VZCZCXRO2541
PP RUEHBC RUEHDA RUEHDBU RUEHDE RUEHDH RUEHGI RUEHJS RUEHKUK RUEHLH
RUEHPW RUEHROV RUEHTRO
DE RUEHRB #0473/01 1581836
ZNR UUUUU ZZH
P 071836Z JUN 09
FM AMEMBASSY RABAT
TO RUEHC/SECSTATE WASHDC PRIORITY 0228
INFO RUCNISL/ISLAMIC COLLECTIVE PRIORITY
RUCNMGH/MAGHREB COLLECTIVE PRIORITY

UNCLAS SECTION 01 OF 03 RABAT 000473 
 
SIPDIS 
SENSITIVE 
 
STATE FOR NEA - A/DAS SPIRNAK, NEA/PI AND NEA/MAG 
STATE ALSO FOR DRL/NESCA AND NEA/PPD 
TUNIS FOR MEPI REGIONAL OFFICE 
 
E.O. 12958: N/A 
TAGS: PGOV PHUM KPAO KPMI KDEM KWMN MO
SUBJECT: USG, NDI AND IRI TEAM UP TO HELP ELECT WOMEN AND 
BUILD DEMOCRACY IN MOROCCO 
 
¶1.  (SBU) Summary:  Swift USG action to back Morocco's 
decision to dramatically expand the number of elected women 
has meant thousands of women were trained to run in local 
elections scheduled for June 12.  The election will yield a 
more than a twenty-fold increase in women counselors and a 
fifteen-fold increase in the total number of elected women in 
Morocco, providing a long-term boost to democracy.  For a 
little over half a million dollars, the Middle East 
Partnership Initiative (MEPI) funded countrywide training by 
the International Republican Institute (IRI) and the National 
Democratic Institute for International Affairs (NDI).  This 
unprecedented 11-week cooperative effort directly trained 
nearly 4,000 women from 41 cities throughout Morocco on 
campaign methods, communication and leadership skills, 
reaching a fifth of the 20,000 women who are running for the 
more than 3,200 reserved seats, with others on regular party 
lists.  Training materials distributed to the political 
parties and through the Internet will reach many more. 
Recipients praised the training, saying it prepared them to 
campaign and win.  Their enthusiasm may help marginally boost 
overall turnout.  Many winners will go on to be elected to 
regional councils and the upper house of Parliament.  Post 
recommends immediate action on a short-fuse follow up MEPI 
project and consideration of longer term funding to mentor 
this new generation of women politicians, with positive, 
potentially transformational implications for political 
development in Morocco.  End Summary. 
 
¶2.  (SBU) With MEPI funds, IRI and NDI have teamed up to 
provide training and support to women interested in running 
as candidates in the June 12 local elections in Morocco. 
Late in 2008, Parliament amended the electoral code to 
provide for more than 3,000 additional seats, some 12 percent 
of the total, which the parties agreed to reserve for women. 
The product of extensive agitation by Moroccan women and 
influence from Europe, where such reservations are not 
unknown, the amendment was drafted with the help of USAID,s 
Local Governance Program.  The training was coordinated with 
an existing joint initiative of the Ministry of Interior and 
Minister of Social Development, Family, and Solidarity, 
supported by the UN's women's program, UNIFEM.  The 
objectives were to encourage women to run, help them choose a 
party, get on the party nomination lists, launch strong 
campaigns, and win. 
 
--------------------------- 
IRI Up North, NDI Down South 
  and Everywhere on the Web 
---------------------------- 
 
¶3.  (SBU) To maximize efficiency, NDI and IRI leaders agreed 
to split the country geographically, with IRI taking the 
north and NDI taking Casablanca and the south.  With USD 
250,000 in MEPI funding, IRI conducted 50 seminars led by 
professional Moroccan master trainers in 28 cities for 2,733 
participants.  IRI delivered the interactive weekend sessions 
in regional dialects, drawing from an IRI women's candidate 
training manual specifically prepared for the election.  IRI 
Country Director Jamie Tronnes said the weekend conferences 
gave women the opportunity to network with political parties 
or choose one in which to run, and feel empowered to exert 
their leadership skills in their communities.  IRI continued 
to receive training requests from major political parties 
after the formal training sessions ended on May 10. 
 
¶4.  (SBU) With part of its MEPI grant, IRI developed and 
launched a website (www.formationmaroc.org) that provided 
women candidates or potential candidates access to on-line 
training sessions on leadership and political campaign 
development.  A copy of the IRI training manual is available 
for anyone to download free of charge.  The Ministry of 
Interior recently provided 200,000 MAD (approximately USD 
25,000) to each major political party for their own training 
of women.  With not enough time or money to develop a program 
of their own, many parties used the IRI (or NDI) materials. 
 
¶5.  (SBU) MEPI provided USD 330,000 for NDI to conduct nine 
trainings in 13 cities for 1,030 female participants.  NDI's 
efforts followed a "Train the Trainers" model, using a team 
of 10 Moroccan experts leading sessions on:  campaign 
planning, fundamentals of democratic processes, the role of 
elected officials and their relationships within the party, 
communication techniques, and training methodologies.  NDI's 
candidate training guide is now available on-line 
(www.aswat.com) along with a campaign legal guide, video 
clips of training sessions, interviews with women candidates, 
 
RABAT 00000473  002 OF 003 
 
 
and an on-line forum for potential candidates to discuss 
issues.  NDI Program Officer Siham Bojji conservatively 
estimated that those who directly participated in its 
training sessions have trained an additional 200 women.  NDI 
also trained 474 women and men from political parties under a 
USD 120,000 MEPI grant for training poll watchers. 
 
----------------------------- 
Women Prepared to Run and Win 
----------------------------- 
 
¶6.  (SBU) In exit interviews, participants lauded both 
programs.  One NDI participant, a communal counselor from 
Agadir, said, "This training will permit women to be 
confident when running their campaign.  It provides all the 
necessary knowledge ... that will help the women run a good 
campaign and compete with men."  An IRI trainee said the 
course "encouraged all participants to take part in the 2009 
municipal elections" and "really opened doors for members of 
our political party." 
 
¶7.  (SBU) NDI and IRI officials reported that trainees were 
especially interested in learning how to incorporate new 
technology into their political campaigns.  IRI conducted 
some sessions on internet blogging.  Both groups shared that 
participants were very receptive to the use of cell phone 
(SMS) text messages and mass e-mail campaigns, after learning 
that President Obama incorporated such tactics in his own 
successful political campaign last fall.  The training 
sessions encouraged women candidates to identify potential 
voters, obtain their e-mail addresses and SMS numbers, and 
remain in contact with them during the campaign period. 
 
-------------------- 
Follow-Up/Next-Steps 
-------------------- 
 
¶8.  (SBU) On May 29, the parties submitted their final 
candidate lists and the two-week campaign season officially 
began.  NDI and IRI staff are working to determine how many 
candidates and campaign organizers participated in their 
training sessions.  In sum, IRI trained 2,733 potential women 
candidates in 28 cities across northern Morocco.   IRI has 
made a random check of its participants, and about half of 
the fifty women contacted so far were either already on a 
ticket or actively seeking one, that would extrapolate to 
nearly 1,500 new women office seekers.  Moroccan press 
reported June 2 that in total, 20,458 women had registered to 
run.  Of this number, 52.2 percent were under the age of 35; 
Tronnes opined that she was surprised and encouraged to see 
so many young women candidates.  Based on discussions with 
trainees, both IRI and NDI predicted that the new role for 
women would help raise the overall election participation 
rate above 40 percent.  It was 37 percent in the 2007 
parliamentary elections and historically has been even lower 
for the local polls.  This suggests increased involvement by 
women as voters, too. 
 
¶9.  (SBU) Both institutes are interested in follow up work 
with the women, both with those who are elected and also with 
those who may not win this time, but are interested in 
long-term political involvement, as well as those who this 
time may only have supported candidates, but not run 
themselves.  MEPI is now finalizing action on a proposal 
submitted by the Embassy for a short-term intervention to 
support those who would have won a seat and then seek the 
provincial regional or national posts that will be chosen by 
them and their fellow council members over the summer, and we 
hope final approval can be quickly secured to permit this 
low-cost, high-value, but small time-window effort.  IRI is 
interested in formulating a follow-up program for the newly 
elected women and will seek MEPI or USAID funding for it. 
This could focus on the mission's cross-cutting goal of 
anti-corruption, along with good governance, legislative 
processes, and constituent relations.  Other donors will also 
be funding specific training for the newly elected. 
 
------- 
Comment 
------- 
 
¶10.  (SBU) No pilot project, this NDI/IRI effort has yielded 
phenomenal results in a relatively short period, directly 
touching thousands of newly engaged women all over the 
country.  We will separately report insights from some of the 
women.  Limited and anecdotal histories suggest that at 
 
RABAT 00000473  003 OF 003 
 
 
present elected women in Morocco likely will govern more 
transparently and more effectively than the current men in 
politics.  The Mission is grateful to MEPI Washington for 
funding this project in record time and hopes MEPI can 
finalize an already submitted short-fuse follow-up project 
for immediately after the elections to help the victors move 
up the political ladder.  We suggest considering additional 
work with NDI, IRI or others to provide the newly elected 
women officials further guidance in their new 
responsibilities, alongside other donor efforts.  We also 
believe that a long-term mentoring program for this emergent 
generation of thousands of new women politicians could have 
additional significant, even transformational impact on 
political life in Morocco.  End Comment. 
 
 
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Visit Embassy Rabat's Classified Website; 
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***************************************** 
 
Jackson