Local Government Dialogue with Citizens Helped Create Income-Generating Activities In Southern Morocco

	At the entrance to the Al Ouaha cooperative, located in the Aoufous commune of the province of Errachidia in southern Morocco, a picture hangs on the wall showing the cooperative’s president, Fatima Nakrat, posing proudly with Morocco’s King.

Errachidia – Morocco. At the entrance to the Al Ouaha cooperative, located in the Aoufous commune of the province of Errachidia in southern Morocco, a picture hangs on the wall showing the cooperative’s president, Fatima Nakrat, posing proudly with Morocco’s King. The photograph was taken at the 2008 Meknes International Agriculture Fair, where Nakrat exhibited her cooperative’s products.

Today, the syrupy smell of date jelly pervades the cooperative. But in 1996, when Fatima Nakrat and 48 other women created the cooperative, they focused their activities only on sheep herding. After periods of drought in the late 1990s, Nakrat and her colleagues decided to diversify their products and add palm tree dates to their activities.

Despite the oasis’s potential, Nakrat and several people in the region face daunting challenges, including water scarcity, plant diseases, land fragmentation, rural migration, poverty, and lack of employment opportunities.

The Moroccan National Initiative for Human development (INDH), a program aiming at fighting poverty and social exclusion, has designated Aoufous commune among the 26 poor rural communes of the Province of Errachidia as top priority beneficiary.

USAID’s Local Governance Program, along with Errachidia Province, focused on adapting the participatory strategic planning process to achieve INDH objectives in selected communes. In 2006, USAID organized 68 public forums to identify with the local government the needs and priorities of the population as part of its support to pilot participatory strategic planning approach at the communal level. Among the priority actions identified during this participatory process was the need to support of income-generating activities, particularly for women.
“Because we were consulted about our priorities early on, our needs have been addressed through the projects," said Nakrat.

Aware of the competition over date jelly production in the local market, Nakrat and her co-workers decided to focus on ensuring hygiene and quality, positioning them well in the date jelly market in the region.  The date jelly was popular with consumers, so Al Ouaha added other products such as aromatic and medicinal plants and olive oil. 

Nakrat says she feels more secure as a result of the diversification. “I am satisfied we’re not limited to seasonal products. The technical skills we learned about the quality and marketing of our products were very beneficial and our business started to flourish. We have even employed an additional 20 women and 10 men,” Nakrat said.

Not far from Al Ouaha, another cooperative, Ezrigat, also receives USAID funding for the same type of activity. This cooperative is mostly managed by men, with 40 male employees and only 5 women. The cooperative manager, Mohammed Boustaba, highlighted the benefits of assistance they received from USAID and other partners.

“The project has brought us new skills. We only knew how to make date jelly tahlaout produced by our grandparents. Now, we have learned to produce other date products such as jam and tartine, and we’re thinking of expanding our business to national markets,” said Boustaba.

Like Al Ouaha, the Ezrigat cooperative has also been able to provide permanent jobs for both men and women and create several indirect jobs for their families.

The Local Governance Project has partnered with the Office Régional de Mise en Valeur Agricole of Tafilalt (ORMVAT) and the two cooperatives to ensure the sustainability of the projects.  A convention was signed between the cooperatives, the ORMVAT and the rural communes (municipalities) for the management and maintenance of the cooperatives' facilities.