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AMSSAWASS Promoting Gender Equality in Local Policies in the Béni Mellal-Khénifra Region

Project promoting gender equality in local policies

Duration: 2024 - 2025 Location: Béni Mellal-Khénifra Region

While Morocco has made significant progress in promoting women’s participation in political life, challenges remain in achieving inclusive governance. In the Béni Mellal-Khénifra region, women continue to face barriers such as systematic underrepresentation in key decision-making roles and entrenched sociocultural norms. These issues hinder women’s political empowerment and the development of inclusive policies that address the diverse needs of our communities.

To address this gap, AIDECA through its project “AMSSAWASS: Promoting Gender Equality in Local Policies in the Béni Mellal-Khénifra Region” in collaboration with “Ajyal Egalité”, funded by the French Development Agency (AFD) and the Embassy of France in Morocco, and implemented by Expertise France, aims to enhance the political representation of elected women. The project strengthens their capacities through tailored training programs, personalized mentoring, and awareness-raising efforts targeting local stakeholders. Our objective is to foster the creation of inclusive policies that address the diverse needs of all community members.

Regional Seminar on the situation of Elected Women in the Region of Béni Mellal-Khénifra: Opportunities, Challenges, and Recommendations

To raise awareness during the 16 Days of Activism campaign and present the findings from a mapping study on elected women, AIDECA, in collaboration with USMS, organized a regional seminar on December 10, 2025. The seminar focused on identifying strengths to build upon and areas for improvement in the representation of elected women. It brought together representatives from communes, CSOs, and cooperatives to explore the challenges and opportunities. Based on the results of the diagnostic, the AMSSAWASS project will offer tailored training programs designed specifically for the target group.

AMSSAWASS Regional Seminar — Regional Seminar on the Contextualization of Elected Women

Sustainable Development Goals

This project contributes to the following UN SDGs:

Results & Impact

20 communes engaged in the project to become gender-supportive environments, through structured awareness and mobilization actions targeting elected officials and administrative staff.

20+ interventions delivered by elected women during council sessions, demonstrating improved leadership, a stronger ownership of their roles and mandates, and effective use of local governance procedures (ordinary and extraordinary sessions).

8 advisory opinions drafted and submitted to territorial councils by civil society, and officially reviewed by council bodies, to operationalize the gender approach and promote equality within communal programs, budgets, and project design.

40 elected women equipped with strengthened capacities in personal leadership and inclusive territorial development, including communication, negotiation, policy oversight, participatory planning, and gender-responsive local development approaches.

40 tailored one-to-one coaching sessions delivered to beneficiaries, addressing priority needs (e.g., public speaking, leadership posture, reading budgets and plans, advocacy within councils, committee work, and managing resistance), enabling each participant to implement an individual improvement pathway.

A blended (in-person and remote) accompaniment mechanism established and implemented, ensuring continuous guidance for beneficiaries to effectively engage in commune council sessions (regular and extraordinary).

Success Stories

Jouahir

Faced significant obstacles due to the prevailing male dominance in local measures and territorial policies, rooted in structural challenges affecting the role of women in local development. Undeterred, Jouahir challenged the status quo. Thanks to dedicated coaching sessions and training for the project, she successfully strengthened her role within the commune by empowering rural women and providing them with crucial socio-economic opportunities. This included the active integration of rural women into the commune's openness program, supported by the Directorate General of Territorial Collectivities, where she worked to place rural women at the heart of the commune's four commitments. Jouahir further strengthened this success by advocating for this critical issue at regional and local events, demonstrating a tangible shift towards gender equality and women's empowerment at the local level.