Area: Mediterranean & Arab World - ARI 35/2006 (Translated form Spanish) Date: 4 /5/2006 Morocco: The Bases for a New Development Model? (I): The National Initiative for Human Development (INDH) Iván Martín ∗ Theme: The National Initiative for Human Development (INDH) was launched in Morocco in May 2005 to mobilise the country’s institutional and financial resources to improve living conditions among the population and raise national social indicators. 1 Summary: The INDH puts Morocco’s social issues at the forefront of the country’s political priorities. Among its most positive features is that it has adopted a participatory approach, which involves civil society and local authorities in both planning and implementation. However, it is not clear how it fits in with a national development strategy and with the country’s general economic policy, nor how it will help transfer greater political power and resources to local governments as the key agents in the current democracy-building process. This two-part ARI analyses the National Initiative for Human Development launched in 2005 and the Report on 50 Years of Human Development in Morocco (or “Fiftieth Anniversary Report”) published in January 2006 –a wide-ranging socio-economic assessment of the fifty years since Moroccan independence– in order to assess to what extent they lay the groundwork for a new model of economic and political development for Morocco. Analysis: Like all major government initiatives in Morocco, the National Initiative for Human Development (INDH) was announced in a royal speech on May 18, 2005, 2 in which King Mohamed VI acknowledged that social problems were ‘the main challenge we must face to achieve our project for society and development’. He said that, based on ‘objective data […] large segments of Morocco’s population and entire areas of the country live in conditions […] of poverty and marginalisation incompatible with a dignified and decent life’. He expressly mentioned urban slums, illiteracy, low levels of school attendance, unemployment and exclusion. 3 In his speech, the king assumed the State’s responsibility to undertake ‘social modernisation’ through integrated public policies. At the same time, he acknowledged ‘the importance of public participation to ensure the suitability and feasibility of the projects […] building on the dynamism of the network of associations and of local development agents’. ∗ Universidad Carlos III de Madrid 1 This ARI is part of the work of the Maghreb Analysis and Monitoring Group (GASEM), led by Haizam Amirah Fernández. 2 The text of this speech is available at www.mincom.gov.ma/french/generalites/samajeste/mohammedVI/discours/2005/discours%20pour%20la%20 nation.htm 1 3 See Vulnerabilidades socioeconómicas en el Magreb (I): Los riesgos del chabolismo en Marruecos, and (II): El reto del empleo, ARI 36/2005 and 43/2005, Elcano Royal Institute, available at www.realinstitutoelcano.org/analisis/705.asp and www.realinstitutoelcano.org/analisis/715.asp