VZCZCXRO4116
RR RUEHTRO
DE RUEHRB #0434/01 1351314
ZNR UUUUU ZZH
R 141314Z MAY 08
FM AMEMBASSY RABAT
TO RUEHC/SECSTATE WASHDC 8567
INFO RUEHAS/AMEMBASSY ALGIERS 4785
RUEHEG/AMEMBASSY CAIRO 2365
RUEHTRO/AMEMBASSY TRIPOLI 0311
RUEHTU/AMEMBASSY TUNIS 9623
RUEHCL/AMCONSUL CASABLANCA 4086

UNCLAS SECTION 01 OF 03 RABAT 000434 
 
SIPDIS 
 
STATE FOR NEA ? DAS PATTON, NEA/PI, AND NEA/MAG 
TUNIS FOR MEPI OFFICE 
 
E.O. 12958: N/A 
TAGS: EAID ECON PGOV SCUL EFIN KMPI MO
SUBJECT: MEPI UPDATE FOR MOROCCO 
 
REF: 07 Rabat 1724 
 
¶1.  Summary:  This cable highlights MEPI programs and 
initiatives in Morocco from January 1-March 31. 
During the quarter, NEA DAS Kent Patton visited 
Morocco and post approved a new local grant proposal. 
Highlights from existing programs include activities 
by the Advancing Learning and Employability for a 
Better Future (ALEF) literacy project, the American 
Bar Association (ABA), the MEPI Alumni Network, the 
MEPI Student Leaders program, the Moroccan Center for 
Civic Education (MCCE), the Economic Justice Regional 
Program, and the Financial Services Volunteer Corps 
(FSVC).  Implementers are partnering with local NGOs 
at the grassroots level to support numerous programs 
committed to reform in the four MEPI pillars.  End 
Summary. 
 
------------- 
MEPI VISITORS 
------------- 
 
¶2.  NEA?s DAS Kent Patton visited Morocco January 16- 
19 with the Director of MEPI Regional Office in Tunis 
Peter Mulrean.  The two visitors had a wide-ranging 
meeting with the MFA?s Director of Bilateral Affairs 
Youssef Amrani; reviewed election results with 
political party leaders, MEPI implementers and civil 
society members; discussed the issue of press freedom 
with prominent journalists and met with members of the 
Moroccan MEPI Alumni Network.  They also met with 
emboffs to discuss the new Democracy Working 
Group/Goal Team program and ways of improving 
efficiency of MEPI programs 
 
¶3.  MEPI Washington sent two monitors from Management 
Systems International to Morocco March 9-April 10 to 
evaluate the effectiveness of the MEPI program.  The 
monitors evaluated 15 separate projects and met with 
local implementers, the Ambassador, DCM and numerous 
emboffs to review lessons learned and best practices 
of Morocco?s MEPI projects over the past four years. 
While the evaluation was generally quite positive, it 
was important to learn from projects that did not meet 
expectations.  Increased communication with post, 
improved coordination between Washington and post, and 
utilizing post?s knowledge of local conditions were 
among the elements identified as helping raise the 
level of effectiveness of MEPI programming in the past 
year.  The visit highlighted Arab Civitas as worthy of 
additional funding. 
 
-------------------- 
NEW MEPI SMALL GRANT 
-------------------- 
 
¶4.  In March, post approved a new MEPI local grant to 
Association Action Jeunesse (2AJ).  The USD 19,790 
grant continues 2AJ?s highly successful project to 
raise awareness about the democratic process by 
holding student elections in five local schools, 
organizing democracy round tables, and planning music 
festivals and sports tournaments to attract large 
numbers of young people to expose them to the idea of 
participating in the democratic process. 
 
------------- 
ALEF LITERACY 
------------- 
 
¶5.  An evaluation of the ALEF literacy training 
program?s initial results by the GOM?s Literacy Agency 
(Direction pour la Lutte Contre l?Analphabetisation - 
DLCA) was very positive and recommended the adoption, 
on a national basis, of the materials and methods 
developed in partnership with the USAID ALEF Project 
supported with MEPI funding.  In total, 8,130 women 
completed training through this program.  In addition, 
230 literacy teachers and supervisors were trained to 
develop and apply texts to inform women on human 
rights and the Moroccan Family Code, and to integrate 
the concepts of autonomy into literacy programs. 
 
-------------- 
ABA ACTIVITIES 
-------------- 
 
RABAT 00000434  002 OF 003 
 
 
 
¶6.  During the quarter, ABA organized the second of a 
series of three roundtables designed to solicit the 
views of the country?s judges regarding the adoption 
and the substance of a national charter of ethics. 
This roundtable was attended by more than 200 judges. 
The discussions were led by panelists from key 
judicial institutions including the National Judicial 
Training Center (Institute Superieur de la 
Magistrature), the High Judicial Council (Conseil 
Superieur de la Magistrature) and the Ministry of 
Justice.  The goal of these roundtables is to prepare 
for the adoption by the Independent Judges Association 
(Hassania) of a national charter of ethics. 
 
¶7.  ABA also organized three events designed to 
strengthen the Hassania.  In January, ABA organized a 
retreat for the 24 board members of the Hassania in 
Marrakech to enable them finalize the strategic plan 
that they had previously started with ABA?s 
assistance.  In February, ABA convened a day long 
training for the Hassania leaders on advocacy skills 
to help them promote the charter of ethics to other 
judges and to judicial institutions.   Finally, the 
ABA organized a five-day study to the Netherlands, 
where the Hassania leadership met with members of the 
Netherlands Judges and Prosecutors Association (NVvR) 
and participated in a series of working sessions with 
various other Dutch judicial and legal organizations. 
These sessions dealt with topics such as judicial 
ethics, independence, internal organization and 
communication, fund raising, and international 
cooperation.  As a result of the study tour, the 
Hassania has signed an agreement of cooperation with 
the NVvR. 
 
------------------------------ 
MEPI ALUMNI NETWORK ACTIVITIES 
------------------------------ 
 
¶8.  The MEPI Alumni Regional Summit was held in 
Jordan, on February 13-14.  The summit attracted over 
250 MEPI alumni from 15 different countries in 
addition to experts and professionals in the fields of 
civic and economic reforms.  The Moroccan delegation 
members presented five panel discussions including the 
topics of: Podcasting: An Effective Way to Reach Out 
to and Engage Young People, The Independent Press and 
its Role in Expanding the Margins of Public Freedom 
and Fighting Extremism, and  the Dangers of 
Democracies Without Citizen's Involvement: Analysis 
and Perspectives.  They also led three working groups, 
among which the Women?s Economic Empowerment working 
group was awarded a MEPI grant to be implemented in 
Morocco. 
 
------------------------------- 
MEPI STUDENTS GATHER IN MOROCCO 
------------------------------- 
 
¶9.  Nearly 100 students gathered for a conference in 
Marrakech from February 4?8, to discuss civic activism 
and mobilization, grant writing, fundraising, and 
media campaigns.  The students were 2007 alumni of 
MEPI?s Student Leaders Program, representing 15 Middle 
Eastern and North African countries and territories. 
Participants had the opportunity to hear from the DCM 
and PAO and to meet their American peers, engage in 
local community and service activities, and learn 
about the United States.  The MEPI Student Leaders 
Program is an intensive six-week course for students 
from the Middle East and North Africa to develop 
leadership skills and expand their understanding of 
American civil society and democracy. 
 
------------- 
MCCE PROJECTS 
------------- 
 
¶10.  A number of training sessions in the Project 
Citizen and Foundations of Democracy projects took 
place across Morocco.  In addition to the workshops, 
the MCCE has been approached by many institutions, 
schools and universities, NGOs, and teacher training 
institutes to present its experience in dealing with 
Project Citizen and Foundation of Democracy curriculum 
 
RABAT 00000434  003 OF 003 
 
 
whose main goals are to educate younger generations to 
become responsible, effective and active citizens 
committed to democratic principles.  Hundreds of 
student groups have been working on community issues 
such as lack of adequate infrastructure, dropping out 
of school, sanitation and drug abuse.  They have 
researched the problems, evaluated the existing public 
policies and proposed alternative solutions that they 
will present in May and June 2008. 
 
--------------------------------- 
ECONOMIC JUSTICE REGIONAL PROGRAM 
--------------------------------- 
 
¶11.  In March, the Solidarity Center met with the 
Democratic Confederation of Labor (CDT) to discuss a 
Plan of Action for the Moroccan portion of a Regional 
MEPI grant on Economic Justice.  During this meeting, 
the CDT and the Solidarity Center worked to identify a 
region and an industrial sector in which to initiate 
the project.  CDT representatives from around the 
country attended the meeting and provided input on 
where and how best to implement the project which 
would concentrate on encouraging active participation 
of current union members and increasing membership in 
the future.  While the MEPI project will be localized 
in one region, the long-term goal would use the Plan 
of Action developed in this project to repeat the 
process around the country.  The project is currently 
slated to continue until July 2009 in Morocco and 
December 2009 for the region. 
 
------------- 
FSVC PROJECTS 
------------- 
 
¶12.  In January 2008, FSVC organized a seminar for 
Bank Al-Maghrib (BAM) Banking Supervision Department 
examiners to help them assess current liquidity and 
interest rate risk measurement and analysis tools, and 
to recommend improvements.  This event also included 
discussion on supervision methods, as well as U.S. 
regulatory agencies proposed guidance on liquidity 
risk management.  Federal Deposit Insurance 
Corporation (FDIC) Volunteers advice helped BAM 
advance its ongoing reforms for quantitative 
management assessments for liquidity. 
 
¶13.  In February, FSVC assisted USAID implementer 
Development Alternatives, Inc. (DAI) in developing key 
lender support for market-oriented registry reporting, 
by enabling exchanges with major lenders to develop 
benchmarks.  FSVC organized two roundtables in 
collaboration with DAI for senior financial sector 
managers. 
 
¶14.  A detailed description of MEPI programs in 
Morocco can be found on the Mission unclassified 
Internet Web site at www.usembassy.ma. 
 
RILEY