ENPC SCHOOL OF

INTERNATIONAL

MANAGEMENT

MA1307 Economic for business

Morocco Human Development Index

April 2011.

Prepared by: Tarik EL BITAR, Khalid SAALAOUI, Kamal SABOUR,

Table of content

Introduction: .................................................................................................................................. 3

Part 1 - Morocco human development index overview: ................................ 4

Part 2: Health ................................................................................................................................ 9

Part 3 : Education ..................................................................................................................... 11

Part 4: Income ............................................................................................................................ 13

Conclusion: .................................................................................................................................... 15

References ..................................................................................................................................... 16

Part Participant

Introduction Tarik EL BITAR

Index overview Kamal SABOUR

Health Kamal SABOUR

Education Tarik EL BITAR

Income Khalid SAALAOUI

Conclusion Khalid SAALAOUI

Introduction:

During recent years, Moroccan macroeconomic indicators (inflation, fiscal deficit, and foreign

exchange reserves) remain excellent, despite the external shocks and low economic growth.

Economic liberalization has been slow but steady, with some impressive success in

telecommunications, logistic…

Democracy has progressed since 1999, with fair and transparent national elections for the first time

since Morocco's independence. Even more notable, since September 2002 elections female

membership of Parliament has increased from one percent to ten percent, the highest percentage in

the Middle East.

Despite macroeconomic stability and advance in democracy, Morocco is still facing many social

challenges.

In fact Morocco's social indicators belie its lower ranking (114). Compared to other countries in the

region, Morocco's Human Development Index places Morocco closer to a low-income country (like

Bangladesh) than a middle-income country (like Jordan).

Although the government uses more than 25 percent of its annual budget on education, the illiteracy rate is one of the highest in the Middle East, the quality of education is poor, and vocational training is not targeted to priority needs of the workplace.

Thus, the most important challenge is raising poverty, due to high levels of unemployment, and a

labor pool largely unprepared for today's and tomorrow's job market. Moreover economic

dependency on rain-fed agriculture leads to an economic poor performance.

Even if Moroccan health conditions have recorded many advances in recent years, the sector still has many disparities between urban and rural. To overcome this problems, Morocco has launched programs in many sectors in addition to a national program in 2005 “INDH” Human development national initiative. Many advances were achieved in recent years but Moroccan ranking is still low even if it was considered in the top 10 movers from 1970 – 2010. The Moroccan government didn’t agree with ranking and indices assessing methodology. In this paper we try in a first part to give an overview of Morocco Human Development Index. In the second part we give an overview of health in morocco, the third part report education and the fourth part is about income and poverty.

Part 1 - Morocco human development index overview:

The Concepts of Human Development and Human Development Index The Human Development Theory was established by the Nobel Prize winner for Economics AMARTYA

Sen. People-centered development or the alternative development is not just about enhancing

people’s income but it is more about broadening their capabilities, choices, and freedoms. As far as

MAHBUB ul Haq is concerned, human development is about “leading a long and healthy life, being

knowledgeable, having access to the resources needed for a decent standard of living, and being able

to participate in the life of the community” (UNDP, the Human Development concept). The human

development report that was founded by Mahbub ul Haq uses four main human development

indices:

Human development index

Inequality adjustment

Gender inequality

Human poverty index.

Thus, this concept delivers an global overview and positioning for more than 180 countries (see Exhibit 1 Worldwide HDI map)

1- Human development index trends:

Morocco’s HDI value increased last years to reach 0.567 in 2010, an increase of 61 per cent or average annual increase of about 1.6 per cent. With this improvement Morocco ranking is 114 out of 169 countries (Exhibit 2).

Morocco is among top ten movers in the last 40 years as shown in the table below (see also Exhibit 3)

This improvement has been recorded in all indicators and Table bellow reviews Morocco’s progress in each of the HDI indicators. Between 1980 and 2010, Morocco’s life expectancy at birth increased by 14 years, mean years of schooling increased by about 3 years and expected years of schooling increased by 5 years; Morocco’s GNI per capita increased by 86 per cent during the same period.

Table 2: Morocco’s HDI trends

Figure 1: Morocco HDI Indicators Trends

Moroccan index comparatively with similar countries

Comparatively to country’s neighbors and Arab states, morocco’s 2010 HDI of 0.567 is below the average of 0.593 for countries in the Arab States (see Exhibit 4). It is also below the average of 0.592 for medium human development countries. From the Arab States, Morocco’s 2010 “HDI neighbors”, i.e. countries which are close in HDI rank and population size are the Syrian Arab Republic and Egypt, which had HDIs ranked 111 and 101 respectively. Morocco is also compared to Saudi Arabia, a high human development country.

Table 3: Morocco comparative HDI with Arab states

Figure 2: HDI Trends for Morocco and other similar countries

2- Inequality adjusted HDI (IHDI): HDI can be viewed as an index of 'potential' human development and IHDI as an index of actual human development. Morocco’s HDI for 2010 is 0.567. However, when the value is discounted for inequality, the HDI falls to 0.407, a loss of 28 per cent due to inequality in the distribution of the dimension indices. Morocco’s “HDI neighbors”, the Syrian Arab Republic and Egypt, show losses due to inequality of 21 per cent and 28 per cent, respectively.

3- Gender inequality index

In Morocco, 6 per cent of parliamentary seats are held by women, and 20 per cent of adult women have a secondary or higher level of education compared to 36 per cent of their male counterparts. For every 100,000 live births, 240 women die from pregnancy related causes; and the adolescent

fertility rate is 19 births per 1000 live births. Female participation in the labor market is 29 per cent compared to 84 per cent for men. The result is a GII value for Morocco of 0.693 ranking it 104 out of 138 countries based on 2008 data.

Morocco’s “HDI neighbors”, the Syrian Arab Republic and Egypt, are ranked at 103 and 108 respectively on this index.

4- Human poverty Index

The Multidimensional Poverty Index (MPI) identifies multiple deprivations in the same households in education, health and standard of living.

In Morocco 29 per cent of the population suffer multiple deprivations while an additional 11 per cent are vulnerable to multiple deprivations. The breadth of deprivation (intensity) in Morocco, which is the average percentage of deprivation experienced by people in multidimensional poverty, is 49 per cent. The MPI, which is the share of the population that is multi-dimensionally poor, adjusted by the intensity of the deprivations, is 0.139. Morocco’s “HDI neighbors”, the Syrian Arab Republic and Egypt, have MPIs of 0.021 and 0.026, respectively

Table 4: Morocco’s multiple deprivations relative to selected countries

Poverty has frequently been discussed in terms of income poverty. Figure 3 compares income poverty, measured by the percentage of the population living below PPP US$1.25 per day, and multidimensional deprivations in Morocco. It shows that income poverty only tells part of the story. The multidimensional poverty headcount is 26 percentage points higher than income poverty. This implies that individuals living above the income poverty line may still suffer deprivations in education, health and other living conditions. Figure 3 also shows the percentage of Morocco’s population deprived in at least one indicator in each of the three dimensions: standard of living, education and health.

Figure 3 – Population Deprivation

These depriviations are inequally distribued, rural population suffers more than urban population of all depriviations. The spider shart Figure 4 shows the huge differences between rural and urban for the ten indicators of depriviation.

Figure 4 : Depriviation localisation inequality

The MPI is based on 2004 data, and moroccan has launched in 2005 a large program called INDH « Initiative National pour le development human » and now many indicators were improved like Drinking water, Electricity, and Schooling.

And that is one of the reasons why morocco contested the HDI ranking for 2010.

Part 2: Health

Since its independence, Morocco has made considerable efforts

to improve health of population through massive programs of

prevention against diseases and family planning.

In fact, Morocco has made significant progress, particularly in

terms of controlling population growth rate that has decreased

during the last four decades from 2.7% to 1.4% and the fertility

rate has decreased substantially. More over several diseases are

reduced or eliminated; Morocco produces over 75% of its medicines needs…

Despite this evolution and progress, health in Morocco still shows alarming signs; maternal mortality, births, and infant mortality rates are still high, important imbalance in health services between regions, rural and urban; and medical coverage is still low. The human development index ranks morocco in the field of health 100 with an index of 0.821. In the Arabic countries morocco is ranked 14/20. With a life expectancy is now 71.8 years and it was 57.7 years in 1980. Maternal mortality: 240 per 100 000 births ranked 108. Under five mortality is still high with 36 per 1000 life-births with 119th position. Health expenditure as % of GDP is very low about 1.7%; with this rate morocco is ranked in 158th position. In fact this low ranking can be explained by many malfunctions in health system in morocco. Low access to health care for Poor and rural population due to uneven distribution of health

care provision throughout the territory. Unsatisfactory management of public hospitals: Human Resources problems Inadequate drug policy: low use of generic drugs. Lack of partnership with civil society. Low Medical coverage

Aware of these problems, Moroccan government has launched a health strategy 2008-2012.

It aims to overcome these dysfunctions and achieve some of the millennium goals.

Figure 5 : Moroccan health strategy 2008-2010

Mid-way achievements:

It is clear that many projects and measures are well underway, and many improvements and achievements were recorded but still remaining some gaps. Some challenges will raise such health coverage, funds deficit, drugs prices, and health services

prices, changes in population aging pyramid (low fertility and birth rate Vs life expectancy increase).

Health expenditure is remaining low in the public budget about 5.7%. But it’s more a management

and willing matter than expenditure increase.

Figure 6 : Health Ministry budget repartition:

Table 5: Health expenditure evolution

2003 2009

Health Expenditure / GDP 1.1% 1.3%

Health Expenditure / Gov Budget

5.3 5.0%

Headcount / population 1961 1775

Part 3: Education

Since the independence Government of Morocco has embarked to implement comprehensive reforms in education and technical vocational training. Despite facing economic challenges in the 1990s and early 2000, the government continued concerted efforts to improve overall educational landscape. In 2006 the expenditure on education as a percentage of GDP was 5.5 percent, higher than the education expenditure as a percent of GDP for Arab countries, such as, Oman, Kuwait and Egypt.

Since early 2000s the gross enrollment rates have been rising steadily for all levels of education. Completion rates at the primary level have increased from 57.8 in 2004 to 61.7 percent in 2006.

Despite this improvement, Morocco’s education is still facing many challenges:

1- High rate of Illiteracy with gender and location inequality

2- High dropout and repetition rates especially at primary and secondary levels

3- Mismatch between higher education and workplace needs

A comprehensive renovation of the education and training system was developed in a participatory manner in 1998-99, which led to the vision for long-term expansion of this sector in response to the country’s social and economic development requirements.

To overcome challenges faced by education sector, Government embarked on a comprehensive reform of the education and training system, with the promulgation of the 1999 National Education and Training Charter (CNEF).

The CNEF, with strong national consensus, declared 2000-2009 the decade for education and training, and established education and training as a national priority, second only to territorial integrity with 20% of the total government budget. The reform program, as laid out by the CNEF, also received strong support from the donor community. Nevertheless, during the course of implementation, the reform program encountered delays.

Furthermore, Morocco like other Maghreb countries is now fully committed to eradicate illiteracy. Morocco officially adopted its National Literacy and Non-formal Education Strategy in 2004. An integrated vision of literacy, development and poverty reduction was promoted by National Initiative for Human Development (INDH), launched in May 2005.

Also in 2005 the Moroccan government adopted a strategy with the objective of making ICT accessible in all public schools to improve the quality of teaching; infrastructure, teacher training and the development of pedagogical content was also part of this national program.

There are a number of donors including USAID and UNICEF that are implementing programs to improve the quality of education at the basic level and to provide training to teachers. The World Bank also provides assistance in infrastructure upgrades for all levels of education and offer skill development trainings and integrated employment creation strategies to various stakeholders.

At the request of the Government’s highest authorities, a bold Education Emergency Plan (EEP) was drawn up to catch up on this reform process. The EEP, spanning the period 2009-12, draws on the lessons learned during the last decade. In this context, the Government requested to assist the implementation of the EEP reform agenda.

Of course reforms, incentives, financial support and any other governmental efforts to improve

education cannot be fruitful nor have sustainable results without the involvement of the whole

Moroccan society and awareness of the necessity to educate children and to invest in future

generations.

Part 4: Income

In this part, we focus on Income dimensions of human development.

In Morocco, the GDP per capita has almost doubled in last 30 years been developed since 1980. Thus

it is one of the three basic key indicators or achievement measure of human development.

Figure 7 : GDP per capita evolution 1980-2010

Despite this evolution, GDP per capita is still low comparatively to other Arab states because of lack

of oil resources.

But it is a fact that GDP evolution doesn’t mean human development because of inequality in

resources distribution (see Multi- dimension poverty index)

Figure 8: GDP and HDI Morocco- Moldova

Aware of this situation Moroccan government has launched in 2005 a large and an ambitious

program called National Initiative for Human Development approach:

Many matters have prompted Morocco to launch this program, involving various key stakeholders,

including local elected officials, civil society bodies and governmental agencies, as well as sponsors

from outside. This initiative is a development project aimed at improving the economic and social

conditions of the population of Morocco; and it is based on three major aspects:

Addressing the social deficit both in rural and urban slums; Promoting income-generating activities; Meeting the demands of people with special health and material needs.

The results of this program as an example – being the discussed model today- prove that the country has achieved several positive results after five years of efforts, mainly in terms of promoting basic infrastructures, developing the sectors of health, education and job-training, culture, sports and training, improving skills in rural and urban areas, financing for small businesses and projects, in addition to supporting income-generating activities and fighting poverty.

Since 2005, INDH program has financed more than 20,000 sub-projects, targeting more than 4.6 million people, in 264 urban neighborhoods and 403 rural communities. There are already some significant results:

Rural poverty has decreased from 36% in 2001 to 14% in 2007.

Some 46% of households report their livelihoods have improved

62% of households (60% of women and youth) say they have greater access to infrastructure, while 58% of households (51% of women and 54% of youth) report increased access to socioeconomic services, according to a 2009 study.

Conclusion:

Morocco ranking and HDI index is still low even if every Moroccan is concerned by human

development.

Beside the Nation Human Development Initiative program launch in 2005 and promising

results and achievement recorded, Morocco now is involved in great development projects in

many fields, of course according priorities:

Democracy building with the last 9th marsh King Speech for constitution deep reforms

Gender equality and women equity by adopting a revolutionary family code in the Arabic

world

Economy building with focusing in services, industry, tourism, off-shoring, as Morocco

doesn’t have oil like many other Arabic states.

Human development especially reducing inequality and deprivation in rural population

Etc.

We believe that it is utopia to overcome all the problems inherited from several decades in

one shot.

The most important thing is to continue improving and trying.

References

“Trends in Maternal Mortality, 1990-2008”. New York (also available at

http://whqlibdoc.who.int/publications/2010/9789241500265_eng.pdf)

Barro, R. J. and Lee, J.W. (2010), "A New Data Set of Educational Attainment in the World, 1950-

2010." NBER Working Paper No. 15902. Cambridge: National Bureau of Economic Research.

Oxford Poverty and Human Development Initiative (OPHI) Oxford Dept of International Development, ; Queen Elizabeth House, University of Oxford http://ophi.qeh.ox.ac.uk www.ophi.org.uk Strategie de santé 2008-2012 ; Moroccan Ministry of health ; www.sante.gov. Human Development , Report 2010 , The Real Wealth of Nations: Pathways to Human Development Regional Briefing Document for Arab States ;

Explanation note on 2010 HDR composite indices, Human Development Report Office, UNDP

The North African Miracle; Francisco R. Rodríguez and Emma Samman, Head of Research Team and Consultant (respectively), Human Development Report Office, UNDP

UNESCO Institute of Statistics, 2008

"World Bank 2008. "Kingdom of Morocco Policy Notes, Conditions for Higher and Inclusive Growth."World Bank,Washington,DC". 2008. http://siteresources.worldbank.org/INTMOROCCO/Resources/Morocco.Moving.out.of.Poverty.DEF.ENG.pdf.

hdr.undp.org 2010, Human Development Report 2010, The Real Wealth of Nations: Pathways to Human Development, Human Development Report Office, New York, NY 10017 United States, viewed 10th November, 2010, <http://hdr.undp.org/en/statistics/>.

The World Bank Report, <http://go.worldbank.org/MAS4R67TP0>SIZE AND MEASUREMENT OF THE INFORMAL ECONOMY IN 110COUNTRIES AROUND THE WORLD*, Friedrich Schneider, July 2002, http://www.economics.uni-linz.ac.at

ANNEXES

Exhibit 1

Exhibit 2 - Country profile of human development indicators

Exhibit 3

HDI evolution for same starting point

Exhibit 4

Human Development Index and its Components - Arab States