The reform of social protection is intended to be an integrated, ambitious and innovative reform, said Monday in Rabat, the director of the Maghreb and Malta department at the World Bank, Jesko Hentschel.
Speaking at the signing ceremony of a US$500 million financing agreement, representing the first tranche of the loan dedicated to strengthening human capital for a resilient Morocco, Jesko Hentschel said that the reform is characterized by a “very important integrality, and that it is very ambitious and innovative”.
He explained in this sense that this reform is integrated since it covers the major risks of the population, in particular the risks of disease, poverty among the elderly and the risks linked to climate change in Morocco. wants to be very ambitious with the aim of covering 11 million people in order to integrate them into the social system, he continued. Regarding the innovative side, Hentschel assured that he could not witness an increase in coverage as is the case in Morocco with sectoral organizations and in a way that uses incentives to have a universal coverage. In this wake, he cited the single social register which will be the basis for compulsory health insurance and family allowance as well as the development of this allowance with a harmonization of the different systems.
Signed by the Minister Delegate to the Minister of Economy and Finance, in charge of the Budget, Fouzi Lekjaa, and Jesko Hentschel, the financing aims to improve protection against health risks, loss of human capital in childhood and poverty in old age, as well as improving climate risk management and resilience to catastrophic events.
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 aimed at implementing the Family Allowance program and expanding 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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