Oxfam: 4.3 Million Moroccan Households Lack Social Protection Amid COVID-19 Crisis

Oxfam indicates that in Morocco, studies and statistical data confirm an already worrying reality in the labor market. "The number of jobs in the informal sector (excluding agriculture) reaches 2.4 million, or 16.5% of total employment in Morocco, with a very low number of unstable jobs created." The preventive measures taken to curb the spread of the virus have left an impressive number of people stranded who, from one day to the next, found themselves without a job and without any financial resources to cope with daily life.

The Oxfam country director in Morocco, Xavier Duvauchelle, believes that in this context, "only an extremely ambitious political action by the State can overcome this crisis by triggering an urgent public health intervention, supporting the most destitute and helping families to get through this crisis. It is also about being able to relaunch the economy."

The British NGO considers that the political, economic, social actors, civil society, as well as the decision-makers, must draw the necessary lessons from this crisis which will have had the merit of revealing many dysfunctions in the choice of public policies. It encourages "the launch of a public debate after confinement to prepare the next elections, the development model as well as the 2021 Finance Act."

For OXFAM, responding to "the crisis of inequalities and the feeling of injustice" can be done by establishing a "national public health plan and an emergency intervention for access to care for the most destitute." Regarding fair and emergency tax measures, it proposes a "solidarity tax on large fortunes that will ensure universal social protection for those in the informal sector."

However, Oxfam in Morocco warns against "the rise of intolerance towards inequalities." Abdeljalil Laroussi, head of advocacy and campaigns, indicates that "instead of attacking freedom of expression and opinion and civic spaces through unnecessary restrictions and limits, it is more urgent for the government to focus on the real levers of change to get out of precariousness," the same source specifies.