Morocco Evaluations

Final Evaluation – New Life, New Hope: A Social Reintegration Program in the Sahel-Maghreb Region – September 2018

The two-year project New Life, New Hope: A Social Reintegration Program in the Sahel-Maghreb Region in Niger, Mali and Morocco was funded by the U.S. Department of State’s Bureau of International Narcotics and Law Enforcement Affairs (INL).

The project sought to improve the reintegration of detainees in Niger, Mali and Morocco.The prison conditions in these countries—and, in in particular, in Niger and Mali—are generally poor and not conducive to detainee rehabilitation. The main deficiencies are the overpopulation of the prisons, as well as a lack of social, medical and legal assistance and opportunities for recreational and professional activities. Moreover, in Niger and Mali, the judicial system lacks the ability to process court cases within a reasonable time limit and to guarantee fair process conditions. Search offered various socio-professional activities for detainees, and organized training activities for employees in the jurisdictory sector. It aired awareness-raising campaigns on various TV and radio channels to foster the destigmatization of detainees in society. Finally, Search organized activities to enhance collaboration and information-sharing between the project countries.

The socio-professional activities provided detainees with skills that enable them to find a job upon their release. The activities also provided detainees with meaningful ways to spend their time and promoted collaborative and peaceful relationships between the detainees. Prison management and personnel are now better prepared to provide successful reintegration programs, and have increased skills in conflict resolution, psycho-social support and inmate management.

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Final Evaluation – Women’s Caravan for Peace – March 2017

From September 2016-December 2017, Search-Morocco, in partnership with the Rabita Mohammadia of Ulemas (Rabita), implemented “Women’s Caravan for Peace.”

This program sought to create spaces for women-led dialogue among key social stakeholders and community members in marginalized neighborhoods in northern Morocco, with a focus on tolerance, diversity of thought, morality, violence, and women’s rights. These dialogues sought to promote the collaborative development of an alternative narrative to that propagated by violent extremist organizations.

This report indicates that as a result of the project, the workshops held on civic and economic participation of youth reached137 young people in Tangier, Tetouan, Al Hoceima, and Nador. These workshops sought to increase youths’ self-esteem by increasing their capacity to address public and private community institutions in order to contribute to social change and 89% of participants reported increased awareness of civic participation as a result of the workshops. In addition to other community interventions, 20 youth were trained in film and multimedia techniques and produced six short films that touched upon the emotional themes and stories related to violent extremism in Moroccan communities. Ultimately, 150 community members were reached through film projections in the four target cities.

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Final Evaluation – The Morocco Transforming Violent Extremism Media Training Program – December 2017

The Transforming Violent Extremism Media Training Program took place throughout 2017 in Morocco and was funded by the US Department of State.

This program facilitated training for 32 beneficiaries from across a variety of sectors through the development of media campaigns with the objectives being to develop greater understanding of Morocco-specific drivers of violent extremism and to amplify locally credible alternative narratives to violent extremism that resonate with vulnerable Moroccan youth. Over the duration of the program, beneficiaries were led through a series of workshops on violent extremism and alternative narrative messaging, and produced three media campaigns through comprehensive social media training.

The program evaluation confirms that the project has been successful in developing a comprehensive and nuanced understanding of the drivers of violent extremism in Morocco, and has empowered and amplified locally credible alternative narratives in the process. By working with other participants from various other sectors and opinions, beneficiaries felt they were able to produce more comprehensive and well-developed campaigns which would resonate with young Moroccans. The most important result of the program for the participants are the skills they learned in gaining a command of using social media as a tool and platform to create and disseminate alternative messages to violent extremism to better identify and transform violent extremism. Their participation in this program has increased their confidence in their abilities to identify and combat violent extremist messaging.

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The Team Morocco: Baseline & Final Evaluation Report

According to Search for Common Ground (SFCG)’s description in its Inception Report, The Team in Morocco “seeks to transform the relationship between individuals from two sides of the economic divide. The series dramatizes the wide and growing gap between the ‘haves’ and the ‘have-nots’ characterized in the relationship between the wealthy footballer, Mehdi and the poor footballer, Samir. Without the football pitch, these two would never come in contact. Therefore the series is primarily about social cohesion, It is a metaphor about Moroccan society today and asks a central question about how disparate groups can better understand one another. The Moroccan governance system is that of a constitutional monarchy, therefore our expectations of how we influence the relationship between the people and their representatives is quite different in this context . With discussion groups, talk shows and follow up participatory dialogue, The Team can help change the relationship between these two groups between one that is adversarial to one that is cooperative.” Within this context, The University for Peace (UPEACE) was contracted to conduct research and evaluation of the impact and effectiveness of The Team in addressing the themes it presented.

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External Evaluations: MediAction Project

In March 2010, Search for Common Ground (SFCG) Morocco concludes the implementation of a project entitled MediAction. The project has been implemented in partnership with the Initiative Nationale pour le Développement Humain (National Initiative for Human Development, referred to here as INDH) and the Foreign & Commonwealth Office (FCO) through the British Embassy in Rabat, which is the main funder. Its overall objective has been “building the capacity of youth for the promotion of a culture of mediation, dialogue and peace in marginalized neighborhoods, and to reinforce social cohesion”. MediAction has lasted for 27 months, from January 2008 to March 2009, with an additional three-month no-cost extension. It included three main activity components:

  1. The training of young mediators in Rabat, Marrakech, Fez, Meknes, and Sale;
  2. The creation of five mediation centers in partnership with INDH and local associations in each of the five cities; and
  3. Awareness-raising campaigns on mediation at the local level.

Below are the various baseline reports, conflict assessments, and external evaluation associate with the MediAction project.

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Youth Community and Mediation Centers (YCMC)

In collaboration with the local government, and with the support of the National Initiative for Human Development (INDH), Search for Common Ground (SFCG) implemented a project that aimed to prevent and mitigate communal conflict by engaging youth constructively in local democratic and economic development through the establishment of three Youth Community and Mediation Centres in Casablanca and one in Tetouan (YCMC project). To this end, SFCG pursues the following objectives:

  • Prevent and resolve communal conflicts – trained youth leaders will mediate, resolve day-to-day conflicts, and foster stability and cooperation within the targeted communities, as well as in schools and in community-(local) government relations, thereby contributing to the creation of a culture of participation, dialogue, and tolerance; and
  • Promote youth employment in the targeted communities – trained youth leaders will offer coaching, training, and orientation to marginalized youth to enhance their employability, liaise with relevant government to access job and training opportunities, and encourage youth entrepreneurship.

Below are various project documents including baseline reports, situational assessments, the mid-term evaluation, and final evaluation.

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External Evaluation: ADR III Project

This evaluation pertains to the third phase (ADR III) of the SFCG Morocco’s ADR program which was implemented between January 2007 and October 2008. The first two phases involved securing the buy-in from the Ministry of Justice with introducing ADR into the legal system and providing civil society and lawyer groups with adequate training in mediation. The third phase was intended to strengthen the capacity of mediators and mediator trainers, and enhance the public awareness about the use of mediation. The evaluation measured the impact of ADR III in terms of knowledge about ADR and relevance of mediation in the Moroccan context. To collect the relevant data, sixty in-depth interviews, four focus group discussions, and forty phone surveys were carried out. The evaluation ultimately highlighted the heavy support for ADR mechanisms across Morocco despite a low level of knowledge on current ADR reforms in Morocco was low.

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