Speeches Shim
At the start of April, 57 percent of all businesses in Morocco shut down due to COVID-19 confinement – including 89 percent of firms in hospitality and food services, 76 percent in textile and leather and 60 percent in construction.* The impact on already disadvantaged communities and households was disastrous.
In 2017, USAID/Morocco launched H2O Maghreb, a program that aims to address Morocco’s water scarcity crisis while simultaneously training youth in the technical areas required to develop successful careers in the water sector. The program benefits from the expertise of USAID, the Moroccan Ministry of Education, the Ministry of Equipment, Transportation and Water, Festo Didactic, EON Reality and the United Nations Industrial Development Organisation (UNIDO), who have come together to form a dynamic Public Private Partnership. In addition to this unique partnership, the program also incorporates the innovative use of virtual technology to provide students an immersive and interactive experience, which enables them to apply their skills in a simulated environment.
USAID/Morocco has partnered directly with five Moroccan civil society organizations since 2016 to establish a network of over 200 local civil society organizations. USAID builds the capacity of the five Civil Society Organization (CSO) partners to strengthen the CSO network’s ability to more effectively advocate for change with the Moroccan government, listen to their constituents, mobilize resources, and seek collective impact.
The COVID-19 pandemic has had a severe impact on the livelihoods, social dynamics, and service provision in underserved urban neighborhoods in Morocco. Cramped lodgings hold families and idle breadwinners in forced confinement, producing spikes in domestic violence, despair, as well as increased food insecurity. Until recently, civil society (CSO) partners of USAID’s Favorable Opportunities to Reinforce Self-Advancement for Today's Youth (FORSATY) program have been responding as best they can. Now, thanks to USAID COVID- 19 response efforts, they have the means to tackle the issues that have exacerbated existing vulnerabilities during the COVID-19 outbreak.
In March 2020, Morocco’s Ministry of National Education, Vocational Training and Scientific Research (MOE) shifted to digital learning to ensure continuity of learning for its seven million students in response to the coronavirus outbreak. A variety of distance learning resources were made available for the students. The Ministry quickly multiplied its efforts to make distance learning accessible to all. The Ministry expanded its online TilmideTICE platform which provides content across all subjects and levels, rolled out a Microsoft Teams platform to enable student-teacher online interaction, and launched virtual classrooms to benefit vocational training center students. Then, to reach students with no access to the internet, often in rural or underserved regions, the Ministry went a step further and started filming lessons and broadcasting them on national TV channels to ensure equitable access to all.
Comment
Make a general inquiry or suggest an improvement.