Morocco

The European Commission recently presented several legislative proposals as part of its “Fit for 55” initiative, designed to accelerate the reduction of greenhouse gas emissions and achieve carbon neutrality by 2050. A Carbon Border Adjustment Mechanism (CBAM) has been proposed as part of this initiative. The CBAM would be complementary to the EU’s Emission Trading Scheme (ETS), involving CBAM certificates issued to importers based on the integrated emissions intensity of the produc ...

The Sahel has become more prominent in policymaking circles because of its strategic importance and the urgent nature of the dangers that have become rife in the region. Unfortunately, countries in the Maghreb have been relatively sidelined in recent years despite their potential sizable role in stabilizing the region and spurring economic development. Therefore, the focus of this brief is to analyze the Maghreb’s outlook towards the Sahel, namely from the perspective of Morocco, Al ...

In order to close the financing gap in green technologies, finding new mechanisms to enhance the participation of the private sector, combined with that of the public sector, in financing sustainable and climate-resilient infrastructure is a must. In this context, some unlisted instruments are going to be needed to enhance financing of green infrastructure. Besides, the development of properly structured projects, with risks and returns in line with the preferences of the different ...

Over 25 years after the launch of the Euro-Mediterranean Partnership (EMP) in the 1995 Barcelona Conference, the Mediterranean geographical area continues to be subject to the reflection and conceptualisation of the European Union (EU) with the aim of firmly establishing this strategic neighbourhood relationship and addressing the progress of the inherent challenges. Since then, several initiatives have marked the Euro-Mediterranean framework as stages on the pat ...

The Policy Brief ‘Pandemic, Preparedness, Morocco, and Africa’ by Uri Dadush provoked a personal reaction: Morocco may never be crowned football’s world champions, alas, but which nation, besides China, New Zealand, Israel, Japan, Denmark, Vietnam, organized its anti-COVID-19 offensive more digitally and in a more modern way than the Kingdom? Morocco’s bureaucracy is at times suffocating and unpleasant, its public hospital system stressed and underfunded. But today I can v ...

In the Western Sahara Advisory Opinion, formal questions specifically requested by the General Assembly were only on terra nullius and ‘legal ties’ at the time of Spain’s colonization of the Saharan Provinces. however, two other issues, which had not been specifically requested, were added to the formal question of ‘legal ties.” The additional issues concern the right to self- determination and ‘territorial sovereignty.’ The statements on additional issues have recently been referre ...

The self-declared Sahrawi Arab Democratic Republic’s (SADR) declaration on the Guerguerat crisis, in November 2020, to terminate the 1991 ceasefire agreement and go to war with Morocco raises a problem regarding the legality of third States granting State recognition to the self-declared SADR. International law imposes an obligation on third States to not grant ‘premature recognition.’ Moreover, premature recognition would constitute illegal intervention in the internal affairs of t ...

The COVID-19 pandemic has hit the Moroccan economy hard, as elsewhere in the world. A collapse in external demand and a lockdown lasting more than three months have profoundly altered economic activity in Morocco, causing its first recession since 1995. The implementation of the confinement and social distancing measures was strict and came two weeks after the detection of the first cases of COVID-19 in Morocco on March 2, 2020. The lockdown was extended three times and lasted aroun ...

The data presented in this Policy Brief focus on the Moroccan population’s perception of the Covid-19 pandemic and the public policies designed to curb it. These data are derived from a survey conducted by the Policy Center for the New South based on 3 waves of public attitude surveys carried out by IPSOS Morocco in June, July and September 2020. This survey is part of the « Attitudes Towards Covid-19 » research program, conducted with a consortium of international academic partners ...

The word ‘occupation’ was used twice specifically to the Saharan Provinces in UN General Assembly resolutions in 1979 and 1980. Though the word has not been used by the General Assembly since, it has appeared in court rulings in the EU, the UK and South in a detrimental conclusion regarding Morocco’s sovereignty over the Saharan Provinces. This paper shall start with a consideration of international law in order: to differentiate occupation of a nonself- governing territory from occ ...

“Out of the Eurocentric box” This young planner and lecturer at the Departement of International Urbanism of the University of Stuttgart (Germany) spontaneously describes himself as a “Marrakchi, ambitious and curious” person. His birthplace and family’s influence matter a lot in his professional journey. Not only because the Red City is “an inspiring place for its history, architecture and culture”, but also because his grandfather was a well-established tile maker, who participat ...

Our Senior Fellow Rabi Mohtar has co-authored with our economist, Fatima Ezzahra Mengoub along other researchers a research paper entitled « A Water-Energy-Food Nexus approach for conducting trade-off analysis: Morocco’s phosphate industry in the Khouribga region » in Hydrology and Earth System Sciences Journal (Volume 24, Issue 10). The study objective was to develop and use the Water-Energy-Food Nexus Phosphate (WEF-P) Tool to evaluate the impact of Morocco’s phos ...

The right to self-determination was recently posited as one possible jus cogens norm. However, more than fifty years after jus cogens emerged in 1969, a standard test for identifying a norm as jus cogens has yet to be adopted. In 2019, the International Law Commission adopted the Draft Conclusions on jus cogens, together with the list of possible jus cogens norms . If the possibility of being shown to be false is not admitted when identifying a jus cogens norm, however, the identifi ...

The year 2020 is one of the most difficult years for the global automotive industry. The pandemic first appeared in a region of China known for its developed automotive sector. Initially, it was the South Asian manufacturers who first felt the impact of the shutdown in China before the pandemic shifted to Europe and the United States and before the disruption of value chains took on a global dimension. In Morocco, the sector has not remained immune to this turbulent context and its ...

The current pandemic has hit all countries hard, with severe repercussions at all levels. In economic terms, and given the scale of the damage, countries have reacted quickly by drawing on their available toolboxes. However, unlike in 2008, room for maneuver this time is much more limited and many countries have no choice but to go into massive debt to cope with the effects of the pandemic. For a country like Morocco, such a situation should lead the authorities concerned to study a ...

La femme représente la moitié de la société. Côte à côte avec l’homme, elle a toujours contribué au développement des sociétés lorsque les facteurs de conversion lui ont permis de mettre à l’œuvre ses potentialités pour parler simple. Aujourd’hui, cette catégorie de la société marocaine, et mondiale, subit de manière disproportionnée les répercussions de la crise de la Covid-19, sur plus d’un aspect de la vie en société. Ceci est particulièrement vrai lorsqu’il s’agit des domaines ...

En février 2020, j’ai publié un livre, « La mondialisation et nous », dans lequel j’ai analysé la place du sud dans les grands chamboulements que connaît cette mondialisation. Les mots clés des quatre chroniques contenues dans le présent cahier : vulnérabilité / fragilité / chamboulement / incertitude / imprévisibilité / sidération / régionalisation / relocalisation / santé / environnement / équité / réputation / épreuves / opportunités sont ceux qui sont revenus récurremment sous l ...

Héros méconnus de la lutte contre le Covid-19, les professionnels du secteur de la santé publique ont assuré leurs charges avec des ressources qui se sont avérées insuffisantes : le déficit de personnels spécialisés, amplifié par des problèmes de logistique, ont fortement porté préjudice à l’efficacité de leurs actions. Face à cette situation contraignante, nombreux sont les Etats qui ont appelé leurs armées en renfort, eu égard à leur expertise en matière de gestion des risques, me ...

An examination, inevitably bound to be broad in scope, of the economic and social implications for a country, in this case Morocco, of a sudden pandemic that has broken out in virtually most parts of the world, can only be a prelude to a broader and more comprehensive study to be undertaken in due course. For obvious reasons, especially as the current crisis induced by the primacy of health, could later evolve into a form of economic depression as various multifaceted aid and suppor ...

Moroccans, like the citizens of other democratic countries in times of peace, have learned to take for granted some fundamental rights, including the freedom of movement and assembly. In the attempt to contain the spread of COVID-19, it has suddenly become evident to them that the enjoyment of these rights can be limited. This paper enquires about the compatibility of the state of health emergency proclaimed by the government and approved by the parliament in March 23, 2020 with Mo ...

Depuis l'entrée en vigueur de l'Accord de libre-échange (ALE) entre le Maroc et l'Union européenne (UE), il y a près de deux décennies, les performances des exportations marocaines vers les marchés de l'UE ont été plutôt décevantes, tandis que le déficit commercial du Maroc avec l'UE a augmenté de manière significative. Cela a conduit de nombreux observateurs à percevoir l'accord d'un oeil critique. Cependant, les balances commerciales bilatérales ne sont pas toujours suffisantes po ...

West Africa has always played an essential role in African geopolitics. Although less thought of than north, south and east Africa, because of their envied strategic openings into both the Mediterranean Sea and Indian Ocean, West African countries are transforming themselves into a major African hub. For Britain, the completion of Brexit heralds a new era in its contemporary history. In this framework, West Africa is a crucial region for the United Kingdom’s long-term strategic goal ...

Le mouvement des femmes marocaines est issu de l’histoire récente de la société depuis la période précoloniale. La trame du débat autour de l’élaboration et de la réforme de la Moudawana, qui s’est imposé dans la vie politique marocaine depuis les premières années de l’indépendance jusqu’à nos jours, traduit, en fait, un processus amplifié et récurrent des enjeux autour du statut et du rôle de la femme dans la société marocaine qui remonte loin dans l’histoire. Produit moderne d’un ...

The Moroccan diaspora contributes in major ways to Morocco’s economic development. Moroccan migrants ease the country’s chronic unemployment and underemployment problems, send remittances, invest in the home country, and typically visit Morocco frequently as tourists. In addition to that migrants usually retain close links with Morocco, and help in less direct ways to forge trade and third-party investment links between Morocco and their host countries. Drawing on the relatively sma ...

When I think about women’s empowerment, I see it as a constant process of attaining milestones in our lives as individuals man and woman, and as society. When I think of women’s empowerment in the context of Morocco, a host of questions come to mind. First, how is the ‘Moroccan woman’? In other words, to what extent are Moroccan women seeking to empower themselves? Does empowerment, mean the same thing to every Moroccan woman? To what extent is it self-empowerment? And what are the ...

The initiation and conduct of any negotiation are not solely dependent on the positions of parties, their willingness to make concessions and, possibly, the mediator's talent. Similarly, they do not merely hinge on the settlement of procedural issues and the adoption of technical arrangements designed to circumvent the parties' prior objections, to accommodate their sensitivities and to secure their acceptance of a code of conduct suited to each phase of the negotiations. Such techn ...

The challenges against Morocco’s sovereignty over natural resources in Saharan districts will be thoroughly examined and criticized. First, the inaccurate interpretation by the EU court of the phrase “a status separate and distinct from an administering State” in the Declaration on Friendly Relations. Second, the unreasonable concept of a ‘de facto’ administering State in the decisions of the EU courts and the warlike concept of ‘military occupation’ over the territory under ceasefi ...

She was 31 years old and had just set up the New Work Lab, a coworking and start-up accelerator space, in Morocco in 2013, when she was selected as one of the Atlantic Dialogues Emerging Leaders. Fatim Zahra Biaz already had an extensive professional background, which reflected her quest for meaning in work: a graduate of Edec, a business school in Lille, she had worked in Paris in "change management" consulting. "I couldn't sense the impact I was looking for in my work, be it econ ...

In this brief, we review the evidence on Morocco’s export concentration, discuss its causes, and then draw some policy implications. The main message is that Morocco needs to raise its game in some less familiar markets and move outside its comfort zone. This implies not only investments by private firms, greater efforts on export promotion by the government and professional associations, but also deeper changes within Morocco, including in its educational system. Over the past two ...

يعرف المغرب فوارق كبيرة على مستوى الدخل، ففي سنة 2013 بلغت حصة الـ%10 آٔلغىن من الساكنة ما يقارب %32 من الدخل الوطين، 1أي ما يعادل 12 ضعفا لحصة الـ%10 آٔلفقر. إن أي اتساع مفرط في الفوارق من شأنه أن يؤثر سلبا على وتيرة النمو على المدى الطويل، ألنه عادة ما يقترن بضعف في استغالل الموارد البشرية. ومن هذا المنطلق تدفع هذه المقالة بطرح مفاده أنه، باستلهام التجارب الدولية، يمكن للحكومة المغربية أن تفعل اليشء الكثير للحد من الفوارق دون التفريط في تعزيز التنمية، بل وربما يمكنها أن ...

With India looking more towards Africa as a home for sustainable partners, it is also looking at diversifying the areas of collaboration with several African countries, especially with Morocco. As early as 1967, India’s then Vice-President Zakir Hussain visited Morocco and set the tone for engagement between both countries. The latter has established diplomatic relations based on mutual understanding, tolerance and respect. Since then, the two countries have enjoyed fruitful re ...

One of the first sovereign decisions of independent Morocco was to create the Royal Armed Forces (FAR) on 14 May 1956. Since then, the mission of the Moroccan army is consistent with the country's historical continuity shaped by strategic constants, it has however been subject to both conceptual and operational pressures since the late 1990s, as the lines between defense and security have blurred. This paper explores the central issue of adjusting the Royal Armed Forces (FAR) to a r ...

The global migration problem cannot be wished away; it has to be managed. Morocco provides an example of how responsibility for migration management can be handled by African states. The latest statistics of the European Border and Coast Guard Agency (FRONTEX) identify the Western Mediterranean route from Morocco to Spain as the busiest migratory route into Europe last year, with 57,034 illegal attempts to enter the continent recorded. However, a parallel look at the Moro ...

Income inequality is high in Morocco. In 2013, the share of national income of the richest 10% in Morocco stood at nearly 32%, 12 times higher than the share of national income of the poorest 10% of the population. High inequality can adversely affect long-term growth as it tends to be associated with underutilization of human potential. This paper argues that, drawing on international experience, there is much more that Morocco’s government can do to reduce inequality while at the ...

The rise of the middle class in the emerging economies is affecting significantly consumption habits and thus, transforming these economies. The size and growth of the middle class is of interest to gauge market potential for many products, and can serve as a barometer of political awareness. Measuring the Middle Class using income presents many challenges, beginning with finding an appropriate definition. Previous research by Ali and Dadush (2012) suggested an alternative measure, ...

The cooperation between Brazil and Morocco dates back to the 19th century, when Moroccan migrants came to Brazil attracted by the then booming exploration of rubber in the Amazon rainforest. In 1861, the Brazilian government opened its first consulate in Tangier.  But it was only since 1961, with the Moroccan independence, that the bilateral relations began to diversify. At the political sphere, there has been a fluid dialogue, driven by convergent views on several i ...

Adopting an integrated approach to the management and governance of natural resources including land, water and energy is seen as an effective way to improve the sphere of production while respecting the environment. Fatima Ezzahra Mengoub, economist at the Policy Center for the New South, was invited by Stockholm Environment Institute, alongside other prestigious research centers with expertise in environmental studies, to co-author this research paper and share her analysis of th ...

This third Policy Report represents the main pillar of a long-lasting collaboration between Bruegel and the Policy Center for the New South, supported by Compagnia di San Paolo. The Report collects the papers produced by our partner’s researchers along with our joint fellow Uri Dadush and our economists Abdelaaziz Ait Ali and Yassine Msadfa. ...

This paper examines Turkey's case against Morocco before the World Trade Organization (WTO), over anti-dumping duties on hot-rolled steel products. Turkey's complaint constitutes both a precedent and an opportunity. First, it is a precedent in that Morocco was previously never involved in a case before GATT or WTO, neither as a plaintiff nor as a defendant. Second, it is an opportunity as the evaluation of the legal process of the complaint enables an assessment of adequacy of Moroc ...

Morocco has moved towards a more flexible exchange rate system, by widening its currency fluctuation bands to +/- 2.5% around a central price. This transition will, in time, equip the Moroccan economy with a macroeconomic instrument acting as a shock absorber and facilitating rapid adjustment at lower costs. In the absence of such a mechanism, adjustment to macroeconomic shocks at times requires a contraction in demand and thereby a cyclical downturn in growth to restore external ba ...

This Policy Paper aims to provide a better understanding of the drivers of youth unemployment in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) region by examining some common factors and then delving deeper into the case of Morocco, a relatively stable country that has historically been a source of large emigration, especially towards Europe. The MENA region has some of the highest total and youth unemployment rates in the world. High youth unemployment is especially worrisome because it ...

“What are the sources of tension in the Spain-Morocco relationship?” "¿Cuáles son los focos de tensión en la relación España-Marruecos?” ("What are the sources of tension in the Spain-Morocco relationship?”) is a Spanish-written article featured in the independent international-news analysis group Estudios de Política Exterior, providing an examination of Spanish-Moroccan relations written by four authors, namely OCP Policy Center's Senior Fellow, Rachid El Houdaigui ...

This blog is based on remarks delivered at the Think-Tank Summit in Buenos Aires on 18 September 2018 held under the G-20’s Argentine Presidency.  Africa has an enormous infrastructure gap that impedes its development. The Compact with Africa (CwA) is an international policy initiative sponsored under the German presidency of the G-20 in 2017 designed to bridge that gap. Intended to draw in the private sector in developing Africa’s infrastructure through a combination of Priva ...

“This article has been originally published in 'Morocco in Focus 2018,' the magazine of the Moroccan Embassy in New Delhi, India on the occasion of the Morocco National Day 2018.” Introduction In an article published last year, the author stressed the role of partnership between Morocco and India for the inclusive growth of small farmers. There is no doubt that agriculture remains a major instrument for human development both in India and in Africa. Several international reports&n ...

With the reshaping of relations between the EU and the ACP countries (Africa, Caribbean and Pacific), and the expected revision of the ACP-EU agreement in 2020, it is essential to re-visit the framework of key partnerships between Europe and Africa and to propose efficient collaborative strategies to enhance relations. This book explores the various areas of cooperation for the renewal of African-European partnerships, notably in fields such as education, the creation of jobs for yo ...

Peut-on raisonnablement penser le conflit du Sahara sans tenir compte d’une part des correspondances entre facteurs juridiques et extra-juridiques, et d’autre part du jeu entre les acteurs concernés ? Pour notre Senior Fellow Rachid Houdaigui, si ce sujet impose, par sa complexité, la prise en compte des règles du droit international, qu’il convient aussi de préciser, il nécessite également la prise en considération des aspects d’ordre géopolitique, sécuritaire et anthropologique. ...

Is it possible to reasonably reflect and analyze the Sahara conflict without taking into account, on the one hand, the relevance of both legal and extra-legal factors, and on the other hand, the interplay between the different stakeholders involved ? This intensely complex topic requires taking into consideration not only regulations of international law, but also the geopolitical, anthropological, and security aspects intertwined in the matter ...

This paper reports the results of an application using an interregional input-output matrix for Morocco together with regional information on water consumption by sectors. We develop a trade-based index that reveals the relative water use intensities associated with specific interregional and international trade flows. We estimate, for each flow associated with each origin-destination pair, measures of trade in value added and trade in water that are further used to calculate our in ...

A un moment où l’Afrique renforce son attractivité, se dote de son propre récit et suscite l’intérêt de nouveaux partenaires, et où l’Europe traverse une crise économique et institutionnelle importante, quelles peuvent être les bases nouvelles du partenariat Union Européenne-Afrique ? Si le dernier sommet d’Abidjan, en novembre dernier, a mis l’accent sur la priorité éducative, l’appui au développement durable et inclusif, une coopération multi-secteurs, tout cela sur la base d’une ...

« Revise, Reboot, Rebuild : Strategies for a time of Distrust »: that was this year’s theme for the Brussels Forum, a yearly high-level conference held from March 8th to 10th by the US think tank German Marshall Fund (GMF), partner of the OCP Policy Center who attended the event through its delegation. This meeting of some 400 policymakers, academics and private sector operators is reviewing the relationship between Europe and the United States. Brexit, the Trump administration ...

This proposal seeks to contribute to reduce, in a cost-effective way, Morocco’s unusually high, persistent and growing unemployment level for university graduates1. It complements and enhances the existing Université Internationale de Rabat (UIR) Public-Private Partnership (PPP). Tertiary enrolment in Morocco has been increasing above what seems to be labor market absorptive capacity. Over the past decade, the share of the unemployed with university degrees as a percentage of total ...

Brazil and Morocco have been engaged in different forms of trade negotiations and committed to liberalize their trade, as they have concluded several bilateral and multilateral trade agreements whether within the WTO or in specific framework. This paper analyzes different facets of trade relations between Brazil and Morocco and assesses the potential for deeper trade integration between these two key players in the southern Atlantic. Trade flows between Brazil and Morocco have been ...

The purpose of this paper is to propose the establishment of a forward-looking partnership between China and Morocco, centered around the agri-food issue in Africa. It is in Africa that the food demand will increase in a very significant way during the 21st century due, in particular, to population growth and the acceleration of urban development. Africa must succeed in its agricultural revolution in order to fight hunger and poverty, ensure the industrialization of its economy and ...

This paper sheds light on the increasing and persistent skilled unemployment in Morocco over the past decade – oscillating around 20% of total unemployment. It identifies and estimates the role and significance of a skill mismatch between Morocco’s education system and its labor market, illustrated by the ratio between technical and general university degrees produced by the education system. The paper finds supporting evidence that a skill mismatch does play a significant role in e ...

Input-output tables provide a rich source of information about the structure of economies that is not available from other frameworks. In addition to providing key information for the analysis of linkages between activities (and regions), the tables also provide the underlying core database used in a range of economic models. If used appropriately, these more sophisticated models can meaningfully assess the impact of economic change, at the national and regional levels. They can als ...

Since inception nearly a century ago, corporations and industries have coevolved with Morocco’s legacy of peace and prosperity. With a growing pressure on agricultural production and natural resources, exacerbated with climate change, there is urgency to define sustainable strategies that would reassure corporations and industries for longterm prosperity and for a healthy economy. Studies have highlighted the perilous state of our natural environment, the exhaustion of our aquifers, ...

L’objet de ce travail est de proposer la mise en place d’un partenariat de progrès entre la Chine et le Maroc, centré sur la question agroalimentaire en Afrique. C’est dans ce continent que la demande alimentaire va augmenter d’une façon très sensible au cours du XXIème siècle notamment en raison de sa progression démographique et de l’accélération de son urbanisation. L’Afrique est dans l’obligation de réussir sa révolution agricole pour combattre la faim et la pauvreté, accéder à ...

Is Education in crisis worldwide? It surely is a fundamental issue of national and international development for Morocco’s policy makers. Recent reforms point to a key moment and momentum builder in public policy and policy implementation for the Kingdom. Policy makers agree that Education touches on fundamental themes of development economics as well as cognitive growth and ethics. It is behind human capital accumulation, and thus productivity and economic growth benefits from inte ...

India and Morocco have enjoyed a steady and fruitful relationship that continues to grow thanks to the trade opportunities between both countries. Indeed, the various agreements between India and Morocco yielded effective results for both countries who set a model of South-South cooperation that is also a win-win partnership.  Both countries share many common challenges as both are middle income countries. They have been enjoying sustained economic growth in the past two decad ...

This paper reports on the recent developments in the construction of an interregional input-output matrix for Morocco (IIOM-MOR). As part of an ongoing project that aims to specify and calibrate an interregional CGE (ICGE) model for the country, a fully specified interregional input-output database was developed under conditions of limited information. Such database is needed for future calibration of the ICGE model. We conduct an analysis of the intraregional and interregional shar ...

The decision of the South African High Court on June 15, 2017, ordering to seize the Moroccan phosphate cargo destined for New Zealand and to take the case to trial, has been considered by OCP and the Moroccan Government as an indignation and a law instrumentalization for political purposes. ...

Thinking creatively the bilateral relationship of Brazil and Morocco is quintessential for enhancing its reach and possibilities. The world is currently facing enormous changes whose outcomes are unpredictable. From a revival in the cold war realist dispute of power between the United States and Russia, the collapse of International Law in relation to Ukraine, Crimea and the South China Sea, BREXIT and the imponderable results that may impact the European Union and to the possible d ...

Le Maroc, avant les effets de la mondialisation, apparaissait comme une société de solidarité mécanique où l’intérêt collectif semblait prendre le dessus sur l’intérêt individuel. Comme l'affirmait Durkheim, « la cohésion sociale des petites sociétés (mécaniques) et indifférenciées, différenciées par une division du travail (organique) relativement complexe » (Britannica, 2016). Durant les transitions de cette nature, les individus s’interrogent sur leur existence en tant que citoye ...

Ce Policy Brief traite de l’articulation entre le développement et la sécurité dans le bassin méditerranéen, ainsi que de l’implication des pays des deux rives, nord et sud, dans un partenariat assurant la sécurité nécessaire à un développement socio-économique conjoint. Les pays du Sahel prennent également part à l’analyse et conditionnent le succès des stratégies sécuritaires au Maghreb et au sein de l’Union Européenne. Le papier revient sur des exemples de pays riches mais frappé ...

Le processus continu et renforcé de l’accumulation du capital physique, dans lequel s’est engagé le Maroc depuis le début des années 2000, a permis de préserver la stabilité des équilibres fondamentaux et d’amortir les différents chocs exogènes, aussi bien internes qu’externes. Cependant, cet effort d’accumulation n’a pas permis d’insuffler un accroissement significatif des gains de productivité et d’accélérer la transformation de la base productive. Ce Policy Brief propose de décri ...

This paper retraces Brazil and Morocco’s economic strategies towards Sub-Saharan Africa since the beginning of the century, highlighting the characteristics and evaluating the performance of the instruments used to promote the flows of trade, investment and cooperation between each of the two countries and the Sub-Saharan region. The paper also includes an assessment of these policies, as well as conclusions and recommendations. ...

Despite fraught politics, the global outlook is strengthening. The next twelve months are likely to be characterized by moderate but steady growth across the world. However, the outlook becomes murkier as we move into the second half of 2018 and 2019. Significant upside in world economic growth is possible on account of building momentum against a background of low capacity utilization, but even greater downside is possible on account of inconsistent economic policy in the Unites St ...

1. Background & Context Perhaps the most noteworthy highlight of the 2017 African Union Summit in Addis Ababa Ethiopia was the decision by the majority of AU member states to welcome back into the organization the Kingdom of Morocco after a thirty-three year absence.  It should be remembered that the Kingdom of Morocco was a founding member of the Organization of African Unity (OAU) in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia in 1963. Morocco played an assertive role in the OAU by firmly ba ...

Morocco's ties with Africa through various aspects have never been broken. There is no need to prove its roots within deep history. However, the recent developments constitute a major event of important significance. Is it a turning point, a victory that concludes a diplomatic episode among others, a normalization, a response to cyclical difficulties, a booster, an inflection point, or a major event? ...

Despite the sustained growth in the bilateral trade observed at the beginning of the Century, Moroccan – Brazilian economic relations are still going through what could be called the ‘shallow’ phase of relations between two middle-income countries. Trade is concentrated in a few products – those where both countries enjoy long lasting and natural comparative advantages – and face strong difficulties to diversify in terms of products and to upgrade towards more complex models of lin ...

An analysis of trade relations between Morocco and sub-Saharan Africa indicates a growing volume of trade, reflecting a continuation of stimulated trade relations. A similar trend is observed in foreign direct investment (FDI), which has continued to grow in recent years, reflecting Morocco's determination to become a major player in the development of the African continent. This Policy Brief first presents trends in inter-regional trade between Morocco and sub-Saharan Africa, focus ...

Partout dans le monde, l'intégration économique régionale permet d'accélérer la croissance et le développement en apportant une panoplie d'avantages liés à une meilleure coopération politique, à un commerce intra-régional accru et à la création d'emplois. Les régions qui sont plus intégrées se sont révélées capables de connaître une croissance plus rapide et ont fait preuve d'une plus grande capacité d'adaptation en période de ralentissement de l'économie mondiale. Alors que l'écono ...

Africa is the new frontier of a global energy transition during a century in which people are rightfully preoccupied by climate change and sustainable development. Energy access in Africa can be reached through unity within and across the continent. Eliminating the obstacles of the historical divisions of the continent – whether linguistic, economic, or geographic – would foment investments and development aid. The African Union would be best equipped to reallocate and redistribute ...

Morocco’s energy landscape has been changing rapidly over the past decades. Alongside its own population growth, rising access rates to electricity as well as high rates of rural-urban migration and rising living standards, Morocco’s domestic energy needs have risen sharply since the early 1990s. This policy paper explores Morocco’s long-term energy options, focusing on “green” energy solutions that lie within Morocco’s natural competitive advantage. Using Morocco’s strategic assets ...

Morocco is now more than ever threatened by the trap of middle-income economies. On one hand, it is caught between increased competition from low-income countries in low productivity and labor-intensive sectors and, on the other hand, the difficulty of accelerating its pace of structural transformation towards activities with higher value added and higher technological content. International experience shows that few countries have managed to climb to the status of an advanced econo ...

This policy brief reviews the recently published EU Global Strategy, highlighting its main strengths and weaknesses as well as innovations, starting with the concept of resilience. It argues that the document has many strengths for being a compromise text written at a time of deep uncertainty about the EU's own future. The brief also comments on the future of EU-Morocco relations in the new framework. It notes that the strategy perhaps missed an opportunity to reaffirm European-Moro ...

The 2015-2030 strategic vision innovates the Moroccan educational system. Unlike previous reforms, this vision addresses problems that have long been ignored. Among these problems is the quality of education. Although educational quality may have been included in previous reform programs, it is considered as one of the priorities in this new vision. The purpose of this Policy Brief is to assess the status of learning achievement, which is an integral part of educational quality, of ...

Jointly organized by OCP Policy Center and Shanghai Institutes for International Studies, the roundtable on "Current African Economic and Strategic Challenges and Opportunities; Intersecting Views from China and Morocco" was a great opportunity to gather experts from both side, to brainstorm opportunities to enhance the role of think-tanks and civil society organization in the consolidation of the Afro-Asian cooperation more efficiently and in a more comprehensive way. Th ...

Global economic growth is likely to be a little better in 2016 than this year’s lackluster outcome. The ongoing slow recovery in the United States and Europe is likely to continue. However, weakness in China as well as several large emerging markets, and sluggishness of world trade, mean that risks are weighted on the downside of this forecast. Morocco, which is reliant on European markets, is a heavy importer of oil, and whose currency has devalued in effective terms, should find t ...

The contribution that the diaspora makes to development in the country of origin is examined. Drawing on a recent World Bank survey of migrants from the MENA countries, the needs of the diaspora and the development role it can play through its organizations are reviewed. A constructive interaction with the diaspora can be greatly enhanced by supportive policies in the country of origin. The main focus of the paper is on the Middle East and North African region, and more specifically ...