The National Agency for Water and Forests (ANEF) and the German Agency for International Cooperation (GIZ) presented, Thursday in Rabat, the encouraging results and the promising prospects of the Green Jobs project in these two phases.
The Director General of ANEF, Abderrahim Houmy and the Resident Director of the German Agency for International Cooperation (GIZ), Lorenz Petersen, chaired, on Thursday March 2, 2023, at ANEF headquarters in Rabat, the workshop closing of the project “Promotion of green employment for the benefit of young people in rural areas”, better known as Green Jobs I.
Green Job I is a project co-financed by the Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development of Germany (BMZ) and the European Union with a budget of 5.5 million euros. The objective of this program is to improve the employment situation of vulnerable populations, in particular young people and women, in rural and mountain areas through green trades, with particular attention to forestry cooperatives and Civil Society in order to strengthen their involvement in the sustainable management of forests and their products.
It should be noted that the program is organized into 2 areas of intervention, namely: Technical training and rural entrepreneurship. It thus operates in the fields of enhancement of natural resources and biodiversity, in particular ecotourism, the enhancement of aromatic and medicinal plants as well as continental aquaculture.
Sarah Schwepcke El Khiati, Green Jobs Project Coordinator, says she is proud of the results, achievements and lessons learned during the first phase of Green Jobs. She let it be known, in a statement to MoroccoLatestNews, that this closing workshop “will be an opportunity to launch our second phase”, which will last for 3 years, ” to work on all that is to improve the living situation. This is an economic opportunity which also highlights the protection of forests in the pilot regions which are notably: Béni-Mellal-Khénifra, Rabat-Salé-Kénitra, Tanger-Tétouan-Al Hoceima and Fès-Meknes“.
” Together, with our partner, we are working in co-construction on the objectives of Morocco’s Forests Strategy 2020-2030. The objective is to really improve the situation of forest users in these regions“, she added.
In addition, the evaluation of the projects carried out during the first phase in terms of the value chain made it possible to report 1,200 forest users supported and trained, 80 economic structures supported in different value chains and the effective creation of more than 1307 jobs (youths and women) especially in the areas of forest products development.
The closing workshop was an opportunity for the various project partners and beneficiaries to discuss the achievements and lessons learnt. It was a strong moment to take stock and discuss the experiences of this participatory and inclusive cooperation to be sustained or scaled up within the framework of the new project which has just started in January 2023, “Promotion of green jobs through the chains sustainable values in Morocco / Green Jobs II”.
The official signing ceremony of the Green Jobs II implementation contract marked the end of the closing workshop. This new phase will contribute to the achievement of the objectives of the “Forests of Morocco 2020-2030” strategy through technical support aimed at promoting employment and increasing the income of forest users with a budget of 5.5 million euros.