somewhat higher price. But, large farmers and traders are the mainbeneficiaries of the support price because they can sell significant quantities at the higher officialprice to ONICL (state grain agency).

Only once in the past 25 years (an exceptionally good year in 1982) did the quantity ofwheat sold in commercial markets come from an estimated 125,000 out of the 1 million farmersgrowing wheat. Most years, only about 35,000 farmers sell significant quantities of cereal on themarket (usually those with roughly 20-50 ha farms). In bad years, as few as 10,000 farmers sell incommercial markets (those with 50-100 ha., partly irrigated). Table 5 compares the high (tax free)revenue for large farmers and the modest revenues for small farmers, based on the 1999 support priceof DH230/quintal and average yields.Table 5: Comparative returns to wheat production

Small Farmer Favorable Rainfed Small Farmer Unfavorable Rainfed 3-4 ha (average yields 15Q/ha) 3-4 ha (average yields 6Q/ha)Total revenues: 13,800DH (US$1,380) Total Revenues: 5520DH (US$552)

Large Farmer Favorable Rainfed Large Farmer Irrigated50 ha (average yields 15Q/ha) 50 ha (average yield 45Q/ha)Total revenues: 172,500DH (US$17,250) Total revenue: 517,500DH (US$51,750)

Irrigation Development, Research & Extension, Emergency ProgramsThe expansion of the modern irrigation system has been a pillar of Moroccan agricultural

policy prior to and since independence. Since the time of independence, the authorities haveexpanded modern irrigation from 150,000 ha to 1.4 million ha (17% of cultivated land). Anestimated 30% of total farmers have access to modern irrigation systems, mainly growing export andindustrial crops (citrus, early vegetables, sugar beets, sugar cane). Another 10% of farmers haveuncertain sources of irrigation and the remaining 60% must rely exclusively on adequate rainfall.Dam construction and the expansion of modern irrigation are expensive investments that cangenerally only be justified by the production of high return crops. It is understandable that theauthorities place a high priority on completing and maximizing the returns from the irrigationsystems in large areas where dam construction has mobilized water for irrigation. But they are doingso, almost to the exclusion of investments in the rain fed areas.

The two most likely research and extension programs that benefit poorer farmers are thesmall irrigation (PMH) and extension services in rain fed areas (Centres Travaux CT). There wasactually a sharp decline in these two programs from their peak in 1990. The other two programs, soilconservation and Pasture Safeguard would affect both the smaller and better off farmers. Togetherthe four programs amount to only 11% of the Ministry of Agriculture’s (MAG) total expenditures.These programs are tiny compared to the Ministry’s programs for the plains and the modernirrigated sectors, the Offices Regionaux de Mise en Valeur (ORMVA) which account for half of totalMAG expenditures.

Few resources have been devoted to raising the productive potential of rain fed lands usingsmall-scale, affordable irrigation methods. The technologies currently available for irrigation aretoo big and too expensive for farmers with small plots. The cheapest way to irrigate withgroundwater is to install a pump, but diesel is too expensive for most small farmers (many placeelectricity as their top priority so they can pump water at a lower cost than with diesel). Bangladesh,

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Nepal, and South Africa are experimenting with custom-designed affordable irrigation technologiesfor small plots.

Emergency Drought Relief. The Ministry’s emergency drought relief programs injectanywhere from US$30 to $100 million in public works programs for farmers stricken by the drought(the highest amount ever-- US$620 million—was allocated for the year 2000). These expendituresprovide public works so farmers can earn enough income to survive the worst effects of the drought.These expenditure are a combination of new allocations and reallocations from other activitiestowards drought relief. They are becoming more frequent, and they were nearly 3 times theMinistry’s normal investment budget for 2000. The Ministry needs to plan for droughts as the normrather than the exception and put in place permanent policies to address such a widespread problem.The authorities have also been trying to launch a pilot drought insurance program in the Sousseregion, but it is difficult to find participants willing to pay the premiums necessary for the insurancescheme to function. The scale of their activities remains small (estimated at 15-20,000 mainly largefarmers).

Promotion Nationale. PN is an efficient public works scheme set-up under the Ministry ofInterior in 1961. It is managed by the military to employ under or unemployed workers in rural areasto build roads and water wells. The workers receive the following minimum wage pay (2000):unskilled labor (41DH/day or US$4/day); semi-skilled (48.75DH/day); and skilled (53.75DH/day).The majority of workers are unskilled, with several dependents, who only obtain these wages for 3-4weeks (in order to distribute the earning opportunities among the large numbers of men seekingemployment). The PN expands its activities in drought years, injecting a minimum level of revenuesinto poor communities.

Government Programs, Private Transfers & Community InitiativesThe Government’s rural potable water (PAGER) investment program is a key input t o

achieving progress in attaining health objectives. Starting from little or no public investment in ruralpotable water supply prior to 1996, the Government allocated DH100 million (US$10 million) in1997 and again in 1998. In 1999, that amount was increased to DH250 million (US$25 million). ThePAGER program has significantly increased its links and cooperation with village associations andother NGOs.

The government’s rural electricity (PERG) program is ambitious, boosting expendituresfrom DH 100 million (US$10 million) in 1996 to DH 1.8 billion (US$180 million) by 2002 in orderto significantly expand access to electricity from 20% to 80% of the rural population by 2006. It isvery costly to bring electricity to most villages from the national grid, with costs of up t oUS$30,000/km to extend the medium voltage transmission lines. In addition, there are costsassociated with low-voltage distribution in the village and within the households. Most villagehouseholds are such small consumers that it is not commercially feasible to connect them to the gridwithout a significant state subsidy. More cost effective options, such as stand alone generators forvillages far from the grid and solar panels for outlying dwellings, are being developed in Morocco andother countries (Box 3).

Nine years of basic education is a pillar of Morocco’s social development strategy, yet analarming 2-3 million school age children are out of school. For the past decade, the Government hasbeen spending significant sums on education (5.5 - 5.9% of GNP), with poorer results relative t osimilar expenditure levels but higher achievements in other middle-income countries. The most acuteproblems the Ministry faces are the highly dispersed rural populations, where it is difficult to judgethe best location for schools and hard to get teaching staff willing to be posted in far off, remotelocations.

A breakdown of expenditures for grades 1-6 and 7-12 indicate that outlays are skewed infavor of the higher grade levels and urban households, since comparatively few rural children reachgrade 7. Expenditures/student devoted to secondary school are 3.3 times higher thanexpenditures/student for the first 6 years of primary school. By comparison, in OECD countries,

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public expenditures/student for secondary school are on average only 1.4 times higher than publicexpenditures/student in primary schools (MENA Regional Education Paper, 1998). Moreover,spending on primary education has a strong pro-poor bias.

It is logistically difficult (and expensive) to deliver the same type of education as that offeredin the urban centers to more remote rural villages. Nevertheless, since independence, theGovernment’s centralized education system and commitment to “equal opportunity” led theauthorities to try to offer exactly the same school constructions, curriculums, and teachingapproaches throughout the country. This type of blueprinting, whether in terms of construction,standardized teaching methods and curriculum, simply does not fit the needs of every corner ofMorocco. The result was that rural public schools could not cover all the children in need of a basiceducation (Box 1).BOX 1: Lessons from Community Based schoolsNon formal schools were first introduced in 1997 (separately from the BAJ program). The Ministry signedagreements allowing village associations (NGOs) to hire local teachers (often unemployed university graduates fromthe village), and construct small classrooms close to or inside the villages. The Ministry covered only the salaries ofthe teacher (called animateur). Often for the first time in village history, these community schools enrolled andretained all of the girls of the village. Families felt more comfortable knowing their children would be taught bysomeone from the village, and the village association listened to the parents concerns about how they wanted theschool to function. A frequent criticism of the rural public schools was that they cut children off from theiragricultural and artisanal roots, and the poor quality of the public education did not prepare them for other jobs.Non formal schools are providing schooling to the hard-to-reach children in rural and periurban areas that eitherdropped out of or could not enter the public system. These schools have innovated in several areas:

• Flexibity with respect to: curriculum; language of instruction (Berber or colloquial Arabic); schedules;vacations that correspond to peak harvest or planting seasons; and class hours. Most of these schools combinecore basics (usually Arabic, French and basic Math) with other topics relevant to the local communities(agriculture, handicrafts, health).

• Accountability and community driven policies. The local NGO represents the community which supervisesthe non formal school animateurs. If the children do not attend regularly, the animateur does not get paid. TheNGOs respond to parents’ views regarding curriculum, hours, and vacations.

• Reduced costs and high quality. Classroom construction costs range from virtually nothing to DH2,000 toDH10,000. Often the same teacher teaches two classes of roughly 20 -30 students each (one class of youngerchildren for 3 hours in the morning and another class of older children in the afternoon) for a total of 6 hoursper day, significantly bringing down the cost per student. Non formal costs/pupil range from _ to _ the cost perchild of the public system.

• The Non formal program enrolls about 36,000 students out of a potential group of 2.5 million school agechildren not in school. The MEN budget allocated to non formal is tiny (DH17 million or US$1.7 million)--less than 1/10 of 1% of the MEN’s total budget.

The Moroccan authorities identified education as the country’s primary developmentchallenge. In February 1999, the late King Hassan II established a Royal Commission o nEducation Reform which prepared a Charter of Reform that was passed into law during a specialsession of parliament (March 2000). Implementation decrees are under preparation. The Charteropens the way for ambitious decentralization measures, and it introduces greater quality and teacheraccountability into the system.The Charter highlights many of the lessons from the non formal education experiences and pavesthe way towards developing cost-effective means for Morocco to achieve universal primaryenrollment, higher retention rates and closer, more natural links with local rural communities. Ruralcommunities should benefit from, among others, expenditure shifts, adjustments in curriculum,decentralization in delivery mechanisms at the primary and upper basic levels which capitalize on thelessons learned from the Non formal experiences, and an expanded school scholarship program t okeep children (especially girls) in school for 9 years. Recently, an NGO has set up a scholarshipprogram for rural girls. At a cost of US$225 per year, one girl’s lodging/food can be covered for ayear’s attendance at upper basic school (grades 7-9). Brazil and India both have successful scholarshipprograms for girls education.

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Basic Health CarePublic expenditures on health care are low relative to GDP and grew modestly from 0.9%

of GDP in the early 1990s to 1.1% of GDP by 1998, compared to spending levels in comparablecountries of around 2.5% of GDP. These expenditures translate to roughly US$16/person in Moroccocompared to US$ 35/person in comparable economies. An estimated 40% of public healthexpenditures go the richest quintile of the population while only 20% goes to the two poorestquintiles. The government’s Social Priorities program (BAJ) was launched in 1997, with WorldBank support, and it is helping to redirect spending towards disadvantaged, rural areas. It hasundertaken to increase the quantities and availability of medicines and expand and reinforce thenumber of clinics in rural areas. The BAJ program is also trying to strengthen a health outreacheffort (Box 2). German development aid (GTZ) is working on a health outreach program in Essaouiraprovince that works with an NGO (Association marocaine de planning familial) to reinforce thelocal delivery of family planning and other health services to remote communities. The EU andUSAID are also exploring different types of outreach activities. A program covering remote ruralareas (as well as periurban slums) is in the early stages of being developed in partnership with theMinistries of Health and Education, donors and NGOs.

Box 2: Health Outreach and the Government’s Social Priorities Program (BAJ).

Health outreach services exist on a small scale in Morocco, and similar programs are used to good effect in othercountries (Tunisia, Mexico, Peru, several OECD countries). The BAJ Rural Health project has increased thenumbers of rural health clinics and health personnel in the 14 poorest provinces, but most of these centers are inlarger towns, where the reinforced teams wait for people from more remote villages to come into town for medicalattention. This is difficult for many women who are only permitted to leave their homes to fetch wood and/or water.Since women /children are the targets for rural health services, the clinics need to rethink their service delivery.More mid-wives need to be recruited to work with local NGOs and be responsible for visiting villagessystematically, training women or teachers in each of the various villages. They would bring basic medical suppliesand could cover a broad range of basic health advice: sanitation (household and human waste management) andpotable water supplies, prompt identification of cholera and infectious diseases that can be halted with appropriatemedicine; micro nutrient information, guidance, and food fortification; family planning and other infant relatedhealth issues.

Micro Nutrient Campaign. In February 2000, the Ministry of Public Health, joined bystrong support from UNICEF, USAID, several international NGOs (Helen Keller International,MOST, etc.) set up a National Committee on Micro nutrient Deficiency (Comite National de la Luttecontre les Carences en Micronutriments, CNCM). The program costs less than US$1 million and hasthree components: training of health professionals and teachers; a nation-wide communications andmarketing strategy combined with grass roots/NGO mobilization; and supplementation andfortification of selected food products. This is an example of a low cost, high return effort withinter-ministerial, cross sector, public, private, NGO cooperation focused on a major public healthissue.

Health Insurance, Pensions & Drought Insurance. Formal health insurance covers 15%of the total population—essentially urban formal sector workers. Among the different programs thatexist, two include rural workers: the Caisse Nationale de Securité Sociale (CNSS, an autonomouspublic agency for affiliated private companies under the Ministry of Social Development and theMutuelle Agricole Marocaine d’Assurances (MAMDA), a private insurance company part owned bythe Caisse Nationale de Credit Agricole (CNCA). Of the 971,000 declared workers under the CNSS,only 27,000 are from the agricultural sector, and account for less than 5% of the total salariedagricultural workers and less than 1% of the total active rural population. The MAMDA providesinsurance against the breakdown of equipment and work related accidents. Beginning in 1998, it triedto offer other insurance for rural workers, for example: hospitalization, pensions, and disabilities. Forthe rural population, the provision of basic health services that actually reach poor remotecommunities would be comparable to providing health insurance for the large share of the populationwho have little access to basic health care. The authorities have also been trying to launch a droughtinsurance program beginning in the Sousse region, but are finding difficulties in getting participants

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willing to pay the premiums necessary for the insurance scheme to function. The scale of theiractivities remains extremely small (estimated 15-20,000 mainly large farmers).

Integrated approachesThe rural population depends essentially on family solidarity, in the form of extended

families living together, exchanging goods and services and sharing incomes through financialtransfers from family members living or working outside the rural area, usually in low wage servicejobs. Private foreign transfers to rural areas are estimated to account for 1.25% of GDP, but areskewed to the higher income groups -- the top three income groups receive on average DH175 perperson/year while the bottom three receive DH11 per person. Urban to rural transfers are alsoexpected to be considerable, but are not currently available (LSMS analysis). Although declining as ashare of GDP, private financial transfers from workers living abroad represent Morocco’s largestsource of foreign exchange (US$2.1billion/year) followed closely by phosphate export earnings andtourism receipts (both about US$2 billion respectively). For many villages, transfers from abroadaccount for a higher portion of family income than earnings from agriculture. There are severalinteresting examples of rural communities that have invested these transfers in sustainable integratedrural projects (Box 3).

The GOM’s Rural Development Strategy 2020 emphasizes integrating rural developmentefforts among Ministries and local communities. The Ministry is beginning to finance more researchfor suitable technologies for small farmers, and it is preparing a small integrated pilot project in threepoor, mountainous provinces. The project is expected to work with other agencies and Ministries,and would develop partnerships with local NGOs for community-based schools and health outreachactivities. Integrated approaches are difficult to manage across Ministries, but they offer the mostcost-effective approach. Morocco’s recently established social fund (Agence de Developpementsocial ADS) intends to run like a private company with social objectives, particularly focused on ruralcommunity development type projects. There are several examples of village associations inMorocco that are developing their communities in an integrated way. Tunisia has not followed theNGO/integrated type approach, but has separate government programs reaching landless and smallfarmers (Box 3).

BOX 3 Rural Development in Morocco & Tunisia: Two SnapshotsMorocco: l’Association d’Ait Iktel was established in 1995 in a village in the High Atlas mountains composed of102 farm families (6 people per family) with 5-10 ha. of poor rainfed land per family. Wheat is the staple crop (andyields are rarely more than .2 tonnes/ha). Average family income is DH7000 (US$700)/year. All of the familiesreceive remittances from relatives working outside the village which amounts, on average to DH10,000 (US$1000)per family/year. These remittances enabled the village to build its first well, hence setting off a developmentdynamic that continues today. Over the next 3 years the village association undertook the following projects: familyplanning; purchase of an ambulance; potable water connections to each house; the purchase, installation, andoperation of a small electricity generator; access roads; 2 non formal schools; and an electric powered pump for asmall irrigation system . The community contributed nearly 40% of project costs as well as labor through thevillage “labor bank” whereby every adult contributes 5 days per year free labor. Total investment costs for all theprojects amounted to DH3,000,000 (US$300,000), of which US$170,000 was grants from foreign embassies.

Today each house has potable water and electricity (metered with payment rates sufficient to cover the operatingcosts, depreciation); 65% of the families practice family planning; 100% of females (age 4-19) are in schoolcompared to only 10% 3 years ago (two unemployed university graduates from the village are the teachers); theyreconverted an abandoned house into a cultural, training, and social center where girls and women receive courses infamily planning, tapestry, carpet-making. Electricity allows the girls to study at night and the women to continueworking on carpets. The water and electricity have cut down the time of girls who used to have to walk far for waterand wood. There have been no maternal deaths in childbirth in the past 3 years thanks to the ambulance; they havedoubled the irrigated land area and doubled summer crops during the dry season.

Tunisia: Office de Developpement Sylvo-Pastoral et Agricole du Nord Ouest (ODESYPANO). This publicagency, (under the Ministry of Agriculture) received a grant from the German government, GTZ introducedanimateurs who advise villagers in remote villages. For the first time, they sent teams composed of men andwomen. They are not certified extension agents, some have diplomas in literature, but the GTZ training gave themcritical information. They teach mainly landless farmers about reforestation, erosion control and revenue-earningactivities: cheese production; saffron; capers, rabbit farming; improved chicken production; bee keeping; medicinal

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herbs. At first, the female animatrices were resisted by the village men, but once they had established trust amongthe men, they were allowed to meet their wives, and the impact has been extremely positive. The animatricesreinforce the messages the men were receiving, building stronger family partnerships and successful results.

The Ministry of Health sends a trained midwife to the village once a month, in a special health outreach program,brining medicines, family planning and nutrition advice. In one random village, women were using 3 different typesof birth control methods. An official from the Ministry of Environment teaches the local people how to conserve,collect and properly store rain water, and how to reduce firewood consumption in their cooking methods. TheMinistry of Education sends a tractor around to the douars to take children in wagons to and from school.

D. CONCLUSIONS

Poverty is particularly acute in rural areas and has continued to worsen over the past 10years, as the frequency of droughts has increased to almost one every 2 years. High cereal supportprices are intended to be both an income transfer mechanism to rural areas and a production stimulusfor food security objectives. However, they may have contributed to increasing the country’svulnerability to droughts and to sharp fluctuations in output and economic growth, and they appearto have benefited mainly a small number of larger, better endowed farmers. Food security needs t obased on drought as the rule, with adequate rainfall the exception. The Agriculture Ministry islaunching a dual strategy that promotes efficiency in the modern sector (production, processing,packaging, export and distribution) and a rural development program for 2020 that provides advice,know-how, extension, and basic services for smaller farmers. Some of the key challenges facing thesector include:

! Promoting more drought resistant crops through adjustments in prices, tariff reforms,research and extension advice to help farmers reduce the vulnerabilities to drought.

! Water use efficiency, and a realistic assessment of the rate of return to water, thedevelopment of affordable technology for smaller scale irrigation, and conversion to dripirrigation.

! Production & Marketing know-how to help farm communities reduce losses and earn highervalue added from crop production through the quality of services like processing, marketing andtransport.

! Promoting higher quality products and diversified exports into other high income markets inNorth America and Asia. Also, as part of the agricultural negotiations for the Free TradeAgreement with the EU, the authorities should obtain wider access to the EU market forMoroccan products.

! Business Extension for landless or small holders. Some countries have successful programsto diversify the revenues of poorer farmers by helping them set up small business activities. Inboth rural and urban areas, SME development offers Morocco’s best and perhaps only chance forsignificant job creation.

Access to Education, Health Care & Rural InfrastructureSignificantly increasing education outcomes and access to basic health care are critical t o

helping Morocco’s rural population lift itself out of poverty. The education reform charter isopening the door to many ambitious reforms: decentralization and strong participation of localcommunities; moving away from standardized schools and more towards village class rooms;recognizing the use of Berber in classrooms; flexibility in the hours and vacation periods; andsimplifying curriculum. Many important lessons have come out of the non-formal schools whichare introducing greater teacher accountability for student performance. These schools appear to beoffering options to rural and peri-urban children for whom the public system has not been a viablealternative. These innovations can strengthen the Government’s Social Priorities Program BAJ andhelp the country achieve more sustainable social development outcomes in rural areas.

While public education expenditures are roughly on par with other middle income countries,health spending is particularly low. Future spending increases on health need to be directed towardcost-effective health care outreach programs in rural areas (more health visitors and midwives).

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The cross-sector partnerships emerging between several Ministries, NGOs, and other donors for themicro nutrient campaign is a good example of how the Ministry of Health can pursue cooperativepartnerships to the public’s benefit. These efforts are significantly reinforced by the moreparticipatory approach being applied in the rural infrastructure development program underway forelectricity, potable water and roads. Rural water programs like the PAGER offer an another excellentopportunity for government Ministries to cooperate and work with local communities and localofficials. The lessons learned through rural infrastructure can be applied to the government’s basichealth and education efforts. The Agency for Social Development (ADS) is also expected to give alarge boost to public-private-NGO cooperation projects in the areas of health, education, and ruralinfrastructure.

Meeting the ChallengesIn an early speech, King Mohammed VI said he had “no magic bullet” to solve Morocco’s

complex social problems. What he has done, however, is to put the issues on the table and challengethe Government, civil society, the private sector, and the whole population to collaborate and faceup to these difficult issues. There is no single solution. Efforts are required at all levels. Reforms inagricultural policies and social programs require fairly long time horizons, but small and timely stepsin the right direction can begin to have positive results quite quickly. It will require some newexpenditures, shifts in resources and reallocations among programs, and a willingness to try newapproaches.

L.LikarMarch 2001