World Bank (WB) approved 600 Mln dollars for Morocco to finance two projects to improve public service delivery, inclusiveness, and the performance of the public sector.
The first initiative, ‘Supporting the Implementation of State-Owned Entreprise (SOE) Reform in Morocco cost 350 Mln dollars and aims to strengthen the governance, restructuring, competitive neutrality, and performance monitoring of state-owned businesses.
It will do this by strengthening the state’s state-owned services, enhancing SOE governance and management practices, promoting performance monitoring, including climate impacts, and establishing a framework for fair competition.
The second funding is for the ‘Public Sector Performance’ (ENNAJAA) program, which is worth 250 Mln dollars, and will support the Moroccan government’s efforts to improve performance and transparency, with a focus on modernizing public administration through digitization and public financial management reforms.
“The ultimate aim of these two projects is to enhance the performance of the public sector and elevate the quality of public services delivered to Moroccan citizens. This is in line with Morocco’s New Development Model, which stresses the need for a paradigm shift to promote inclusive, private-sector-led growth,” Country Director for the Maghreb and Malta at the WB Jesko Hentschel said.
The WB assisted the Moroccan government in the early stages and implementation of SOE reform by emphasizing results, strengthening the reform implementation capacity of the two implementing agencies, the Ministry of Economy and Finance and the newly established state ownership agency, and encouraging collaboration.
These initiatives have already had demonstrable effects, such as an increase in women’s participation on SOE boards of directors from practically zero to thirty percent, increased competitiveness for the private sector, and the inclusion of climate reporting.
In this regard, Hentschel underlined that “the reform of SOEs is high on Morocco’s agenda, as highlighted by the last Council of Ministers chaired by King Mohammed VI on June 1. With a vision of a prosperous Morocco, the aim is to reconfigure the public portfolio, improve its performance, and carry out reforms to ensure accessible, high-quality public services to the people.”
In terms of public sector performance, the initial ENNAJAA program has already yielded results after nearly two years of implementation, including a nearly 7% increase in additional tax revenues through improved national compliance and a 22% increase in revenues collected by the ten largest municipalities at the subnational level.
This new funding for the ENNAJAA initiative will focus on increasing public expenditure efficiency and revenue management, as well as providing people with better budget transparency. It will also allow for the implementation of climate-sensitive budgeting, a first in Morocco, as well as gender-sensitive budgeting for eight ministerial departments by the project’s completion in 2028.