Youth Day, celebrated this Sunday by the Moroccan people, coincides this year with the 59th birthday of HM King Mohammed VI. This event is an opportunity to shed light on the efforts made by the Sovereign for the enhancement and development of this segment of the population, placed at the heart of the development process.
The Youth Day, celebrated on Sunday by the Moroccan people, offers the opportunity to highlight the constant commitment of His Majesty King Mohammed VI to promote the place of young people, the driving force of the country, in the societal dynamics and their political and economic participation. It is a renewed opportunity to celebrate these young people, the true wealth of the Nation, to take stock of the initiatives undertaken in their favor and to reflect on the actions most likely to strengthen their participation and contribution to the political, economic and social development of Morocco. This event, which this year coincides with the 59th birthday of HM King Mohammed VI, thus sheds light on the efforts made by the Sovereign for the enhancement and development of this segment of the population, placed at the heart of the process. of development.
Indeed, the Sovereign has never ceased, since His accession to the Throne of His glorious ancestors, to multiply initiatives and gestures to guarantee the social and cultural development of young people, who represent nearly a third of the population, to protect their physical and mental health, protect them from any deviance or any social hazard, and provide them with qualifying training that enables them to contribute, fully and efficiently, to productive activities and the progress of their society.
Particular interest is given, in this context, to education for young people by offering them various learning opportunities that open the way to qualifications judiciously adapted to facilitate their professional integration, their cognitive development and their social ascent. Thus, they are sheltered from ignorance and poverty and protected from the temptations of extremism and withdrawal. Training, qualification and integration centers for young people, socio-educational centres, socio-sports complexes, spaces for caring for young people suffering from addictive behavior, spaces dedicated to new information and communication technologies, promotion of activities generators, support program for access to financing for young project leaders, so many structures and initiatives that enshrine the local policy and the Royal approach to inclusive and sustainable human development.
Intended to prepare young people for a better tomorrow, to stimulate their creativity and to enhance the potential they possess, these structures and initiatives also testify to the Sovereign’s permanent concern to remain attentive to the specific and legitimate concerns of young people wherever they are. they are and whatever their economic and social conditions. This High Royal Solicitude towards young people was also manifested at the time of the elaboration of the new development model. In fact, H.M. the King had, in His speech to the Nation on the occasion of the 65th anniversary of the Revolution of the King and the People (August 20, 2018), insisted on “the need to place youth issues at the heart of the new development model.
The Special Commission on the Development Model (CSMD), created by HM the King for this purpose, has also ensured that young people are involved in the consultation process undertaken and that their expectations and concerns are taken into account in the Commission’s final report. Similarly, the general report of the CSMD foresees among the strategic choices of the new development model the inclusion and development of young people, by multiplying the opportunities and ways of participation.
According to this report, the development of Morocco is based on a free, fulfilled, competent, enterprising and citizen youth who fulfills himself, realizes his potential and contributes to the development of his country. Similarly, “one of Morocco’s critical and major challenges is to provide these young people with the skills they need, to offer them opportunities that improve their future prospects and to guarantee them spaces for expression, civic participation and initiative, thus strengthening their spirit of civic responsibility, their attachment to the fundamentals of the Nation and their active mobilization to contribute to the development of their country”, estimates the CSMD, noting that listening to citizens has brought out a significant demand from young Moroccans for ways of fulfillment allowing them to express themselves, to meet, to undertake and to carry out initiatives. These demands concern culture, the arts and sport as well as public spaces for expression and creation, and are in addition to expectations related to quality public services (notably for education, health and transport).
In order to achieve these objectives and respond to these demands, the Commission proposes three main levers, namely the strengthening of the professional integration system for young people through new guidance and support approaches and stronger links with the world of work. It also involves setting up an integrated national youth programme, managed in the territories by professional entities under performance contracts, and a national civic service to strengthen citizen participation and the spirit of young people’s civic-mindedness and consolidate their skills and employability.
Enjoying full citizenship, with the rights and obligations that flow from it, the young people of Morocco are called, today more than ever, to invest themselves actively and constructively in the transformations that society is experiencing, while remaining attached to the constants of national identity and open to universal ideals.
