MEPI UPDATE FOR MOROCCO

UNCLAS SECTION 01 OF 02 RABAT 000272 SIPDIS STATE FOR NEA/MAG, NEA/PI and PDAS CARPENTER, DRL TUNIS FOR MEPI RO SIPDIS E.O.12958: N/A TAGS: EAID ECON PGOV ETRD EINV KMPI MO SUBJECT: MEPI UPDATE FOR MOROCCO REF: A) Rabat 0399, B) 06 Rabat 2509 ¶1. Summary: This cable highlights MEPI programs and initiatives in Morocco from October 1-December 30. Activities included the publication of a new guide for NGOs' advocacy, Arab Civitas and International Republican Institute (IRI) activities, teaching Arabic through local languages, Financial Services Volunteer Corps (FSVC) projects, an e-learning curriculum on women's rights, a Global Rights outreach program and preparations for the 2007 legislative elections. Implementers are partnering with local NGOs at the grassroots level to support numerous programs committed to reform in the four MEPI pillars. End Summary. -------------- A NEW GUIDE ON NGOS' ADVOCACY -------------- ¶2. MEPI implementer MTDS-Tanmia, in partnership with Demos Consulting, has published a new guide on NGO advocacy. This reference guide seeks to reinforce the capability of NGOs to advocate more efficiently for changes in their field of intervention. The guide teaches NGOs new concepts enabling them to organize their activities within a more coherent and systematic framework. ¶3. From December 10-17, MTDS-Tanmia organized the last of four MEPI-funded "Time to Get Online" workshops planned for 2006. A total of 53 NGOs/associations from various regions in Morocco attended two-day workshops. The participating organizations were selected from a large pool of applicants interested in this activity. The Time to Get Online module focuses on how NGOs can use the Internet to strengthen their organizations through better access to information and for communication, advocacy and networking. -------------- ARAB CIVITAS ACTIVITIES -------------- ¶4. The Moroccan Center for Civic Education (MCCE),Arab Civitas' partner, is extending Project Citizen and Foundations of Democracy implementation to public and private schools in eight of sixteen regions of Morocco. MCCE has begun partnerships with teacher training institutes to introduce civic education to teacher training. MCCE will also establish strong civic education programs in close partnership with the Ministry of Education, Regional Academies for Education and Training and NGOs. The goal is to work on institutional support for program continuity. ¶5. In November and December 2006, a number of training workshops were conducted for the benefit of teachers from around the country. The workshops featured intensive training on two main programs designed by the Center for Civic Education, and translated into Arabic by Arab Civitas. The programs were as follows: Project Citizen: a curriculum in which high-school students work in advocacy groups to select a public policy problem, research the problem and various policies to deal with it, select or develop a policy to advocate, and develop an action plan to enlist authorities to adopt their policy. Foundations of Democracy: a curriculum used with primary school pupils. It is based on concepts fundamental to an understanding of politics and government such as authority, privacy, responsibility and justice. The rationale behind this program is to promote civic competence and responsibility among elementary school students. -------------- IRI's ACTIVITIES -------------- ¶6. IRI assisted Moroccan political parties to formulate internal election campaign strategies and conducted preliminary party coordination meetings on a regional basis. IRI also held its ongoing monthly Women's Network Roundtable and hosted the executive meeting of the Women's Network as part of its efforts to bolster the influence of activists in party decision making and campaigning. -------------- -- PREPARATIONS FOR THE 2007 LEGISLATIVE ELECTIONS -------------- -- ¶7. During this reporting period, the National Democratic Institute (NDI) organized several events to enhance the capacities of parties to compete effectively, communicate with voters, and better RABAT 00000272 002 OF 002 represent the interests of Moroccans in the 2007 elections. Events included a training of trainers for political party members designed to provide participants with a set of basic skills to use in their future work as trainers in their respective parties. -------------- TEACHING ARABIC THROUGH LOCAL LANGUAGES -------------- ¶8. In December, the Advancing Learning and Employability for a Better Future (ALEF) literacy project began training 8,000 new beneficiaries using the new "Passerelles" pre-literacy strategy (that teaches the reading of classical Arabic through local languages/dialects). A committee of representatives from the Secretariat of State for Literacy and Non-Formal Education, the SIPDIS Royal Institute for the Preservation of the Amazigh (Berber) Culture (IRCAM),the United Nations Development Fund for Women (UNIFEM),and instructors from literacy NGOs are continuing to develop training manuals. -------------- FSVC PROJECTS -------------- ¶9. During this quarter, FSVC implemented three projects in Morocco. First, FSVC provided an assessment of the operations of Dar Ad-Damane, the private credit guarantee fund established by Moroccan banks. The assessment focused on operational management policies in underwriting guarantees to SMEs, portfolio management, and overall corporate governance, as well as capital adequacy and financial needs of the company. FSVC also recommended necessary reforms. Second, FSVC helped Bank Al-Maghrib (BAM) develop a financial conglomerates supervision framework that will enable bank examiners to perform comprehensive analysis of conglomerates' risk exposure. As a result of the consultations, BAM will be able to develop an effective way to analyze and regulate banking conglomerates in Morocco. Finally, FSVC volunteers provided commentary on the private equity/venture capital regulatory framework with the Moroccan Private Equity Association (AMIC). The commentary on alternative approaches to regulatory structures, legal approaches and tax frameworks for private equity and venture capital will feed into AMIC's official response to the government's proposed legislation. -------------- AN E-LEARNING CURRICULUM ON WOMEN'S RIGHTS -------------- ¶10. Beginning in October, the American Bar Association (ABA) launched a program to develop a standardized judicial curriculum on the Family Law and women's rights in Morocco. Developed with the Institut Superieur de la Magistrature (ISM) Morocco's national judicial training institute, the program will create a series of interactive, e-learning modules which will be administered by ISM for all new and sitting judges as part of its national judicial curriculum. The objective of the program is to provide a standardized curriculum that will enable Moroccan judges to receive comprehensive instruction on applying provisions of the Family Law and other international women's rights provisions to which Morocco is a party. -------------- GLOBAL RIGHTS OUTREACH PROGRAM -------------- ¶11. Global Rights along with their partner NGOs in the Young Activists Network project launched an initiative in December to conduct outreach about human rights education for young women journalists in six regions. This seeks to integrate the journalists into the network, gain publicity for the partner NGOs, and enhance reporting on women's rights issues in the press through a human rights perspective. Among the activities performed were a series of open house days in the NGOs for young women journalists and a tailored program of women's human rights education that specifically addressed journalists by focusing on topics such as the legal sources of human rights, stereotypes of women in the media, and reporting on women's human rights violations. ¶12. A detailed description of MEPI programs in Morocco can be found on the Mission unclassified Internet web page at www.usembassy.ma. RILEY