Morocco

In 2024, Morocco achieved a noteworthy milestone in advancing gender equality in housing and urban policy. The Ministry of National Territorial Planning, Urban Planning, Housing, and Urban Policy issued an internal Circular mandating the mainstreaming of GRB across initiatives pertaining to the housing sector. This directly contributed to Sustainable Development Goal 5 (Gender Equality), particularly Target 5.c.1 on gender-responsive budgeting (GRB). The Ministry conducted a Gender Analysis of the Housing Sector, which resulted in a 2024�2025 roadmap, providing a comprehensive framework to mainstream gender equality within housing policies and programs. These efforts emphasize on decentralization approaches to enable regional and local offices to adopt gender-responsive practices effectively. The Ministry also extended its efforts to ensure equitable access to housing by requiring the inclusion of both spouses' names in state-subsidized housing allocations. This initiative addressed longstanding gender disparities in property ownership and contributed to enhancing women�s financial security and decision-making power. Further, the Ministry identified critical barriers faced by women, such as limited mobility, safety concerns in public spaces, and difficulties accessing home loans by using gender-sensitive tools to diagnose how women and men interact differently within urban environments. UN Women provided the technical support necessary to develop the tools for these diagnoses. Furthermore, the Ministry better mainstreamed gender in its terms of reference and calls for proposals, as well as through sex-disaggregated indicators (replacing previously gender-blind ones) allowing for more robust tracking of progress and outcomes. This occurred through technical support provided by UN Women for the operationalization of the roadmap issued by the Deputy Secretary-General for Habitat and Urban Policy and for the institutionalization of gender mainstreaming within the Ministry. Moreover, the ripple effects of this collaboration extended beyond the Ministry. Notably, the General Directorate of Taxes, acting on a directive from the Ministry, began producing sex-disaggregated data on state-subsidized housing products. This advancement highlights the broader systemic impact of integrating gender-responsive practices across public institutions. Through its sustained partnership with UN Women Morocco, the Ministry of National Territorial Planning, Urban Planning, Housing, and Urban Policy has not only institutionalized gender mainstreaming within its operations but also set a replicable model for advancing gender equality in governance and public policy. This initiative exemplifies how targeted advocacy, technical support, and cross-sector collaboration can lead to transformative, sustainable outcomes for women and girls.

Decision-makers from Moroccan ministries, alongside officials from other Arab States and West African countries, and over 200 participants from international, intergovernmental, and non-profit organizations convened to discuss and advocate for gender-responsive budgeting (GRB) at a high-level regional conference hosted by UN Women Morocco and the Ministry of Economy and Finance (MEF). The Conference recommendations were submitted to the IMF and World Bank. Participants specifically included international organizations (World Bank, the IMF, UN Women, AFD, the EU and the West African Economic and Monetary Union), intergovernmental organizations (Collaborative Africa Budget Reform Initiative (CABRI)) and non-profit organizations (Enda ECOPOP and the Collective of NGOs for GRB) from Morocco, Tunisia, Jordan, Palestine, Egypt, Turkey and Senegal. Thus, the conference provided a platform for South-South exchange in expertise and good practices through technical panels on public finance reforms, gender and climate budgeting and GRB at territorial level. The conference directly contributed to strengthening knowledge of participants on SDG indicator 5.c.1, measuring the number of countries with the capacity to track gender responsive public expenditures. A key topic highlighted during the conference was the gender marker tool to identify, quantify and track the financial efforts for gender equality results. Capitalizing on the momentum created by the run-up to the 2023 Annual Meetings of the World Bank Group and the IMF in Marrakesh in October 2023, the conference is a significant outcome-level result of the longstanding partnership between the Morocco CO and the MEF. The conference showcased and reinforced the pillars of Morocco�s GRB model through its institutional and legal frameworks, policies, knowledge products, capacities and tools that make Morocco an international and regional example of best practice on GRB implementation. The development and implementation of a gender marker system in Morocco constitutes an important next phase in strengthening transparency and government accountability on the financial efforts and investments for gender equality and women�s empowerment.