Participating with the Moroccan society in the consolidation of democratic reforms in Morocco.
Moroccan society organizations and new social movements that emerged during the context of the so called Arab Spring , claim, through the creation of structures as the platform Appel à Rabat, to move towards a new paradigm of democracy that focuses on strengthening the role of citizens and their organizations, shifting the traditional state-centric conception of democracy.
The new Moroccan Constitution, adopted in 2011, promotes the role of civil society in the definition and monitoring of public policies. Despite the quantum leap introduced regarding the participation of civil society in the design, implementation and evaluation of public policies, the mechanism under this legal framework have not yet been transposed into legal texts. Furthermore, the creation of the National Council for Social Dialogue does not give the expected results and the relationships between institutions and people are more tense now. In fact, the main social organizations of the country accuse the ministry to launch a true offensive against the associative movement, causing a sharp decline in the performance of collective freedoms through the proposed texts and restrictive laws on freedom and independence of associations. About 500 member associations from Appel à Rabat platform made a public statement on May 14th to demand on the one hand, the dissolution of the Ministry in charge of relations with society and, on the other hand, accelerate the implementation of those social participation mechanisms contained in the Constitution of the country. Also, the proposals of the new Code of the press and the law of domestic violence are being made without any coordination with social movements, trade unions, women’s organizations or youth movements, breaching the provisions of the Constitution.
Therefore, this project stems from a direct request of local organizations and entities, who will participate in the project to make a greater impact on their actions, among other objectives. With the main support of an organization with long history in promoting mobilization and social transformation, the Forum des Alternatives Marocain, the project contributes to activated in a proper way the mechanisms of social participation collected in the Moroccan Constitution. An advocacy, analysis and collective participative project implemented in four stages:
- Capacity building of Moroccan society in inclusive structures for participatory design of public policies
- Establishment and improvement of propositions of public policies consolidation focused on the establishment of participatory mechanisms for conflict resolution, participatory democracy and citizen participation , with particular emphasis on strengthening freedom of the press and gender equality
- Creating and supporting the communication strategy and associative communication of propositions of public policies consolidation
- Support to the local advocacy strategy
