Morocco celebrates Throne Day today. It marks the ninth anniversary of the enthronement of King Mohammed; he ascended the throne on July 23, 1999, following the death of his father, King Hassan. This important day in Morocco’s calendar is a perfect opportunity to highlight the country’s achievements, mainly in social and economic fields. In Paris, therefore, Zeina El-Tibi met Rachid Benmokhtar Benabdellah, the former minister of education, for this interview. Benabdellah is currently the chairman of the National Initiative of Human Development and president of Al-Akhawayn University. Excerpts:
Can you highlight the social and economic priorities since the beginning of the reign of King Mohammed?
First of all, the king has always been sensitive and he takes into consideration the human situation. One of his royal orders was to establish a report called “50 Years of Development Since Independence.” His order for the report came in 2004 and the reason was that after 50 years of independence, we had to reassess our policies and see what had been done and what we have to do to develop in every sphere. I have the honor to be the chairman of the scientific committee of this report. We are a team of 100 with different experiences, coming from different backgrounds — from university, from business, from government and citizens’ societies. We try to work on this report knowing full well that what the king was asking for was not a report on the economic growth or social evolution, but really on human development. So we had to focus on the starting point with the evolution of the population for 50 years and all the demographic problems. What appeared to us is that there were some gridlocks that prevented Morocco from doing better. One is related to education, second health, third the economic growth, especially the sharing of the benefits of the growth between the population and territories. Fourth is the inclusion of population in the process of development. From there came the idea of the National Initiative for Human Development, which will be a new approach.
Could you describe the National Initiative for Human Development?
The National Initiative for Human Development (NIHD) was launched by King Mohammed in May 2005 to mobilize the country’s institutional and financial resources to improve living conditions among the population and raise national social indicators. This national initiative illustrates the king’s concern to fulfill the aspirations of the Moroccan people, and is part of the social project initiated by the king since his accession to the throne. The National Initiative for Human Development, targeting all-out human development in the country, looks into the social issues within an integrated societal project aiming to consolidate human development as part of economic development. At the same time, when we launched this national initiative they decided to set up an observatory for human development that has the role of assessing not only this initiative but all the public policies, and see if these policies converge in creating real human development, and give to the government an assessment of their orientation and a recommendation. It was started in 2005, and the first evaluation feedback will be done in 2011.
In the Human Development Report 2007-2008 of United Nations Development Program (UNDP), indicators for Morocco are not so good. What must we make of this report?
The United Nation Development Program Report is using a number of criteria and indices. These indices were defined 10 years ago and I think that we can accept them, but the problem is with the ranking because if you consider the human development index, this index consists of many other indices, and the most important is that of education. Then you have health and others. The problem is with ranking for many reasons, one of them is that the data has been collected in different countries and they are not homogenous. Thus, you can have for some countries data for 2,000 and 4,000 for others and the data are not produced by the United Nations but are given by each country. That means that depending on the capabilities of the indices or statistics given by different countries, you will have different results. Another problem is that the United Nations offer their statistics without any analyses. When you consider the case of Morocco, we can see that there is an evolution and the dynamic is real. And that is very important. When you consider the economic indices you can see that it doesn’t match. So let us consider education. There are three main indices for education: Illiteracy (global illiteracy); elementary, primary and secondary schools; and the university. This way of working is not good enough. If you consider a country such as Finland, the rate of access to university is 10 percent, whereas in Egypt it is 60 percent, but we can’t say that education in Egypt is better than in Finland! In Finland only 10 percent are selected for university studies but others attend other types of training. We know that Finland has one of the best systems of education. The rate of access to university in Morocco is still low compared with other countries because of natural selection. The other thing that is very important is illiteracy. In Morocco, there is a large number of illiterates because life expectancy is high. It is about 62 percent, and this means that if you were illiterate some 40 years ago the impact of the numbers is high. If you consider another country that also has the same rate of illiteracy, but a low life expectancy, it doesn’t mean that this country is better than Morocco. In some way, when you consider ranking and ignore these facts we can say that there is a problem. Another item that is very interesting in this report is that they consider these countries as oil producers. The economy and the growth are part of the indices so these people do nothing because of the prices of oil and gas. That doesn’t express anything in human development. It is a link to business and finance. It does not indicate any added value. That means that the ranking is in some way impacted by facts that have nothing to do with human development. For that reason I’m saying that this ranking done by the United Nations is a bad thing. They have a global opinion; they should just stick to the indices by country and, perhaps more importantly, make the measurement of the evolution and the effects of these changes that are happening. That will be very interesting to say if a country is really looking for democracy and real development or not. If not, in my opinion, it is counterproductive and it gives a bad image to the United Nations Development Program Report.
During a symposium in Paris about Human Development and Economic Growth, former French Premier Michel Rocard said Morocco was among the countries where social equilibrium and internal financial standing are good. Can you give some details about the perspectives for economic development and the main projects?
King Mohammed has focused his efforts on the eradication of unhealthy housing, guaranteeing integrated human development through education and creating job opportunities. In order to eradicate the phenomenon of shantytowns, the government worked out a vast program to fight unhealthy habitats. The king visited all the regions of the Kingdom to launch many housing projects. Education has been one of Morocco’s major projects since the king’s enthronement, as it is considered one of the Kingdom’s top priorities. The king criticized the “education system that generates unemployment and ostracism” and called for the establishment of a national education and training charter. On the economic front, the Tangier-Mediterranean project, whose construction was launched in February 2003, reflects the king’s will to speed up economic growth in the northern part of the Kingdom. At the crossroads of important sea-lanes and also at the gateway between Africa and Europe, the Tangier-Mediterranean port project consists of the construction of a deep-sea harbor and logistics, industrial, commercial and tourist zones. Moreover, the Oued Bouregreg project, launched by King Mohammed, is another example of the Kingdom’s economic and tourism development. The $2 billion worth “Amwaj” project in Oued Bouregreg valley that separates the capital Rabat from millennium-old Sale is part of the Oued Bouregreg project and aims to boost tourism and economic activity in the Moroccan capital. The Plan Azur is another giant project that aims to develop the tourism sector within the 2010 vision aiming to attract 10 million tourists by 2010. Morocco also aspires to attract $100 million investment and create 20,000 jobs in the rural world through providing this part of Morocco with drinking water and electricity. In Morocco, the acceleration of economic development is spectacular and all the experts affirm that the global perspectives are good. We only need a little time so that the great projects and the reforms launched by the king can take effect.
