Shifting priorities for the inclusion of rural women in the initiatives of the Green Moroccan Plan

Morocco benefits from major funding from the international donor agencies to address the issues of poverty, illiteracy, social exclusion and gender inequality. Yet, the country still struggles to integrate rural women in socio-economic development. The latest attempt, the Green Moroccan Plan (GMP) and the pillar II seek to integrate small traditional agriculture into a market economy. It particularly stipulates the creation of income generating activities (IGA) through cooperative structures for women. While the government is advocating -through a complex top-down institutional framework-, attention to women’s integration in participation, decision-making, capacity building and autonomy at household and community level, rural women remain on the margin of initiatives. In this presentation, I show that the government standardized strategies to include rural women into development do not benefit the local level. A new form of “initiative” that shifts the priorities to develop women’s social enterprise and encompass community socio-cultural attributes is timely.