Morocco’s Economic Divide Deepens: Rural-Urban Gap Widens Despite Government Efforts

In a report cited by HuffPost, Oxfam states that social inequalities in Morocco are spreading like wildfire within the countries of North Africa, with significant gaps between rural and urban areas, centers and peripheries, in addition to a concentration of 60% of GDP in three regions, while 3/4 of the poor are confined to six regions out of the twelve in Morocco.

It is not the levers raised by the various governments that are lacking, the report points out, but rather their implementation that leaves something to be desired. Public investments, subsidies, development agencies or the National Initiative for Human Development (INDH), all these actors have shown a lack of realism in reducing regional disparities, because the vertical redistribution of resources (the rich territories supplementing the poor) cannot reduce the gaps, for reasons, in particular of governance. Proper management of territories can only be done by encouraging the autonomy of the regions towards an optimal use of resources and the creation of employment opportunities.

The decentralization of budgetary, fiscal or judicial decisions is also the victim of a formal defect in the many government policies, since, on the one hand, the distribution of resources is not done in an impartial manner, and on the other hand, a tax system adapted to the regions is non-existent or unequal. The added value of the State can only be considered from the moment it puts an end to these territorial injustices, concludes the report.