Deadline: 7-Mar-23
The Ministry for Europe and Foreign Affairs (MEAE/DAECT), but also the French Embassy in Morocco and the Moroccan Ministry of the Interior, have launched the second phase of the three-year call for projects (AAP) in the framework of the joint mechanism specific to Franco-Moroccan decentralized cooperation, in order to support the projects of French (CTF) and Moroccan communities aimed at strengthening capacities in territorial governance.
This system is dedicated to the establishment of partnerships and their consolidation with regard to the new administrative provisions of Moroccan and French local authorities in compliance with the powers and competences recognized by law.
Eligible Topics
The Moroccan and French authorities have chosen to target their support around sixteen themes within the framework of advanced regionalization:
- Territorial governance and regionalization;
- Local public services;
- Digital transformation and digitization of public services to citizens;
- Sustainable development: food security and sustainable agriculture, dissemination of practices to combat climate change and various forms of pollution, localization of the SDGs;
- Enhancement of public spaces, historical heritage and local products;
- Territorial planning and development;
- Sustainable tourism ;
- Local economic development, professional integration;
- Youth, sports;
- Strengthening of health systems and the fight against pandemics;
- Participatory democracy / citizen participation;
- Territorial public communication;
- Mobility and urban travel;
- Promotion of intermunicipal cooperation;
- Development of rural territories;
- Capacity building and human resources, training.
Priority Partnerships
- Preference will be given to projects that:
- will strengthen the French response capacity to the strong demands of Moroccan local authorities through a training offer for Moroccan executives and elected officials;
- encourage sub-regional and inter-municipal partnerships. In this perspective, the regional decentralized cooperation platforms could constitute a coordination body;
- are supported by several French and/or Moroccan local authorities, aiming to pool their means of intervention and give more coherence and efficiency to their actions;
- ensure reciprocity both in France and in Morocco;
- mobilize, in the wake of communities, other players in the territory: universities, consular chambers, SMEs, hospitals, associations, diasporas (in particular associations of Moroccans in France), etc. ;
- are consistent with Morocco’s major development programs such as the INDH, the Green Morocco Plan, Halieutis, etc.
- In addition, practices aimed at consolidating decentralized cooperation partnerships over time will be favoured, in particular those that provide for:
- the establishment of a steering committee ensuring the regular administrative, political and technical monitoring of the partnership;
- the conditions for the sustainability of the project;
- information and communication actions on the actions carried out, associating the DAECT, the French Embassy on the French side, the DGCL, the Moroccan Embassy on the Moroccan side and this, in the direction of the media, through the production and dissemination of joint brochures, the creation of web pages, etc.
Components
It revolves around three components:
- a “call for projects” section to enable the co-financing of decentralized cooperation projects selected by a joint committee;
- an “advice” component to enable a local authority or a Moroccan or French group to benefit from the expertise of French or Moroccan local authorities on a specific project within the framework of ad hoc cooperation;
- a “pooling of good practices” section through the organization of regional and national capitalization seminars.
Funding Information
- The Ministry for Europe and Foreign Affairs, delegation for the external action of local authorities, endows this system with 750,000 euros for 3 years, subject to the corresponding budgetary entries in the finance law. The Moroccan Ministry of the Interior, general directorate of local authorities, tops it up to 8,250,000 Dirhams for the same period.
- The amount of co-financing provided by the two Ministries may not exceed 50,000 euros per year.
- The duration of the project will be between 12 and 24 months , depending on the date on which it is submitted and the requirements of its action plan; or, upon acceptance of the latter by the selection committee.
Eligibility Criteria
- The call for projects is aimed at French and Moroccan local authorities and their groupings in order to receive projects, which may be co-financed if they are selected, within the framework of a decentralized cooperation partnership.
- A project is only eligible if it is presented jointly by at least one French local authority and one Moroccan local authority.
- In all cases, project management must be provided by one or more French local authorities or groups. Project management can be delegated, for example, to an association or a company. However, the project must directly involve the local authorities in their competences or their capacities to mobilize the actors of their territories in partnership with another local authority. A project cannot be selected if the community submitting it only plays the role of donor for cooperation actions.
For more information, visit Ministry for Europe and Foreign Affairs.
