USAID director John Groarke: “Youth is key to Morocco’s future”

John Groarke is the new USAID Mission director. He is responsible for the new $ 131.5 million USAID/Morocco assistance program for 2009-2013. In an interview, Mr. Groarke explains his new assistance program targeting increasing participation of citizens, especially youth, in governance, promoting more relevant education and opportunities for youth, and reducing barriers to trade and investment.

John Groarke is the new USAID Mission director

Could you please tell us about USAID, its mission, and where is it implementing programs?

John Groarke: USAID is an independent U.S. government federal agency working closely with the U.S. Department of State to promote economic development throughout the world. We promote economic development for two main reasons: One is that it reflects U.S. and American values, helping others in the world and providing economic and humanitarian assistance to other countries.  Second, the U.S. helps Morocco in its reforms to be a stable, educated, healthy and prosperous country. And that’s why we are here.

What are the major sectors USAID is focusing on, and what kind of projects are you implementing here?

John Groarke: In recent years, USAID/Morocco has focused in three major sectors. These include education, democracy and good governance and economic growth.
In the education sector, I know that probably most Moroccans would agree that education remains a big challenge in Morocco. There is a large youth population that needs to be educated so they can get jobs, and we know that, based on the data, Moroccan schools don’t always provide the education that Moroccan youth need for the current job market. We recognize that many Moroccan students drop out of school during middle school, so we are trying to improve the quality of teaching and make the instructions more interesting, not only to make learning better but also to encourage young people to stay in school. We also try to work with those students who have already dropped out of school. We help improve their literacy and give them the skills they need to get jobs, because, of course, dropping out of school and illiteracy go hand-in-hand with unemployment, and we want to make sure that Morocco’s young people are able to get jobs.

Another area in which we work is in the democracy and governance sector.  We just ended a very successful program where we worked closely with the Moroccan Parliament; we have also worked on local governance supporting the government of Morocco’s initiative to delegate power and authority to local collectives so that the Moroccan government and its services are brought closer to the Moroccan people. And we are going to continue working with the local government. We also work with many Moroccan civil society organizations because those are the groups that can advocate on behalf of ordinary citizens, many of whom, I believe, feel disconnected from the government and may feel that they are powerless to initiate change. So what we want to do again is work with the Moroccan government to bring it closer to the Moroccan people.

On the economic growth sector, USAID is promoting Morocco’s integration to world economy. We are trying to improve its agriculture sector and its use of the increasingly scarce water resource. We work with Moroccans to help them take advantage of the Free Trade Agreement that Morocco now has with the U.S. government. We are working in a number of areas.

I understand that you are working on a number of very important issues in Morocco. Can you give us an example of what you would consider a hallmark project USAID has been part of?

John Groarke: What comes to my mind is the work we did on the 2007 parliamentary elections with elections monitors and the 2009 local council elections with women candidates. I’ve worked in the MENA region for the last seven years and I’ve noticed that Morocco is very progressive when it comes to women’s rights. You see many women in the government including ministers; there are women in parliament, in local councils; women judges; and I feel that USAID has played a role in promoting the integration of women into Morocco’s political system.

We’ve noticed that there was a notable evolution in women’s status in the Moroccan society, but there is another category that is almost as disconnected, our youth. How do you see the role of youth, what are your expectations, and do you have a youth program?

John Groarke: That’s a very good question. I know that about half of Morocco’s populations is under the age of 25, so clearly youth are a major issue.  You are right, many youth feel disconnected from government, many don’t have jobs; and I understand that in some of the major cities almost a third of young people don’t have jobs.  Clearly education is an issue with a lot of young people dropping out of school when they reach teenage years and that’s why our new strategy and our new program which begins right now, focuses on youth. Almost everything that we are doing, democracy, governance, education, and economic growth is really geared towards helping Moroccan youth, because we know that they are  a key demographic here in Morocco.  These young people are the keys to Morocco’s future and the time to help them is now. Not when it’s too late, ten or twenty years from now.

You have mentioned many times that you are working with the Moroccan government, but what about civil society? I heard you organized a forum on civil society. Can you tell us a bit about it and about the programs designed to engage Moroccan civil society?

John Groarke: Yes, I have already mentioned earlier that we have a program supporting civil society and advocacy. We have now a program in place “Sanad”, which aims at reinforcing the capacity building of civil society to mobilize their database, to identify questions of interests for their members, to function within a network and a coalition, to communicate to convince, to engage in a dialogue with public powers, and consolidate partnerships, to follow –up with programs implementations and obtain concrete results negotiated on the basis of common and public interest