This funding is structured around three components, to support development policies for the Moroccan government, and aims to strengthen human capital and the resilience of the health system.
500 million dollars. This is the loan that the World Bank approved last Friday in favor of Morocco. This loan aims to improve protection against health risks, loss of human capital during childhood, poverty among the elderly, and risks related to climate change in Morocco.
This, according to the World Bank, is the first in a series of three financings for a government reform program that also benefits from the support of other development partners. This development policy support funding aims to enhance human capital and health system resilience.
This is by expanding and deepening health insurance, especially for vulnerable people, by increasing the number of health professionals and adapting care services to better respond to the health risks associated with climate change.
By focusing on climate-vulnerable populations, this funding will also enable the gradual generalization of the adaptive family allowance system for children, expand pension system coverage and improve protection against extreme weather events.
According to the World Bank, the Moroccan economy experienced a strong recession in 2020, which led to an increase in poverty as a result of the context of the pandemic and two years of drought.
According to the same institution, the Kingdom is gradually emerging from this crisis, and recorded a strong growth rate in 2021. However, the current agricultural season is facing drought, in addition to the repercussions of the war in Ukraine on the prices of agricultural products. raw materials, which puts additional pressure on vulnerable people.
Program organized around three components
Moroccans have faced many upheavals in recent years, including a global pandemic, climate change, inflation and drought. This program will help Morocco to universalize health insurance, deploy a crucial program of family benefits and better protect the population from risks, including those caused by climate change, explains Jesko Henschel, regional director for the Maghreb and Malta. The World Bank.
In detail, the program revolves around three components. The first aims to assist and protect citizens, particularly climate-vulnerable population groups, from health risks with a focus on those caused by climate change. “This includes extending the coverage of the Compulsory Health Insurance (AMO) scheme to approximately 11 million individuals and their dependents, and supporting the improved targeting of the Medicaid Scheme (RAMED), says Jorge A. Project at the World Bank.
Second, this funding will also support the alignment of all child-centred social protection schemes into an integrated child benefits program, as well as the expansion of their coverage and better targeting of child benefits and other schemes thanks to a unified social registry and the implementation of a new pension system for the self-employed.
Mahdi notes that “transforming a series of distinct schemes into an adaptive and climate-smart social protection system will help promote human capital development during childhood and better protect against the risks of poverty in old age.” Baroni, economist and joint leadership project at the World Bank.
Strengthening the institutional framework for the government
As for the third component, it aims to help the government strengthen the institutional and coordination framework for disaster and climate risk management, develop new mechanisms to protect vulnerable farmers from drought and other extreme weather events, or even provide assistance. Facing the repercussions of the delay in rainfall during the 2021-2022 agricultural campaign.
Climate change poses many challenges for Morocco. The country is already in a state of structural water stress and rainfall levels have been increasingly erratic in recent years. It will continue to face climatic shocks such as droughts, floods and heat waves, all risks to women, youth, and rural populations in particular. This new financing will help increase Morocco’s resilience to climate change,” concludes Javier Diaz Caso, Chief Economist and Co-Chair of the World Bank project.
Yassin Saber / Inspirations of the Economic Cooperation Organization