VZCZCXRO0700
PP RUEHBC RUEHDH RUEHKUK RUEHROV
DE RUEHRB #0006/01 0050745
ZNR UUUUU ZZH
P 050745Z JAN 10
FM AMEMBASSY RABAT
TO RUEHC/SECSTATE WASHDC PRIORITY 1020
INFO RUEHEE/ARAB LEAGUE COLLECTIVE
RUEHCL/AMCONSUL CASABLANCA 0037
RHEHNSC/NSC WASHINGTON DC

UNCLAS SECTION 01 OF 04 RABAT 000006 
 
SIPDIS 
 
STATE FOR S/P, R, OES, NEA, NEA/PPD AND NEA/MAG 
AID/W FOR MEA AND DCHA 
NSC ALSO FOR PRADEEP RAMAMURTHY 
 
E.O. 12958: N/A 
TAGS: EAID PHUM ECON SOCI KISL KTIA MO
SUBJECT: IMPLEMENTING THE PRESIDENT'S CAIRO VISION IN MOROCCO 
 
REF: A. 09 STATE 071325 
     ¶B. 09 CASABLANCA 0230 
     ¶C. 09 RABAT 0667 
     ¶D. 09 RABAT 0638 
     ¶E. 09 RABAT 0490 
 
¶1.  Summary:  Pursuant to President Obama's Cairo Speech and the 
Secretary of State's remarks in Marrakesh at the Forum for the 
Future, the U.S. Mission in Morocco continues to collaborate with 
Moroccan counterparts from civil society, government, media and 
academia to support a wealth of programs that are fulfilling these 
directives.  Moreover, we have several additional initiatives in the 
pipeline.  Our main efforts center around confronting extremism in 
all its forms by enhancing collaboration on women's issues, economic 
development, science and technology, education and literacy, 
cultural exchanges, citizen journalism and civil society.  We 
continue to believe that the Islamic Educational, Scientific and 
Cultural Organization (ISESCO) (Ref C) could be a valuable partner 
in our efforts.  End Summary. 
 
-------------------------------- 
Increasing Women's Participation 
  in the Economy and Governance 
-------------------------------- 
 
¶2.  In Cairo, President Obama asserted that our common prosperity 
can only be advanced if women in the Middle East and North Africa 
(MENA) region reach their full potential.  For Mission Morocco, this 
means providing support to expand women's participation in 
governance, increase literacy for girls, and to empower young women 
through employment and entrepreneurship.  Through a program focused 
on Local Governance, the U.S. Agency for International Development 
(USAID) is developing training programs aimed at building the 
capacity of newly elected officials, especially women.  Morocco is 
making its own efforts to expand women's political participation; 
this will require that women candidates and elected officials 
increase in numbers under new decentralization reforms, which are 
the key to promoting women's participation in local governance.  Our 
programs will include supporting piloting and replication of 
participatory tools to engage women and youth in local governance, 
encouraging the development of innovative procedures and rules that 
enhance participatory practices that would engage women and youth, 
and strengthening the capacities of communal and regional elected 
officials, particularly elected women, to serve as successful 
candidates but also as effective public servants once elected.  Our 
Middle East Partnership Initiative (MEPI), which successfully 
trained more than 3,000 woman candidates prior to the June 2009 
communal elections, will also provide small grants to complement 
USAID's projects to empower women.  In particular, MEPI and USAID 
aim to support the newly elected women officials to become effective 
in local government while also supporting efforts to opening up new 
avenues to women's participation in politics and government.  At the 
same time, USAID is targeting its political party strengthening 
program at increasing women's role in political parties. 
 
¶3.  The Public Affairs Section (PAS) allocated almost USD 100,000 in 
FY 2009 toward a two-way exchange between Moroccan and U.S. 
specialists in combating violence against women through programs 
targeting offenders.  This program will continue into mid-CY 2010. 
In support of this effort, PAS placed on December 15 an 
IIP-generated article, entitled "MENA Organizations Work to Abolish 
Violence Against Women; U.S. partnerships aid region-wide effort." 
The article described a MEPI-funded project implemented by the U.S. 
NGO "Global Rights" to conduct grassroots legal rights education for 
Moroccan women.  PAS is exploring a partnership with the U.S. NGO 
"Empower Peace" to bring together young women via its Women2Women 
(W2W) program, possibly through a regional conference in Morocco. 
PAS youth sports programs in 2010 will emphasize soccer and 
basketball for girls -- and young women coaches -- as a means toward 
community development and highlighting women in leadership roles. 
In the near future, the Millennium Challenge Cooperation (MCC) will 
award contracts to strengthen the national system for literacy and 
vocational education to benefit artisans and the general population, 
in particular women and girls.  The U.S. Mission has also begun to 
discuss with the Islamic Educational, Scientific and Cultural 
Organization (ISESCO) potential collaboration to eradicate 
illiteracy for both men and women.  Moreover, as noted above, the 
Political Section continues to reach out to women elected officials, 
especially those who benefited from MEPI-funded training. 
 
------------------------------------ 
Economic Development and Opportunity 
------------------------------------ 
 
¶4.  The President emphasized the importance of diversified economic 
development, which for Rabat is a crucial Mission Strategic Plan 
priority.  Past and ongoing programs include the Peace Corps' Small 
 
RABAT 00000006  002 OF 004 
 
 
Business Development Program, which brings business volunteers to 
Morocco to aid in developing sustainable micro-enterprises.  Those 
volunteers also seek to promote sustainable models that make 
appropriate use of resources, and that emphasize basic small 
business practices in Morocco that will ultimately sustain 
themselves over the long-term. 
 
¶5.  Other programs are designed to stimulate economic growth and 
productivity.  For example, through the MCC, the USG is currently 
advancing programs in Fruit Tree Productivity to stimulate growth in 
the agricultural sector and reduce volatility in agricultural 
production.  The MCC is also working on an Artisanal Fisheries 
Program to modernize the means of catching, storing and marketing 
fish, thereby improving the quality of the catch, maintaining the 
value chain, and increasing fishermen's access to both local and 
export markets.  It seeks to stimulate growth by leveraging the 
links between the craft sector, tourism and the Fez Medina's 
cultural, historic and architectural resources.  It will also 
increase financial services for micro-enterprises in Morocco by 
addressing key constraints to the development of the broader, 
market-based financial sector.  Finally, it will also help reduce 
high unemployment among young graduates and encourage a more 
entrepreneurial culture through two existing Moroccan government 
initiatives, Moukalawati (Moroccan Arabic for "my small business") 
and the National Initiative for Human Development (INDH). 
Moukalawati was initiated to increase competitiveness in the face of 
globalization and address high youth unemployment rates.  The INDH 
is a GOM initiative aimed at creating opportunities for the poor, 
vulnerable and socially excluded. 
 
¶6.  USAID's Economic Growth program is broadly focused on poverty 
reduction and employment opportunities for youth.  Through technical 
assistance and support to shifts in key economic policies, USAID 
aims at improving Morocco's economic enabling environment for 
investments and growth.  This includes promoting the sustainable use 
of scarce water resources for agriculture and improving workforce 
skills to meet the demands of a modern economy. 
 
---------------------- 
Science and Technology 
---------------------- 
 
¶7.  The enablers for accelerated economic growth in Morocco and 
elsewhere in the MENA region are education and innovation, just as 
the President outlined in Cairo.  To this end, Mission Morocco has 
embarked on an ambitious plan to support technological development 
in this Muslim-majority country as a means to help transfer ideas to 
the marketplace and create jobs.  In November, the Mission supported 
the Moroccan Fulbright Alumni Association (MFAA) in holding a 
symposium to examine the role of science and technology research in 
Morocco's economic development.  We have also collaborated with the 
MFAA to create a working group of prominent Moroccan researchers, 
business leaders, and government officials to evaluate Morocco's 
strengths and interests in science and technology collaboration with 
the U.S., and will report to the Department the working group's 
suggestions septel. 
 
¶8.  The President also announced the creation of Science Envoys to 
collaborate on programs that develop new sources of energy, create 
green jobs, produce clean water, and grow new crops.  We continue to 
work with Moroccan counterparts to advance these types of science 
and technology-related initiatives in tandem with the Department and 
other Washington agencies.  The first visit of Science Envoy Dr. 
Elias Zerhouni is tentatively scheduled for February 2010, and the 
Mission has noted an outpouring of interest in the visit as well as 
requests for participation in Dr. Zerhouni's program.  In addition, 
we will host the first Embassy Science Fellow in Rabat in recent 
memory in February and March 2010, responding to a request from the 
Moroccan Department of Higher Education and Scientific Research to 
provide input and training on management of research grants. 
 
¶9.  The Mission has also facilitated collaboration between NASA and 
Moroccan universities on solar weather research, and is developing 
action plans to support training of researchers and enhance safety 
practices at Moroccan scientific laboratories under the Biosecurity 
Engagement Program and Chemical Security Engagement Program of the 
International Security and Nonproliferation Bureau (ISN).  The USG 
(through ISN's Partnership for Nuclear Security, the National 
Nuclear Security Administration, and Lawrence Livermore National 
Laboratory) continues its long-standing scientific and technical 
collaboration with Morocco's National Center for Nuclear Energy, 
Science and Techniques (CNESTEN), including building a training 
center, conducting workshops on topics including health physics and 
reactor operations, and providing funding for participation in 
international scientific conferences.  Following discussions with 
ISESCO, the Rabat Mission has also proposed launching programs 
creating IT research grants, scholarships, and more assistance. 
 
RABAT 00000006  003 OF 004 
 
 
 
-------------------------------------- 
Youth, Education and Cultural Exchange 
-------------------------------------- 
 
¶10.  In Cairo, the President stressed the need to increase exchange 
programs and scholarships within the education sector.  In Morocco, 
USAID and PAS have supported and collaborated with various local 
partners to foster youth and educational activities, and exchange 
programs.  Since 2008, PAS has funded and/or administered at least 
six projects aimed at promoting use of e-journalism and citizen 
journalism techniques among Moroccan regional journalists and youth, 
to promote oversight of local government activities and to involve 
youth as stakeholders in their communities. Post's new Facebook 
page, launched in July, already has over 960 Moroccan 'Fans' who 
regularly participate in on-line discussions on U.S. policy and 
American society; many student participants in a recent "America 
Day" in Fez attended after learning about the program on Facebook. 
 
 
¶11.  In the past, the U.S. Mission in Morocco has supported Peace 
Corps programs that mentor youth, women, local partners, and 
communities with participatory educational opportunities that 
develop their own capacity to improve their lives.  Peace Corps and 
PAS (RELO) collaborate with the Moroccan government on summer 
English-language immersion camps, and the Mission is engaging with 
new secondary school-based English language clubs.  The Mission also 
supports English-language teacher training in traditional religious 
schools administered by the Ministry of Endowments and Islamic 
Affairs. 
 
¶12.  Equally important in these efforts is the mission's special 
effort to reach out to youth.  USAID's Education Program focuses on 
the critical middle-school years for in-school youth and on the 
growing cohort of out-of-school youth aged between 15 and 24. 
Education sector activities will provide more relevant and higher 
quality educational opportunities for both of these groups.  Within 
the formal education system, USAID's activities will improve quality 
through a nationwide program to enhance capacity in teacher training 
institutes; provide training for school leaders to enhance education 
quality in classrooms; and promote community involvement through 
civil society in school quality issues on the local level.  The 
out-of-school youth education activity will expand educational 
opportunities for marginalized youth, who have never enrolled in 
school or who have left school without adequate basic education 
skills to continue their education or find employment.  The program 
will build institutional capacity of existing youth-serving 
organizations; increase access to a variety of educational 
opportunities including basic education competencies, IT, language 
skills, entrepreneurship and employability training; and promote 
advocacy among and for youth on key issues for youth and education. 
 
 
¶13.  We recognize English is rapidly becoming an important tool to 
build communication and bridge differences across cultures.  English 
teaching is a rapidly expanding sector in Morocco; post's English 
Access Micro-Scholarship (EAMS) Program is the oldest and among the 
largest in the world, with nearly 4,000 students expected to have 
participated by the end of 2010.  With 1,700 students currently 
enrolled, EAMS functions as a cultural program and teaches English, 
leadership skills and cross-cultural understanding to Moroccans. 
The "YES" high school exchange program sends about 70 students 
annually to the U.S. and is now piloting the first group of U.S. 
students in Morocco.  Active engagement with alumni of these and 
other programs, including MEPI, is a priority for 2010. 
 
¶14.  Preliminary talks with ISESCO have presented other 
opportunities, such as a conference on how to move forward with 
dialogue, an alliance of cultures and civilizations, a symposium on 
a new perspective of U.S.-Arab-Islamic Relations, and student and 
professorial exchanges between the U.S. and Islamic world. 
 
------------- 
Civil Society 
------------- 
 
¶15.  The U.S. Mission is dedicated to implementing President's 
Obama's commitment to bring together Christians, Muslims and Jews 
through dialogue, building bridges between peoples that will lead to 
action.  A major focus of USAID's Democracy and Governance Program 
is a project entitled Strengthening Advocacy and Networking to 
Advance Democracy, known as SANAD (Arabic for "support").  This 
program is aimed at widening and deepening public dialogue and 
democratic practice by strengthening the capacity of civil society 
organizations (CSOs) to mobilize, network and advocate.  The project 
provides technical, organizational and financial support to CSOs, 
with a target of USD 1 million in grants over three years.  SANAD 
 
RABAT 00000006  004 OF 004 
 
 
has four major focus areas:  civic action, marginalized youth, local 
governance and community participation in education quality.  The 
project targets primarily urban and peri-urban areas, where youth 
are at greater risk, and urbanization brings challenges to 
decentralized local governance. 
 
¶16.  MEPI continues to be another important tool for implementing 
the Cairo objectives.  Morocco gets the lion's share of MEPI funds 
for the Maghreb region because of its record of reform efforts. 
Small grants that focus on grassroots projects that are limited to 
one year enable flexibility for the Mission to target sectors that 
promote youth, women's empowerment, interfaith dialogue, 
entrepreneurship, technology transfer and educational reforms. 
This year the MEPI program in coordination with USAID collaborated 
with the National Democratic Institute (NDI) and International 
Republican Institute (IRI) in an enormously successful program to 
teach women the skills they need to run for office in the municipal 
elections.  MEPI is also supporting the national tour of an 
anti-corruption play.  New projects under consideration for MEPI 
local grant funding focus on promoting democratic expression among 
the youth, increasing entrepreneurship among women and youth, and 
tackling the culture of corruption.  Meanwhile, ISESCO and the 
Government have also expressed interest in cooperating with the U.S. 
in childcare and health. 
 
KAPLAN