Morocco and the World Bank (WB) signed, Monday in Rabat, a financing agreement of 500 million dollars, representing the first tranche of the loan dedicated to strengthening human capital for a resilient Morocco.
Signed by the Minister Delegate to the Minister of Economy and Finance, in charge of the Budget, Fouzi Lekjaa and the Director of the Maghreb and Malta Department at the World Bank, Jesko Hentschel, this financing aims to improve protection against health risks , human capital losses in childhood and poverty in old age, as well as improving climate risk management and resilience to catastrophic events. In a statement to the press on this occasion, Fouzi Lekjaa noted that the signing of this financing agreement makes it possible to deploy the most important and fundamental reform concerning Moroccan society, initiated by King Mohammed VI.
Today, the support of international institutions, in this case the WB, indicates that this reform is sizeable and credible, is going well on the ground and gives legitimacy to government action in order to succeed in this challenge. horizon 2025 and guarantee the conditions of a dignified life for all Moroccan men and women, he underlined.
For his part, Jesko Hentschel raised that the World Bank considers the reform of social protection in the Kingdom a very innovative, ambitious and integrated reform.
In this wake, he explained that it covers the great risks of the population, in particular the risks of diseases, poverty among the elderly and the risks linked to climate change.
For his part, the Minister of Health and Social Protection, Khalid Ait Taleb, also present at the signing ceremony, indicated that this agreement comes at an important time in view of the developments in the country, whether in generalization of social protection or reform of the health system.
Thus, he recalled the adoption, during the recent Council of Ministers, of draft framework law n°06-22 relating to the reform of the health system which considers human resources a main pillar.
The proposed funding is built around three pillars, the first includes measures to strengthen physical and human resources to improve health services to all beneficiaries and register up to 11 million self-employed workers and their people. to support and integrate up to 11 million people currently registered with the Medical Assistance Scheme into compulsory health insurance.
The second pillar includes measures to implement the family allowance program and expand the coverage of pension schemes. This reform includes the adoption of decrees and other pieces of legislation to ensure proper governance, identification and targeting of health and social protection reform.
As for the third pillar, it aims to improve resilience to natural disasters and climate risks, in particular by strengthening the institutional and coordination framework for the management of disaster and climate-related risks, the creation of coordination committees bringing together key stakeholders and improving risk transfer mechanisms such as agricultural insurance.
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