By LeSiteinfo with MAP
During the year 2024, Morocco made significant progress on the path to consolidating the foundations of the social state, in particular through the expansion of the circle of beneficiaries of health coverage, the subsidy of the most basic products consumed and the operationalization of social dialogue mechanisms.
New levels were thus reached during this year in the progressive implementation of the social protection roadmap (2021-2026) as a major project backed by a social targeting system (generalization of the national register of the population before the end of 2022 and the unified social register at the national level before the end of 2023) allowing the granting of family allowances on the basis of well-defined eligibility criteria.
Thanks to the establishment of this targeting system, the number of beneficiaries of the direct social assistance program exceeded 4 million families at the end of October 2024, including 5.4 million children and 1.2 million people aged over 60 years old.
Likewise, the number of people registered with the basic compulsory health insurance plan “AMO Tadamon” exceeded 11.4 million beneficiaries in a vulnerable situation at the end of October 2024, while the number of self-employed workers benefiting from the AMO reached around 3.8 million policyholders during the same period, including 1.7 million primary policyholders and 1.2 million beneficiaries.
In a global context grappling with various crises, Morocco has demonstrated resilience in the face of challenges, by implementing exceptional programs costing 20 billion dirhams (billion dirhams) to remedy the hazards of drought, and to ensure the supply of the national market with foodstuffs of agricultural origin, while controlling production costs.
Thus, the subsidy of the most consumed basic necessities has made it possible to reduce the pressure on the costs of raw materials in different sectors, while maintaining the stability of electricity prices to cope with the rise in consumer prices. global scale.
In addition, the inflation rate, which reached its peak in February 2023 (10.1%), fell to 4.9% and 3.6% respectively in July and November 2023, to stabilize at 0.8 in September 2024.
Furthermore, some 28,458 requests to benefit from the direct housing assistance program were recorded, including 26% made by MREs and 37% by young people under 35 years old. The value of the housing acquired is estimated at 11.4 billion dirhams, with a State contribution of around 2.3 billion dirhams, or 20% of the total value of the housing.
Concerning the results of the housing access assistance program for slum dwellers, the files of 353,234 out of 470,530 households concerned were processed at the end of September of this year, while the remainder amounts to 117,296 households.
With regard to social dialogue, historic achievements have been made for the benefit of Moroccan workers, while definitive solutions have been adopted to resolve issues that have remained unresolved for years. The agreement of the April 2024 session between the government and the trade union centers focused on a general net monthly increase of 1,000 dirhams in the salaries of civil servants in public administrations, local authorities and public establishments who have not benefited from a review of their salary.
As for the private sector, the agreement also provides for a 10% increase in the legal minimum wage in non-agricultural activities, applied in two installments. The first is 5% from January 1, 2025 and the other 5% from January 1, 2026.
It also includes an increase in the amount of the guaranteed agricultural minimum wage of 10%, which will be applied in two tranches, by 5% from April 1, 2025 and by 5% from April 1, 2026.
The dialogue sessions in the national education sector resulted in the signing of the minutes of December 26, 2023, which consolidated the achievements of men and women in education, all categories combined, and whose total cost will reach more than 17.5 billion dirhams by 2028. It will concern a total of 340,000 administrative and educational executives working in the national education sector.
In the health sector, the dialogue initiated with worker representatives resulted in a consensus approving a monthly increase of 500 dirhams net for the benefit of healthcare personnel of all categories and 200 dirhams net for the benefit of administrative and technical staff of professionals health.
This increase, which is part of the category of compensation for professional risks, taking into account the specificity of the sector and the implementation of territorial health groups (GST), will be paid from July 1, 2025, in addition to the approved increase under the agreement of the April 2024 session between the government and the trade union centers.
It was also agreed to improve the conditions of promotion for the benefit of health professionals as part of the development of skills benchmarks for health professions, through the creation of a special commission dedicated to this purpose. As for the Al Haouz earthquake, more than 56,000 reconstruction authorizations were issued at the end of last September, in addition to ongoing construction and rehabilitation of damaged housing (50,807 homes).
In addition to operations to clear damaged houses, some 1,700 homes located in areas with difficult access have benefited from adequate measures.
These include 57,703 families who benefited from financial support of 20,000 dirhams, as a first payment to rebuild and rehabilitate their homes totally or partially damaged by the earthquake, in addition to 26,110 families benefiting from the second payment, 12,839 families ( 3rd payment), and 1,868 families (4th and final payment) for a total amount of more than 2 billion dirhams.
On another note, rehabilitation work has progressed on the four road axes which make up national road No. 7 (64 km), with a total budget estimated at 665 MDH, in particular through the creation of 4 regional equipment teams equipped with 37 machines, and which will be reinforced by 9 additional machines, for a total budget of 160 MDH.
Furthermore, after the completion of the work of the first tranche relating to the rehabilitation of 42 priority health centers, the second tranche was launched, for the rehabilitation and reconstruction of 153 health centers, at a cost of 532 MDH.
S.L
