Morocco’s National Observatory on Human Development is moving forward in developing a local governance assessment framework to monitor the implementation of human development (HD) programmes at the local level. With the new Communal Charter (2008), important decentralization reforms are underway in Morocco in order to grant a more important role to the communes in designing and executing HD programmes at the local level.

Morocco’s National Observatory on Human Development is moving forward in developing a local governance assessment framework to monitor the implementation of human development (HD) programmes at the local level. With the new Communal Charter (2008), important decentralization reforms are underway in Morocco in order to grant a more important role to the communes in designing and executing HD programmes at the local level. One of the objectives for this monitoring system will be to help identify areas in the local governance architecture which need to be strengthened to produce better HD results. Another objective will be to help formulate a capacity building response to bolster local institutions involved in the delivery of social services.

 

From 25-28 January, the Observatory invited around 20 partners from the Ministries of Local Government, Health and Education as well as from the National Initiative for Human Development to discuss what shape and form such a monitoring tool should take in Morocco (workshop materials, all in French, include a presentation on local governance assessments and a description of selected assessment methodologies.) The Working Group drew from worldwide experiences in developing such tools, compiled on the Governance Assessment Portal and reviewed in a Users’ Guide to Measuring Local Governance, in order to lay the foundations of a Moroccan framework. As a first step, a mapping of all (state and non-state) local governance actors involved in HD programmes was done to distinguish their respective roles in assessing local needs, planning, executing and monitoring HD programmes. Based on this common understanding, participants conducted a ‘SWOT’ analysis to identify the strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats to local governance practices and their impact on HD outcomes. Finally, a set of key democratic governance principles (including participation, transparency and accountability) was selected as a normative framework for assessing the performance of local actors in contributing to HD outcomes. The next steps will be to select specific indicators to fill out this assessment matrix, and to develop the necessary data collection tools, including citizen satisfaction surveys, interview guides for focus groups, and questionnaires for service providers.