National Human Development Initiative

Introduction

On the 18th of May 2005, Moroccan King Mohammed VI gave start to the National Human Development Initiative. This project was touted as a central part to his plan to improve the situation of poor people in the country and earned him the title of “King of the Poor”. It aims at reducing social exclusion, improving transparency and accountability of the decision-making and execution process on a local level with the purpose of enhancing the exploitation of social and economic services by the disadvantaged portions of society. The Initiative covers the eradication of poverty in the countryside, reducing social inclusion in the cities and improving on governance mechanisms and institutional capacity. It is structured in a top-down approach whereby local government are meant to clarify their needs and priorities regarding basic infrastructure, economic opportunities and social services. This Initiative has garnered support and partial financing from the World Bank from its inception. This paper aims to examine some of the developmental projects that preceded the INDH, assess the progress achieved by the initiative and show that the initiative was an example of proactive decision making on behalf of the government which might have gone as far as to play a role in preventing the seeds of the Arab Spring from gaining momentum in Morocco despite the fact that development in the country is at a fairly similar and sometimes even worse status when compared with other Arab countries.

Pre-INDH Development Programs

Structural adjustment programs (SAPs) refers to the packages proposed by the Bretton Woods institutions to developing countries. Countries had to abide by the IMF and World Bank’s guidelines if they were to continue receiv...

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...w trickle down to the poor masses but rather seeks to tackle the problem directly by empowering the once-marginalized social classes. It might not have had the sort of phenomenal success that would qualify it as revolutionary but hope remains in the possibility that it may at some point evolve into a project that positively affects the lives of all Moroccans, especially in the context of its second phase which concerns the period from 2005 to 2011 and is endowed with a budget almost twice as big. Aside from the developmental advancements that were a result of the INDH up until now, the possible political motivations behind it might be viewed in a positive light in terms of the role that the initiative played in stabilising the country and making it relatively immune to the wave of revolutions of the Arab Spring which by now have turned out to be excessively bloody.