The first Social Policy and Child Rights Forum in Morocco was held on May 25th. The forum received wide press coverage and was opened by the Prime Minister. The forum provided an opportunity to initiate a policy debate on Child Poverty, Social Budgeting and the Social Impact of migration/remittances on children.
The preliminary findings of the Morrocan Child Poverty Study were presented and the deprivation approach, which is a groundbreaking approach to measuring poverty in Morocco, was introduced. Consequently, a great deal of the discussions centered on the monetary approach, which is the official government approach to measuring poverty, and the deprivation approach. There was a general consensus at the forum that the two approaches are essential and complementary.
Social Budgeting presentations and discussions demonstrated promising opportunities in making the government budget more child sensitive in Morocco. An interesting debate took place during the forum regarding the social impact of migration and remittances, where it was identified that further policy research needs to be conducted in this field.
For presentations from this forum please click here
Focal Point: Hicham Ait Mansour - haitmansour@unicef.org
