Crossing the divide: young Moroccans reaching for the future

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If Moroccans were any kinder, I would be buying an apartment in this North African nation tomorrow – the only challenge being where! Their multilingual skills were prominently displayed for the past 10 days as I struggled in French, Arabic, and English to get to know Moroccans under 40, many under 30, who are part of the new wave of university graduates and Moroccans returning from abroad committed to building the future Morocco. It was more than invigorating to be talking with young people the age of my children, having conversations that were incisive, insightful, and clear-eyed about the opportunities in their country. They were open and willing to discuss a range of issues related to their aspirations and motivation. As my sentences tumbled out in broken bits of languages, they were immediately in tune with both the intent and the context of my remarks and questions, displaying a sense of humor and desire to understand and to be understood.

These are trying times in Morocco. Against a backdrop of the drama of rifts in the governing political coalition, a large number of regional and international conferences in Morocco are focusing on its place in the global market. There is a growing appreciation that business as usual, whether that means speaking French and selling into the EU or maintaining rigid labor and business hierarchies, is not sufficient. Foreign direct investment continues to grow incrementally, moving beyond real estate and tourism into manufacturing sectors that rely on the improving infrastructure and competitive salaries that Morocco provides. The renewable energy sector, including wind and solar power, is broadening its scope of activities from north to south, requiring even more investment in transportation, power, and broadband/IT services. Most importantly, all of these projects provide opportunities to engage Moroccans who have the talent and energy to acquire or develop skills needed in the global market.

As I spoke with the young people about what skills or attitudes would help Moroccans meet future challenges, the words I heard most often were innovation, creativity, breaking barriers, adaptation, caring, and courage. There is a tension, mirroring young people globally, when they talk about the older elites and networks that they believe limit their prospects for growth. Their impatience and sense of entitlement echoes US graduates whose expectations are undergoing shock therapy in today’s jobs marketplace. As these rising Moroccan stars re-examine their professional aspirations, I detect in many of them a more holistic style in approaching job opportunities. Of course salaries are the first priority but there was a very strong emphasis on the processes and environments they value.

It was surprising that courage came up so often, and for them it has at least two elements. The first is having the confidence to take initiatives, make suggestions, and address issues that in the past had been the purview of only those higher up the workplace food chain. They felt that the support of their peers and managers is the key to building this confidence. The second, closely aligned dimension is risk-taking – feeling secure enough that trial and error is an option because it promotes learning, innovation, and team building. Most felt that risk-taking is valued more inside international companies than Moroccan firms, which often are reluctant to suggest out-of-the-box alternative solutions to their customers. I found this perception was especially strong among those who had worked/studied abroad and experienced the benefits of a more collaborative and creative work milieu. One of the pleasant surprises I encountered in the more than two dozen interviews I conducted is the pride that older (over 40) Moroccan managers have in young people. While counseling that they should be patient and acquire more experience, these managers appreciate the dynamic and intense work styles of their younger teammates. This was quite interesting as at least half of the group is Moroccan women under 35.

I spent a solid ten days in Casablanca building new ties to Morocco and renewing past friendships. While the confidence of the Moroccans with whom I spoke is tempered by the barriers they encounter, there is an essential conviction running through all of them that Morocco can make the needed changes to compete globally. And they are very excited and motivated about being part of that change.

Consensus and capacity-building: Tipping the scales in favor of reform

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After a year away, I returned to Morocco for 10 days. I am sure that I will find the visit both challenging and satisfying. My central interest is to better understand the tangible governance issues facing the PJD-led government. It continues to struggle with advancing its agenda through parliament and achieving a consensus among its coalition partners on policies that effectively attack unemployment, the budget deficit, corruption, and social reforms. Most organic laws required to enable reforms promised in the 2011 constitution are still either being drafted or pushed off to a later agenda. And, as Morocco moves towards implementing its regionalization strategy, there is still a long way to go to enable officials and civil society to acquire the skills associated with effective local government.

While the policy debates on issues ranging from the latest version of the media law to subsidy and judicial reforms and strengthening protection for whistleblowers are well reported in the press, many critics are claiming that there are few results after 16 months in office. My assumption is that this is politics as usual in any democracy, especially a hybrid like Morocco. But there is more going on here that I want to explore.

In a country where labor issues can bring thousands of people into the streets, it is remarkable, but not surprising, that a common platform addressing labor mobility, training for work, and an open regulatory environment has not been vetted and moved through parliament yet. As in the US, political leaders seem to have a block against cooperating on issues despite the reality that their constituencies voted for change, not for stalemate.

Morocco badly needs to restructure the labor environment to enable workers to acquire skills and access to jobs while employers will benefit from more flexibility in responding to variable market conditions and a reduction in restraints on employee hiring and firing. This is not to say that important steps have not already been taken. As I’ve written previously, the government is moving incrementally to improve the labor force by broadening and upgrading technical and vocational training and by setting up a system to certify on-the-job skills acquisition. These steps however have not made a significant dent in the unemployment and underemployment rates.

An equally daunting task is focused on reducing and realigning the government’s subsidies to better serve the less well off in a country where a significant portion of the population is in the informal economy. Today, rich and poor equally benefit from fuel and food subsidies and the government is exploring options that not only relieve human needs but also encourage small business expansion. One proposal that I heard last night is to subsidize small farmers rather than the price of imports to the wholesalers. Of course, I asked if this was just another form of welfare that could grow into corporate subsidies, which like in the US distort market prices. But that is not the approach that Morocco is considering. Greater support to local growers would include training and equipment for better crop practices ranging from higher quality seed and watering to the use of fertilizer and more efficient cultivation, storage, and distribution. This would expand their capacity for more production, new employees, and fresh local supplies to market.

Whether it’s better labor practices or rationalizing subsidies, at the heart of the movement to reform is human development. Last week, I met with Mariam, a very capable, multilingual woman IT graduate from the top school in Morocco. She graduated months ago and still doesn’t have a job. Less than 30 percent of her classmates have found employment. One woman friend found an unpaid internship in Turkey through an organization that places capable graduates, for a fee, in positions scattered around the world. Now, Mariam is seriously looking at a position in India…ironic, isn’t it that Morocco is sending its talented young people, at their own expense, to fuel the IT capabilities of other countries.

I can’t help but put these concerns into a larger context – the daunting challenge of building consensus around reform policies that will benefit Moroccans and the simultaneous need to greatly enlarge capacity building training for the grassroots as well as the managers of Morocco. The promised policy of regionalization – devolving power to local governments – requires local communities and their leaders to have skills for administration and governance. The demand for more and better jobs requires policies that enable the transformation of a rigid economic regime into a market-friendly, results-driven, equal-opportunity economy that prioritizes achievement over status. Hopefully, in next week’s posting, there will be some success stories that I can share about where Morocco is heading.