The fight against slums proliferation is not yet over. While the government is dealing with the European Union for funding, the country is showing off with its urban solutions know-how.
What could catch your eyes if you were a regular watchman of the Moroccan national news ? It would probably be the amount of paper slums proliferation-related. Since a decade now, the national public authorities have been putting the stress on the slum areas shrinking by the Cities Without Slums program.
50 out of 85 Moroccan cities have been up to now declared without slums. Ten more cities are planned to be cleaned for the end of 2013, following the Housing and Urbanism Ministry. There are risks of new slum areas appearance and many North regions remain uncleared from slums. Casablanca and its periphery constitute a stumbling block.
The Kingdom of Morocco is still in need of external public development aid. This wide national project against slum proliferation received a 90 M€ budget support from the European Commission. Although this funding ended in 2010, a further EU supporting program is being negotiating with the Moroccan government.
The authorities intend to change the strategy. The past program was only aftereffect-oriented. The next one should be more focused on prevention, fighting against all the slums proliferation causes at the same time. « The Moroccan government will not accept a program offer that does not face the slums problem in a comprehensive approach », tells a source close from the negotatitions. The EU-Morocco negotiations are kept secret. It is consequently hard to say how far is the further bilateral project developed.
Still a strong current sensitive issue
The Moroccan population celebrated on the 16th May 2013 the tenth 2003 Casablanca terrorist attack birthday. The suicide bombers came from a peri-urban Casablanca slum, called Sidi Moumen. The French-Moroccan cinema director Nabil Ayouch released in the late 2012 the film The Horses of God, based on this event.
As the UN Millenium Goals will expire in 2015, Rabat will host the fourth Congress of United Cities and Local Governments. Mayors, governements representatives, international organisations, NGO’s, reasearchers and journalists from all over the world will gather in next October to share their skills in human development. This four days symposium intends to debate about the big African cities future by implementing economic development model fostering social inclusion.
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