Morocco, UN Agree on Annual Work Plan Benefiting Youth

An annual work plan on youth was signed, Wednesday in Rabat, between the ministry of Culture, Youth and Sports and the United Nations System (UNS), represented by four of its specialized agencies in the field of youth.

Under this agreement, the first of its kind in the field of youth in Morocco, the United Nations system will provide technical and financial support to the ministry, in particular for the deployment of the new youth centers and the renewal of its governance and leadership framework, the operationalization of the National Integrated Youth Policy, the establishment of a national system for collecting and processing information on youth and analyzing its situation, and the launch of regional and local initiatives for youth in the area of social entrepreneurship and innovation.

Signed by minister of Culture, Youth and Sports, Othman El Ferdaous, representative of the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA), Luis Mora, representative of the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF), Giovanna Barberis, deputy resident representative of the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), Martine Therer, and acting director of the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) for the Maghreb, Alexander Schischlik, this joint work plan will give rise to actions defined for each of its components, through specific interventions focused on results, which will directly benefit adolescents and young people as well as associations working in the different action levers related to youth.

In a statement to the press, El Ferdaous said that the signing of this annual work plan with a collective of UNS agencies aims to achieve convergence between all plans of these agencies.

“Youth centers are closed since last year because of lockdown, with its psychological, economic and social repercussions,” he said, adding that “we had not given up” and “we have acted” for a qualitative and quantitative contribution to the benefit of these centers, as well as for the national sectoral youth policy.

For his part, Mora expressed pride in the signing of this joint agreement, with a number of UN agencies and which tends to support the implementation of the national policy for youth and sectoral strategies for youth in Morocco.

Schischlik said that Morocco relies on youth as an actor of development, adding that young people are the bearers of innovative ideas and must be supported in a structured manner.

This agreement reflects the ambition of the parties to implement national priorities in the field of youth and marks their mutual commitment to combine their efforts in the implementation of key reforms and initiatives in this area.