MA-National Initiative for Human Development 2

closed

The development objective of the Second National Initiative for Human Development Program Project for Morocco is to improve access to and/or use of enhanced participatory local governance mechanisms, basic infrastructure, social services and economic opportunities. Second National Initiative for Human Development (INDH 2) (2012-2015) builds on the institutional architecture and approaches which were developed during INDH 1, but expands its scope. The number of targeted communes and neighborhoods nearly doubles. A new subprogram addresses basic infrastructure and social service needs of the most isolated rural communes in mountainous areas. Finally, the design of INDH 2 also benefits from lessons learned from global experience with Community-driven development (CDD) operations as captured in two recent draft World Bank reports that have looked at the accumulated evidence on the impacts of such programs. As these reports highlight, the success of CDD programs in delivering upon their intended development objectives has depended on several factors, including (a) establishing a more participatory and inclusive model of service delivery; (b) provision of high-quality and adequate facilitation and technical assistance; (c) capacity building for communities; (d) utilization of poverty maps to target resources to poor areas; (e) block grants of sufficient size over several years, which are used for economically productive purposes; and (f) flexibility in project design and implementation with an approach to 'growth in learning' over the medium and longer term. Most of these elements have already been noted above in lessons from INDH 1 experience and will be the subject of improvements during program implementation.