Beyond the Horizon and Full STEAM Ahead: Addressing the skills gap and the low female labor participation rate in Morocco

Group Submission Type: Formal Panel Session

Proposal

Over the past twenty years, Morocco has dramatically improved access to education, and currently has reached almost 100% primary enrolment. However, issues of access and quality at higher levels of education persist, including a pronounced disparity between urban and rural areas in terms of quality, access, and of completion rates. Further, as Morocco diversifies its economy away from agriculture to increasingly global industries, the education system has struggled to produce the skills most needed in the labor market. Even more concerning is Morocco’s female labor force participation: it has remained one of the lowest in the world, and is even lower than it was two decades ago – despite higher GDP per capita, lower fertility rate, and improved access to education. In 2018, Morocco ranked 180th out of a sample of 189 countries with a 21.6 percent female labor participation rate, meaning that 78.4 percent of Moroccan women between the ages of 15 and 65 were neither employed nor looking for a job. The 21.6 percent rate is almost 50 percentage points lower than that of Moroccan men, whose labor rate participation hovers around 71 percent. As in many countries, the pandemic has further decreased the female labor participation rate since early 2020.

In an effort to close the skills gap, the Millennium Challenge Corporation (MCC) is funding an Education for Employability Project that focuses on improving both the quality and relevance of secondary education and Technical and Vocational Education and Training (TVET) programs. The secondary education program aims to improve the quality of secondary education by piloting a participatory approach to school improvement in 90 schools in three regions of the country, and is investing in reforms to school governance, targeted infrastructure and equipment investments, and training for teachers and school administrators. The TVET program aims to improve the quality and relevance of technical and vocational training programs by increasing access to training center through infrastructure improvements or new construction, updated equipment, curriculum design, and private sector involvement.

At the same time, to address the female labor participation issue, MCC is focusing on, among other things, encouraging women to participate in non-traditional career paths, particularly those related to science, technology, engineering, art, and mathematics (STEAM). To do this, the country-based Millennium Challenge Accounts (MCA)-Morocco teamed up with the TGR Foundation, a foundation established by Tiger Woods whose mission is to “…empower students to pursue their passions through education,” and with the Girl Up, a United Nations Foundation that works to advance girls’ skills, rights, and opportunities to be leaders. The TGR Foundation delivered innovative professional development STEM workshops for teachers from Morocco, and Girl Up developed and implement a WiSci summer camp to promote STEAM careers for female students. In addition, to promote cultural understanding between Morocco, a country north of the Sahara, and Ivory Coast, a country south of the Sahara, high school girls from both countries were invited to participate together. In the TVET sector, each of the 15 TVET centers that are being constructed or rehabilitated has developed and is implementing a Gender and Social Inclusion (GSI) plan that includes how it will recruit more females into their respective training centers. Finally, a Results Based Financing (RBF) grant program is providing grants to organizations that work to train and place women and disadvantaged youth into jobs.

The focus of this panel session will be two-fold: first, to share MCC’s experience with developing and overseeing education projects that tackle quality of education as well as the skills gap since the establishment of MCC in 2004; and, secondly, how, in Morocco, it is also addressing the low female labor participation rate through partnerships with the TGR and Girl Up Foundations, through helping TVET centers design and roll out GSI plans to recruit more women into the training centers, and the innovative RBF grant program to train and place women and disadvantaged youth in jobs.

Sub Unit

• General Pool

Chair

• Isabel Dillener, Millennium Challenge Corporation

Individual Presentations

• MCC at 20: Broad Investments in Education Bring Results - Isabel Dillener, Millennium Challenge Corporation

• Millennium Challenge Account- Morocco – Innovations in School Governance and Partnerships: - MOHAMED MIRISSE, MCA MOROCCO

• Millennium Challenge Account- Morocco – Increasing Private Sector and Women’s Participation in TVET: - Fatima Bouhafa, MCA MOROCCO