Morocco's potential remains concentrated in 5 regions despite efforts to advance regionalization

A recent study titled “Achieving Territorial Justice: In Need of a New Breath” by Abderrafie Zaanoun addressed the regional gap in Morocco highlighting the challenges and emerging strategies required to address territorial disparities in Morocco.

Despite significant investments to better shorten the developmental gap between urban and rural areas, substantial inequalities remain.

According to the study, Casablanca-Settat, Rabat-Salé-Kénitra, and Marrakech-Safi 3 regions out of 12 in the kingdom accumulated 61 percent of all the national investment, while the remaining nine regions accounted for only 39 percent.

In addition to that the report provides data for employment distribution, five regions containing 72.6% of the active population aged 15 and above, while also accounting for 71.4% of the unemployed.

To counter the gap, the report discusses the Territorial and Social Disparities Reduction Program, a plan that was put into action from 2017 to 2023.

With an estimated budget of 5 billion USD, the goal of the program is to target important sectors such as health, education, accessibility, water, and electricity.

Key allocations include MAD 35.4 billion for road and rural path construction, MAD 5 billion for educational infrastructure, MAD 2 billion for health sector improvements, MAD 6 billion for clean drinking water, and MAD 2 billion for enhancing electrical networks.

During these six years, the program was stated to have benefitted approximately 14 million people in rural areas, making strides in closing some of the gaps between rural and urban communities.

However, the report emphasizes that these efforts have not been sufficient to even the regions as gaps continue to exist between different regions of the country.

According to the paper despite the progress, there is a need for new strategies to tackle the causes of these disparities.

The report calls for a reassessment of current approaches and the development of sustainable and balanced growth models to ensure that all regions of Morocco can prosper equally.

In his analysis, Zaanoun discusses the significant uneven distribution of civil servants across the kingdom, five regions are home to about 68% of the total, while seven regions are only home to 32%.

This imbalance causes a deficiency in rights and services, particularly in rural healthcare, which lacks sufficient medical personnel.

The findings of this report are an interesting alert for policymakers, and stakeholders in regional development as there is a need for continued investment for development to bridge the developmental gap across the Kingdom.