Identifier
Created
Classification
Origin
09RABAT473
2009-06-07 18:36:00
UNCLASSIFIED//FOR OFFICIAL USE ONLY
Embassy Rabat
Cable title:  

USG, NDI AND IRI TEAM UP TO HELP ELECT WOMEN AND

Tags:  PGOV PHUM KPAO KPMI KDEM KWMN MO 
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VZCZCXRO2541
PP RUEHBC RUEHDA RUEHDBU RUEHDE RUEHDH RUEHGI RUEHJS RUEHKUK RUEHLH
RUEHPW RUEHROV RUEHTRO
DE RUEHRB #0473/01 1581836
ZNR UUUUU ZZH
P 071836Z JUN 09
FM AMEMBASSY RABAT
TO RUEHC/SECSTATE WASHDC PRIORITY 0228
INFO RUCNISL/ISLAMIC COLLECTIVE PRIORITY
RUCNMGH/MAGHREB COLLECTIVE PRIORITY
UNCLAS SECTION 01 OF 03 RABAT 000473 

SIPDIS
SENSITIVE

STATE FOR NEA - A/DAS SPIRNAK, NEA/PI AND NEA/MAG
STATE ALSO FOR DRL/NESCA AND NEA/PPD
TUNIS FOR MEPI REGIONAL OFFICE

E.O. 12958: N/A
TAGS: PGOV PHUM KPAO KPMI KDEM KWMN MO
SUBJECT: USG, NDI AND IRI TEAM UP TO HELP ELECT WOMEN AND
BUILD DEMOCRACY IN MOROCCO

UNCLAS SECTION 01 OF 03 RABAT 000473

SIPDIS
SENSITIVE

STATE FOR NEA - A/DAS SPIRNAK, NEA/PI AND NEA/MAG
STATE ALSO FOR DRL/NESCA AND NEA/PPD
TUNIS FOR MEPI REGIONAL OFFICE

E.O. 12958: N/A
TAGS: PGOV PHUM KPAO KPMI KDEM KWMN MO
SUBJECT: USG, NDI AND IRI TEAM UP TO HELP ELECT WOMEN AND
BUILD DEMOCRACY IN MOROCCO


1. (SBU) Summary: Swift USG action to back Morocco's
decision to dramatically expand the number of elected women
has meant thousands of women were trained to run in local
elections scheduled for June 12. The election will yield a
more than a twenty-fold increase in women counselors and a
fifteen-fold increase in the total number of elected women in
Morocco, providing a long-term boost to democracy. For a
little over half a million dollars, the Middle East
Partnership Initiative (MEPI) funded countrywide training by
the International Republican Institute (IRI) and the National
Democratic Institute for International Affairs (NDI). This
unprecedented 11-week cooperative effort directly trained
nearly 4,000 women from 41 cities throughout Morocco on
campaign methods, communication and leadership skills,
reaching a fifth of the 20,000 women who are running for the
more than 3,200 reserved seats, with others on regular party
lists. Training materials distributed to the political
parties and through the Internet will reach many more.
Recipients praised the training, saying it prepared them to
campaign and win. Their enthusiasm may help marginally boost
overall turnout. Many winners will go on to be elected to
regional councils and the upper house of Parliament. Post
recommends immediate action on a short-fuse follow up MEPI
project and consideration of longer term funding to mentor
this new generation of women politicians, with positive,
potentially transformational implications for political
development in Morocco. End Summary.


2. (SBU) With MEPI funds, IRI and NDI have teamed up to
provide training and support to women interested in running
as candidates in the June 12 local elections in Morocco.
Late in 2008, Parliament amended the electoral code to
provide for more than 3,000 additional seats, some 12 percent
of the total, which the parties agreed to reserve for women.
The product of extensive agitation by Moroccan women and
influence from Europe, where such reservations are not
unknown, the amendment was drafted with the help of USAID,s
Local Governance Program. The training was coordinated with

an existing joint initiative of the Ministry of Interior and
Minister of Social Development, Family, and Solidarity,
supported by the UN's women's program, UNIFEM. The
objectives were to encourage women to run, help them choose a
party, get on the party nomination lists, launch strong
campaigns, and win.

--------------
IRI Up North, NDI Down South
and Everywhere on the Web
--------------


3. (SBU) To maximize efficiency, NDI and IRI leaders agreed
to split the country geographically, with IRI taking the
north and NDI taking Casablanca and the south. With USD
250,000 in MEPI funding, IRI conducted 50 seminars led by
professional Moroccan master trainers in 28 cities for 2,733
participants. IRI delivered the interactive weekend sessions
in regional dialects, drawing from an IRI women's candidate
training manual specifically prepared for the election. IRI
Country Director Jamie Tronnes said the weekend conferences
gave women the opportunity to network with political parties
or choose one in which to run, and feel empowered to exert
their leadership skills in their communities. IRI continued
to receive training requests from major political parties
after the formal training sessions ended on May 10.


4. (SBU) With part of its MEPI grant, IRI developed and
launched a website (www.formationmaroc.org) that provided
women candidates or potential candidates access to on-line
training sessions on leadership and political campaign
development. A copy of the IRI training manual is available
for anyone to download free of charge. The Ministry of
Interior recently provided 200,000 MAD (approximately USD
25,000) to each major political party for their own training
of women. With not enough time or money to develop a program
of their own, many parties used the IRI (or NDI) materials.


5. (SBU) MEPI provided USD 330,000 for NDI to conduct nine
trainings in 13 cities for 1,030 female participants. NDI's
efforts followed a "Train the Trainers" model, using a team
of 10 Moroccan experts leading sessions on: campaign
planning, fundamentals of democratic processes, the role of
elected officials and their relationships within the party,
communication techniques, and training methodologies. NDI's
candidate training guide is now available on-line
(www.aswat.com) along with a campaign legal guide, video
clips of training sessions, interviews with women candidates,

RABAT 00000473 002 OF 003


and an on-line forum for potential candidates to discuss
issues. NDI Program Officer Siham Bojji conservatively
estimated that those who directly participated in its
training sessions have trained an additional 200 women. NDI
also trained 474 women and men from political parties under a
USD 120,000 MEPI grant for training poll watchers.

--------------
Women Prepared to Run and Win
--------------


6. (SBU) In exit interviews, participants lauded both
programs. One NDI participant, a communal counselor from
Agadir, said, "This training will permit women to be
confident when running their campaign. It provides all the
necessary knowledge ... that will help the women run a good
campaign and compete with men." An IRI trainee said the
course "encouraged all participants to take part in the 2009
municipal elections" and "really opened doors for members of
our political party."


7. (SBU) NDI and IRI officials reported that trainees were
especially interested in learning how to incorporate new
technology into their political campaigns. IRI conducted
some sessions on internet blogging. Both groups shared that
participants were very receptive to the use of cell phone
(SMS) text messages and mass e-mail campaigns, after learning
that President Obama incorporated such tactics in his own
successful political campaign last fall. The training
sessions encouraged women candidates to identify potential
voters, obtain their e-mail addresses and SMS numbers, and
remain in contact with them during the campaign period.

--------------
Follow-Up/Next-Steps
--------------


8. (SBU) On May 29, the parties submitted their final
candidate lists and the two-week campaign season officially
began. NDI and IRI staff are working to determine how many
candidates and campaign organizers participated in their
training sessions. In sum, IRI trained 2,733 potential women
candidates in 28 cities across northern Morocco. IRI has
made a random check of its participants, and about half of
the fifty women contacted so far were either already on a
ticket or actively seeking one, that would extrapolate to
nearly 1,500 new women office seekers. Moroccan press
reported June 2 that in total, 20,458 women had registered to
run. Of this number, 52.2 percent were under the age of 35;
Tronnes opined that she was surprised and encouraged to see
so many young women candidates. Based on discussions with
trainees, both IRI and NDI predicted that the new role for
women would help raise the overall election participation
rate above 40 percent. It was 37 percent in the 2007
parliamentary elections and historically has been even lower
for the local polls. This suggests increased involvement by
women as voters, too.


9. (SBU) Both institutes are interested in follow up work
with the women, both with those who are elected and also with
those who may not win this time, but are interested in
long-term political involvement, as well as those who this
time may only have supported candidates, but not run
themselves. MEPI is now finalizing action on a proposal
submitted by the Embassy for a short-term intervention to
support those who would have won a seat and then seek the
provincial regional or national posts that will be chosen by
them and their fellow council members over the summer, and we
hope final approval can be quickly secured to permit this
low-cost, high-value, but small time-window effort. IRI is
interested in formulating a follow-up program for the newly
elected women and will seek MEPI or USAID funding for it.
This could focus on the mission's cross-cutting goal of
anti-corruption, along with good governance, legislative
processes, and constituent relations. Other donors will also
be funding specific training for the newly elected.

--------------
Comment
--------------


10. (SBU) No pilot project, this NDI/IRI effort has yielded
phenomenal results in a relatively short period, directly
touching thousands of newly engaged women all over the
country. We will separately report insights from some of the
women. Limited and anecdotal histories suggest that at

RABAT 00000473 003 OF 003


present elected women in Morocco likely will govern more
transparently and more effectively than the current men in
politics. The Mission is grateful to MEPI Washington for
funding this project in record time and hopes MEPI can
finalize an already submitted short-fuse follow-up project
for immediately after the elections to help the victors move
up the political ladder. We suggest considering additional
work with NDI, IRI or others to provide the newly elected
women officials further guidance in their new
responsibilities, alongside other donor efforts. We also
believe that a long-term mentoring program for this emergent
generation of thousands of new women politicians could have
additional significant, even transformational impact on
political life in Morocco. End Comment.


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Jackson