e) The Social Priority Program was the major initiative reflecting the shift

from
universal to targeted public spending in Morocco. This program was designed
by the authorities jointly with the World Bank in 1996 using geographical
targeting
of poverty, and thus it focused on the fourteen poorest provinces. These
provinces benefited from an integrated set of projects concerned with basic
education, health care, social assistance, and the creation of jobs. Morocco
possesses 75 percent of the world's phosphate reserves. It is the world's first exporter
(28% of the global market) and third producer (20% of global production). In 2005,
Morocco produced 27,254 million tons of phosphates and 5,895 million tons of phosphate
derivatives

Faced with the impact of globalization upon business productivity and the consumer’s expectations and demands in current-day
Morocco, Moroccan small scale artisans are struggling to compete and earn income to survive. This new phenomenon is due to a
smaller interest in the handicraft sector both by the state and by the young consumers, whereas until today, the most basic
infrastructural needs for successful business such as affordable transportation and affordable means of publicity are absent in
remote villages such as Azrou. The reduced interest in the handicraft sector from the upcoming generation is also a result of
globalization and threatens to lead this sector to extinction.
The influence that globalization can have on a country can thereby be
divisive, especially for a third world country that is still struggling with basic reforms and
the restructuring of its main institutions such as education. A fast demographic boom gulped down a good portion of their grain
stocks,
increasing the gap between the high and affluent western and northern standards of living
and those of the Africans. African international trade continues to go down, now with
only 2 percent of world imports (“Globalization: Internal Trade and Migration”,
0.9.15.2007). Even temporary crises such as monetary deficits and other financial
incidents that certain developing countries experienced have had an impact on their
development. This can be also added to the issue of poverty and inequality that is
recurring in third world countries and that needs to be dealt with effectively by the world
community before opening the world market to everyone. These nations experienced a rapid economic growth and national prosperity
primarily due to the emphasis they put on their educational system. After setting up
schools around their countries and calling attention to the education of their people, the
Asian tigers experienced massive third wave industrialization, particularly in
manufacturing, after the cold war which kept them economically connected with the
Western World even until today.
Any country that desires to enrich itself in this new age will have to exploit its
educational development to take advantage of modernization in the political, scientific,
and economic sectors. Only then can it really be more competitive against the huge
industries that are now throwing themselves into every single country in the world.
The question that needs to be asked at this point is whether Morocco ready to face
this challenge and work its way out of all the issues mentioned above, maximize the
potential benefits from this process, and minimize the downside threats of economic and
social destabilization. Before going any further with this question, the reader must know
more about Morocco in its political, economic, and cultural sectors in order to judge the
effectiveness of the present Moroccan order.

) The central government’s debt remains relatively low despite its recent increase.
The Central Government’s debt increased to 48.9 percent of GDP compared to 46.3
percent registered in June 2009, reflecting the higher budget deficit. The external position
is solid although international reserves declined. Morocco suffered from deteriorating
terms of trade with export prices declining by 28 percent, 3 while those of import gained
10 percent. As a result, the trade deficit edged up to 20.7 percent of GDP, from 19.8
percent of GDP the same period last year.
h) During the last 30 years, Morocco has embarked on a gradual but solid program of
human development and political liberalization. Since the 1970s, gross national income
per person increased five-fold from $550 to $2,730. The average life expectancy has
increased from 55 years in 1970 to 73 in 2009. During the same period, the average
number of births per woman has seen a dramatic decline from 6.3 to 2.3 while the
number of children dying before age one has dropped from 115 to 32 (per 100,000 live
births). Substantial educational improvements include a primary school net enrollment
increase from 52.4 percent in 1990/91 to 97.5 percent in 2009/10. Access to safe water is
expanding particularly rapidly with quasi-universal access to potable water in urban areas
where 83 percent of households are connected to reliable network service and the rest
rely on standpipes and vendors.

Morocco has made strong economic progress since 2001 with growth rates averaging 5
percent, a progressive diversification of the economy and solid macro-economic management.
This has allowed it to bring about a decrease in the overall poverty rate from 15.3 percent in
2000/01 to 9 percent in 2006/07. It is committed to regional integration, particularly with Europe
where it holds “Advanced Association Status” with the EU. Investors’ confidence has increased
substantially in response to the reforms in the investment climate which have been supported by
the Bank among others. Unemployment rates are falling constantly and are now at a 30-year low,
although they do still remain high at around 9 percent. These features, together with a relatively
good base of human and physical capital and a critical geographic position on the Mediterranean,
have positioned Morocco well on the international stage to achieve stronger growth and
development and derive greater benefits from integration and globalization.

The integration of women into the development of a country is essential in every

kind of activity, but particularly in the process of globalization. To fully benefit from
globalization, it is important to give women rights that will allow them to benefit fully in
the process of global development, specifically to educate women and to integrate them
into economic growth.
Within the entire Moroccan population, 62% of women are illiterate compared to
only 40% of males (Morocco Social Development Brief). Approximately five out of ten
women are literate in the cities, but this number drops dramatically to only one literate
woman out of ten in villages. More than half of young girls don’t go to school, mostly
because there aren’t that many schools in rural areas and parents prefer to have them stay
home rather than walk long distances and put themselves in danger.
Women were discriminated against in different ways in Morocco before the
Moudawana came out in 2004, a reform on the Moroccan Family Code that gave women
equal rights to men. Before that year, women could be married as young as 16 and could
hardly claim divorce from their husbands. Widowed women were neglected and were
under the complete control of the husband’s family. They could not work if they were
raising the child and a large number of women were subject to domestic abuse.