Enabling poor rural people
to overcome poverty



Choice of villages and research methods

The study has been carried out in three villages in the Taforalt-Taourirt region of Oujda Province in eastern Morocco. The area is characterized by low rainfall, poor soils and limited agricultural output (Table 1).1 Three villages have been chosen on the basis of their representativeness of three ecological zones:

  • a mountainous area near Taforalt and south of Taghilast in the commune of Tansherfi (village of Elhouafi)
  • a rainfed (bour) area with two sub-zones, one favourable for cultivation in the foothills, and the other of uncultivable arid land on the Taourirt-Laayoune axis (Taghilast); and
  • an area of irrigated agriculture along the Oued za River (Oulad Lfqir).

The villages have also been chosen because they share similarities with many other IFAD project sites in that they are characterized by:

  • limited village infrastructure
  • relative isolation
  • main economic activities dependent on natural resource management
  • a fragile environment undergoing degradation
  • limited prior participation in government-financed development activities
  • production centred on both agriculture and livestock-raising.

The following methods have been used to carry out the field research:

  • interviews with local leaders and authorities
  • small group discussions (men only, women only and mixed groups)
  • general discussion meetings
  • semi-structured interviews among households (16 in Elhouafi, 14 in Taghilast and 15 in Oulad Lfqir);
  • participant observatio

The households have been selected so that they are equally distributed among the more well off, the average and the poor (according to wealth-ranking criteria established through discussions with villagers). Since Elhouafi contains only 16 households, interviews were conducted among all of them.2

Environment, population and infrastructure

Infrastructure is limited in all three villages. However, services located in other towns and rural communes are more easily accessible from Oulad Lfqir owing to better roads and transport. Of the three villages, Taghilast is the most isolated (Table 2).

The population is decreasing in Taghilast and Elhouafi owing to migration. Oulad Lfqir, on the other hand, is attracting people from other areas who are seeking work and land to sharecrop (Table 2).

Ethnically, Elhouafi and Taghilast are homogeneous, whereas the people of Oulad Lfqir are of various tribal origins, a factor that is said to create divisiveness and problems in communication:

  • The people of Taghilast belong to a fraction of the Beni Iala, a Berber tribe of pastoral traditions.
  • The population of Elhouafi belongs to the Berber tribal confederation of the Beni Snassen; they consider themselves shorfas, descendants of the Prophet.
  • The inhabitants of Oulad Lfqir are of mixed tribal groups, the dominant tribe being the L’Arbaa, an Arab tribe.

Natural resources are increasingly depleted in Elhouafi and Taghilast. Villagers point to the signs of environmental degradation: lower yields, fissured soil, deforestation and disappearance of the better fodder grasses and of wild animals. The main cause of the degradation, as identified by villagers, is the lack of rainfall. Since there are no alternative sources of fuel and households cannot afford butane gas, the villagers resent the fact that they are prevented from cutting wood by the forest guards (Tables 3a, 3b, 5; also see paragraphs 56 and 57).

In Oulad Lfqir the main environmental problem identified by households is man made: the pollution of the river by olive-oil-processing establishments. The pollution has a negative impact on yields and is causing skin disease among both people and animals (Table 4).

Productive activities

Survival strategies and assets

In Elhouafi, households practise subsistence agriculture and own limited numbers of livestock. Sharecropping with absentee owners is widely practised. For the majority of households, off-farm activity by adult males represents the major source of income (Tables 6, 7, 8, 10, 11).

The people of Taghilast rely almost exclusively for survival on the diminishing natural resources (pastures, rosemary for distillation and alfalfa grass used for carpet-making). A privately owned iron mine, which once employed men from Taghilast, closed two years ago as a result of lack of water. Agriculture is carried out at the subsistence level. Livestock numbers are higher than they are in Elhouafi, where the income from off-farm sources is more important and where the environmental circumstances are more difficult (Tables 7, 8, 10, 11).

The economy of Oulad Lfqir is almost entirely reliant on the irrigation system. A variety of vegetable and cereal crops is grown for home consumption and for sale. Fodder cultivation on irrigated plots makes intensive livestock production possible. Livestock numbers are considerably higher than they are in the other two villages (Tables 7, 8, 10, 11). However, the pollution of the river Oued caused by the waste from oil factories upstream is severely jeopardizing the village’s economic potential and exposing households to risk (Table 4). The low repayment rates on the loans contracted with the Caisse Nationale de Crédit Agricole (CNCA) are a clear sign of the difficulties (Table 14).

Despite the legal prescriptions of Islamic law, it is rare for a woman to claim her right to land she has inherited from her father (especially in rural areas and if she has moved to her husband’s village).3 If a woman claimed the benefits of her land, she would be perceived by both men and other women as shameful because she would be seen as taking something away from her brothers in order to seek advantage for her husband.

Crop production and household food security

In Taghilast and Elhouafi crops are destined almost exclusively for home consumption. In recent years, owing to the drought, the harvest has not even been sufficient for household needs (Table 9). In Oulad Lfqir, on the other hand, irrigated agriculture makes greater crop diversification possible: fodder, food crops and cash crops. However, in spite of use of machines, pesticides and fertilizers, yields are declining as a result of pollution and decreasing water availability caused by frequent drought (Table 9).

The importance for home consumption is the main consideration in the choice of crops both in Taghilast and Elhouafi and for both men and women. The margin for choice among crops on the basis of other considerations other than food security is larger in Oulad Lfqir.

Fertilizers are used in Oulad Lfqir and in Elhouafi (although to a lesser extent). Pesticides are used fairly frequently in Oulad Lfqir and only occasionally in Elhouafi, while inputs are not used at all in Taghilast since they are considered cost ineffective for rainfed agriculture.

Women are not involved in cultivation in any of the three villages. In Elhouafi and Taghilast women take meals to their men in the fields and pick fruit within the douar. In Taghilast, women also go into the fields to put up and take down the tents at harvest and ploughing time. In Oulad Lfqir, where it is considered demeaning for women to go into the fields, the women prepare meals (sometimes two a day for labourers and for the men of the household) (Table 12).

In all three villages, women process fruit and harvested crops; the processing of the vegetable niora, or red pepper, in Oulad Lfqir is particularly time consuming (Table 12).

In all three villages, women are also responsible for storage when produce is stored in cans or sacks (made by women either from alfalfa carpets, or hides), while men are responsible for storing straw, manure and agricultural implements. Men, women and boys are all involved in the storage of fodder. When silos are used, men and boys are responsible: about 50 kg are taken out at a time, and someone has to be lowered into the silos to perform the task (Table 12).

Livestock production

Livestock production in the two poorer villages depends on the exploitation of increasingly depleted natural pastures. Livestock numbers are highest in Oulad Lfqir and lowest in Elhouafi (where, as we have seen, external sources of income are important). Livestock production is intensive in Oulad Lfqir, since fodder is grown on irrigated plots (Table 11).

In all three villages animals are grazed by young boys or by herders (only in a few more well off households). Little girls also herd animals as long as they remain within the douar in Elhouafi and in the vicinities of the douar in Taghilast. In the cold season, animals are kept in shelters or stables and are given fodder. Grown women and their daughters care for livestock within the homestead (Table 12).

Most households in Elhouafi and Taghilast cannot afford to build stables in concrete. Shelters are made out of branches. In the very cold weather animals may have to be allowed to enter the tent or a room in the house. There are complaints that in winter animals die as a result of the cold and the lack of fodder. In Oulad Lfqir, on the other hand, households can afford stables in concrete. Stables in concrete are made by men only, while shelters and enclosures made of branches are constructed by both men and women.

In Taghilast a traditional form of association (nfaa, or, literally, 'benefit') in livestock production exists whereby a livestock owner gives goats or sheep to another person for a year or more and then recovers the capital and half the offspring.

In all three villages, associations among women for poultry-raising are common. Women keep scavenger chicken to procure small amounts of cash to meet family needs (mainly food) and their own personal needs (mainly health care).

For the marketing of poultry:

  • In Elhouafi and Taghilast, women give the chickens to their husbands or sons to sell.
  • In Oulad Lfqir, men consider it demeaning to sell their wives’ poultry. Women therefore either sell the chickens to courtiers (middlemen) who come to the house, or give the chickens to the male children to take to the souk (market).

In rare cases, women may own some livestock, but for all intents and purposes, these become part of the household herd. However, women are consulted about the sale of livestock in Elhouafi and in Taghilast, while in Oulad Lfqir, men consult on this matter mainly with their brothers.

Crafts and other productive activities

Women in Elhouafi and Taghilast make alfalfa-grass carpets. In the former village, the carpets are destined for home use only; in the latter, they are for home use and for sale.

In Taghilast the sale of alfalfa carpets represents a fundamental contribution to the economy of most households. As carried out according to the traditional methods relied on in the village, the processing and weaving of alfalfa are time-consuming tasks, involving picking, soaking, drying, beating and weaving. The beating is painful and can actually cause bleeding of the hands. Women in Taghilast would be glad not to have to do it (and men would be glad if the women could give it up). It is the women who decide when to sell the carpets. The husbands, who do the selling, hand over the money from the sales to their wives.

In Elhouafi, several households rely on traditional methods to keep bees. A beekeeping cooperative using modern methods has been established through a Ministry of Agriculture programme. Only two households belong to the cooperative, and the way the members have been chosen has been criticized (see below). Beekeeping is a male activity, although several women say they would be willing to undertake it as a means of generating income, provided protective clothing were available.

Social issues

Wealth and poverty

People in Elhouafi and Taghilast find it relatively easy to determine the categories of wealth and poverty in the villages and to classify households accordingly. In Oulad Lfqir, people can identify criteria but are unable to classify households because the village is large, and the families do not all know each other (Box 8).

Villagers in Taghilast and Elhouafi classify themselves according to four and three categories of wealth, respectively. In Oulad Lfqir, which is a much larger village, people identify five wealth categories. Because of the size of the village and of differences in access by households to irrigated land and of variations in the size and quality of plots, social stratification is more accentuated in Oulad Lfqir than it is in the other two communities. However, in all three villages the majority of the people interviewed classify themselves in the two lower wealth categories.

In establishing categories of wealth, people use social factors as well as material factors to classify households. In Elhouafi, for example, a relatively poor but influential person is placed in the 'upper class'. Even if a household is poor, the possession of social and political influence can affect the well-being of the family: loans and other kinds of assistance are more readily obtained; one receives gifts, and so on.

For all three villages, the main indicators of well-being are the amount of land and the amount of livestock owned by the household. The indicators of poverty identified by households in the three villages clearly reflect the specific socio-economic situation of each village:

  • For villagers in Elhouafi, a poor household is one that lacks monetary income from the wage labour of a son.
  • In Taghilast, a poor household is one that has to rely on the sale of alfalfa carpets.
  • In Oulad Lfqir, a poor household is one in which a man needs to get help from his wife to carry out agricultural tasks (in fact, only one woman, a widow, works in the fields).

In all three cases, families that now live elsewhere are included by villagers in the classification and are generally considered successful.

Box 7
Social Stratification in the Three Villages

Elhouafi

Out of the 16 households, 11 are classified in the intermediate category. In the lowest category are a widow and an old man. There is conflict for leadership among the households in the uppermost category. One relatively less well off household is considered upper class. The head of this household is in a leadership position owing to his age (he is around 60) and because of his contacts with the local administration and the local authorities (in Taforalt).

The few who have emigrated and settled in Rabat, Oujda, or Europe are generally considered successful. Nevertheless, villagers classify them in two categories:

  • "the absent rich", who are considered distant because the social gap between them and the other villagers is great, and
  • "those who have gone to live elsewhere" (but who are not necessarily rich).

According to a local saying, "Those who had wings have flown away".

Women consider other women who have married in town or whose sons have migrated as fortunate. Women whose husbands own more land and livestock have more work, but perceive themselves – and are perceived by others – as privileged.

A poor households is defined as one that lacks monetary income from the wage labour of a son or a husband.

Taghilast

The uppermost category consists of the "rich people of the village who have gone to live elsewhere", either in Jerada, or Laayoune. The lowest, the category of "the poor", includes 21 households, nine of which are headed by females.

All households but one classify themselves in the last category.

For women, the major and most tangible criterion of wealth is the number of animals owned, rather than the amount of land. Women who have moved to town are considered the lucky ones who are spared the drudgery of harvesting alfalfa, making carpets, looking after animals and having to put up tents. 'City women' are better dressed at marriage celebrations; they may own some 'Louis d’Or' (gold coins) and are respected and influential.

A poor household is one that has to rely for income on the sale of alfalfa carpets; this activity is considered a sign of poverty.

Oulad Lfqir

It has not been possible to carry out wealth-ranking as a collective exercise since Oulad Lfqir is a large village and the villagers do not all know each other. The only person who was in a position to classify all the households was the moqadem (the headman). Nevertheless, the heads of the households do have an idea about social stratification in the village and identify five socio-economic groups. The highest category includes people who do not live in Oulad Lfqir, who employ hired labour to farm and who own more than 100 ha.

Women, whose mobility is restricted, do not have a perception of the overall stratification of the village. They do, however, know the names of two women they consider rich and of women they consider particularly poor who live in the vicinities of their homes.

According to women, a man is rich if he makes his wife happy by providing for the needs of the family, has built a house in town and buys his wife jewelry.

A poor man is one whose wife has to work in the fields because he cannot afford to hire labour ("A man who lets his wife work in the fields becomes the laughing stock of the village") or one who has to seek work as a hired labourer or journi.

Women aspire to the status of the rich woman who does not need to go outdoors because she is well provided for by her husband. She can afford hired labour for tasks such as fetching water. She can afford butane gas and does not need to fetch wood. She does not have to perform chores that are considered menial (such as the labourious task of alfalfa processing and weaving). Women in Taghilast and Elhouafi look upon women who have gone to live in town as the lucky ones who no longer have to make alfalfa carpets, look after animals or put up tents. They are respected and influential in the village.

The mobility of women

Men and women in all three villages adhere to the general cultural precept that women should not be seen by outsiders. However, there are variations in the way this general rule is applied (Table 13):

  • The mobility of women is most limited in Oulad Lfqir, where women rarely venture beyond the immediate vicinity of their homes.
  • Women in Elhouafi leave the douar only to seek wood in the immediate vicinity.
  • The mobility of women is greatest in Taghilast, where women go as far as Tanzert (3 km) to fetch water or Matrouh (10 km) to take food to men in the fields.

A number of factors (Box 8) account for these differences in mobility among the three villages, the main ones being reasons of survival.

Box 8
Factors That Affect Differences in the Mobility of Women

  • Survival. Relative to women in Elhouafi and Oulad Lfqir, the women in Taghilast move within a wider radius for reasons of survival: to exploit environmental resources (alfalfa, rosemary and wood) and to fetch water.
  • Ethnic. The inhabitants of Taghilast have recently become sedentary. They are pastoralists of Berber tradition, and in pastoral societies women are more mobile. Villagers in Elhouafi consider themselves all relatives since they have a common ancestor; therefore, no one in the village is considered a 'stranger'. The inhabitants of Oulad Lfqir are of different tribal origins and are generally 'strangers' to one another, with the exception of immediate neighbours and, of course, relatives.
  • Village size. Elhouafi is small; everybody knows one another, and women can circulate in the village (although permission is required from husbands to visit other households). In Taghilast, women move among three settlements that, although fairly distant, are actually part of the same douar. Oulad Lfqir is large, and people do not all know one another.
  • Prestige/status. The aspiration (common to both men and women) is to achieve the situation of the richer households where a woman does not need to leave the home. This is especially evident in a socially more competitive environment such as that of Oulad Lfqir. 

Youth

The interviews in Elhouafi and Taghilast indicate that the families there are undergoing major changes. Young men are increasingly less interested in agricultural activities because these are not profitable and because there is surplus labour in the region. For many people emigration appears to be the only solution. One of the sons may help the father on a regular basis. Such sons may carry out agricultural activities, but they are marginal in the household decision-making process. During meetings – as the research team notes – they express values and perceptions that are very different from those of their fathers. They are constantly looking for work outside the douar and for a chance to emigrate. They lack money to pay for a dowry or organize a marriage feast. The fact that young men are abandoning agriculture to emigrate poses the problem of who is to take over the management of the farm in the next generation.

Similarly, in Oulad Lfqir, even though young men are more involved in agriculture than are the young men in the other two villages (because the existence of irrigated agriculture means that the opportunities offered locally are better in terms of earnings), young men are also expressing the desire to find jobs elsewhere, particularly abroad.

Young unmarried women carry out household tasks under the direction of their mothers. However, in all three villages, mothers complain that girls are no longer interested in traditional female activities such as weaving.

Decisions concerning marriage are made by both parents. Although it is the father who negotiates the marriage, he consults with his wife regarding the choice of the person and the size of the dowry. Of particular note, however, is the fact that, especially in Elhouafi and Taghilast, a number of women have remained unmarried.

In all three villages, children are involved in a great number of tasks. Children assist their mothers in the home in all activities; they fetch water and fuel wood, wash clothes, herd animals, pick fruit and go to the souk to sell and buy (for example, to sell poultry for their mothers or to buy contraceptive pills). (For differences between male and female children, see Table 12.)

Health

When a person falls ill, traditional remedies are tried in the first instance. The health centre (which takes a fee and is far away) is a last resort. In all three villages people complain that the health centre is too far. Villagers in Taghilast complain that there is no midwife.

Decisions about treatment are made by women when home remedies are used. However, when money involved is beyond what the wife herself can afford through her own means (such as to pay for the health centre and to buy medicines), the ultimate decision is the husband’s.

Childbirth takes place in the home. It is considered an intimate event that is not to be witnessed by outsiders. Women neighbours and relatives assist at childbirth and prepare special meals to help the new mother recover her strength.

It is women who decide whether to use contraception (generally after having had three children and at least one boy). They normally do not have direct access to contraceptives or to information about them (although a health visitor comes to Elhouafi occasionally). Boys are sent to buy the pills if the men are not prepared to do so. Since the pharmacists give the information on how the pill should be taken to the person who buys the product, the information is often either misinterpreted or forgotten. As a result, women often do not take the pill regularly.

Nutrition

Women in Elhouafi and Taghilast are aware of the fact that their diets are inadequate and that the quality of their diets is uneven. Diets vary seasonally and from one year to the next. During the week, the more nutritious food is eaten on the day of the souk, when the husband can buy meat and vegetables. Winter is the most difficult season in terms of access to balanced diets and sufficient quantities of food.

In Taghilast and Elhouafi, harvested crops last until the next harvest only in very exceptional years. Both men and women say they live in constant fear of not being able to feed their children. Households in Oulad Lfqir, on the other hand, are relatively more food secure. However, in all three villages, households complain that the cold season is a particularly difficult time. A woman may advise her husband to sell an animal if food is scarce. Generally her advice is taken.

Education

Until they reach the age of 7 or 8, children are educated in the home by their mothers. Girls complete their 'apprenticeship' with their mothers, and boys with their fathers. The decision as to whether or not children should then go to school is ultimately the father’s, since money is involved. The level of literacy is generally low, particularly among women. Children carry out a great number of tasks in the household, and this is an obstacle to organized education. Formal education is conceived essentially as a vehicle towards city life, emigration and better jobs (salaried jobs rather than self-employment). There is considerable scepticism concerning the value of education since it can be difficult to find work even if one has an education. Women would like their daughters to go to school mainly because it would then be easier for them to marry above their social class and live in the city. (See Box 9.)

Box 9
Education

Elhouafi

None of the male heads of household has any formal education, but, having attended the Koranic school, none is illiterate. Women do not go to Koranic school; thus, all wives and the three women heads of household are illiterate. Only a few young people have been to school up to adolescence. Because the inhabitants are shorfas (descendants of the Prophet), the village supplies Koranic teachers (fqih) to other villages.

Among the girls under the age of 20, 75% have never been to school. Education among girls is limited by the fact that the school is in Taforalt, and the girls would have to cross through the forest, which is considered dangerous. They would therefore have to be accompanied by adult male family members.

Taghilast

None of the heads of household have been to school, though some of the younger men have been. All women are illiterate. Of the children, 25 go to the primary school in Taghilast. On the whole the literacy rate is low. Of the young between 7 and 20, 82.3% (half of which are women) have never been to school.

The attitude towards education is negative. The following are the main reasons for this:

  • households cannot afford to buy school supplies;
  • the school lacks electricity and water;
  • teachers are often absent;
  • the prospects are uncertain even for those who have an education.

The case of a young man has been mentioned. He took a course as a plumber but is still jobless.

Oulad Lfqir

There are only 105 pupils in the village primary school, only 17% of whom are girls. The secondary school is in Tahourirt, which makes it impossible for girls to continue their education beyond primary school.

Organization

Traditional organizations

Traditional social organizations and ethnic cohesion are relatively stronger in Taghilast. A traditional assembly of heads of household, called jmaa, takes decisions and acts in case of disputes. In Elhouafi, which is undergoing a process of rapid change owing to increased migration, even the headman, the moqadem, does not live in the village. People in both villages complain that there is greater individualism today and that there is less solidarity. Nevertheless, some social events (such as the collective meals, sadaqa, charity on special occasions, gift exchanges at marriage and neighbours assisting in housebuilding) continue to be important.

Apart from individual arrangements such as sharecropping and livestock associations (nas, 'half'), which generally involve relatives, there is little economic and labour cooperation at village level in either Taghilast, or Elhouafi.

Social cohesion is weakest in Oulad Lfqir. The inhabitants, who are of different tribal origins, mix less on social occasions. The pressure to achieve individual success is greater in a context in which the irrigation system offers a number of options and increases the socio-economic differences among households. Nonetheless, religion provides a focus for cohesion, and men meet once a week to read the Koran. There is, in fact, a religious confederation for men (foqra) and one of women (fqirat) in Oulad Lfqir.

In Elhouafi and in Taghilast, villagers who have gone to live in town continue to exercise economic and political influence. In Elhouafi, 10 households sharecrop for villagers who have moved to town. In Taghilast, town residents are actively involved in conflict resolution. (See Box 10.)

Box 10
"The rich who have gone away"

In Taghilast villagers who have moved to town continue to maintain strong links with the village and have land in the plain of Matrouh. They take part in village festivities, and the people of Taghilast tend to refer conflicts to them for solution. (The research team took part in a collective meal in which several villagers resident in Laayoune and Jerada participated; the purpose of the meal was to reconcile two people who had become involved in a land dispute.)

The attitude of villagers towards the people who have left the village to live in town is not without ambiguity. Those who have left are examples of success, and one can be proud to be related to them and to belong to the same tribe. On the other hand, villagers complain that "the rich who have gone away" do not do as much as they could and should in order to help solve some of the village’s most serious problems, such as water shortages and the need for administrative offices located nearer the village. It seems that the 'town folk' are expected to wield their influence with the authorities and use their resources to help solve these problems. In actual fact, "the rich who have gone away" appear to be more interested in activities that enhance their power and prestige (such as conflict resolution).

In Taghilast and Elhouafi there is more collaboration among women. Women assist one another in organizing weaving activities, in childbirth, in marriages and so on. It is also women who organize the sadaqa. In Oulad Lfqir, the solidarity among women is weak and consists almost exclusively in kinship ties.

Modern organizations

The experience with modern organizations has so far been negative, since these organizations have been imposed from the outside or are accessible only to the richer households. The beekeeping cooperative established by the Ministry of Agriculture in Elhouafi is resented because only three people from the village have been admitted as members. People believe that the cooperative should have been initially for the people from that village. Similarly, villagers in Taghilast resent having to share administrative offices with the Beni Bouzeggou, who belong to a different tribal confederation. Only three richer families (which are not resident in the village) belong to the service cooperative.

Despite the predominant role of its irrigation production system, Oulad Lfqir is singular for the lack of any water users’ organization to run or control the irrigation system. The only contribution to the collective management of the irrigation system is the payments for the upkeep of the main canal. At the time of the present survey, the main canal was in need of repair, and the men were waiting for the amel to call a meeting to do something about this.

Credit

Formal credit is used only to borrow relatively large sums of money (above 3 000 dirhams) to buy livestock and, occasionally, land (Table 15). Borrowing from the Caisse Nationale de Crédit Agricole (CNCA) is common only in Oulad Lfqir, where 9 of the 14 households interviewed have contracted loans, though only one has managed to repay the loan entirely, and another one partially (Table 14). Most households that have received loans from the CNCA say the interest rate is 10%. Others, however, say it is 'double' what they have borrowed (which seems to be a way of saying they think the interest rate is high). Households in Oulad Lfqir are cautious about investing money in livestock since the livestock can be confiscated for loan repayment; thus, livestock can cease to be a way of building capital.

The informal borrowing of small amounts of money – generally from neighbours or relatives – is a common practice in the poorer communities and households, although people are shy to admit it. The attitude towards formal credit is, on the whole, negative. The reason given is fear of not being able to repay the loan.

Problems and expectations

Women and men list similar problems, with only minor differences in priority (Tables 16 and 17a-c):

  • For all three villages, water is top on the list of problems, in Elhouafi and Taghilast because it is insufficient, and in Oulad Lfqir because it is polluted.
  • The distance to the health centre and administrative offices and lack of electricity and veterinary services are listed as problems in all three villages. (Transport was not a problem in Taghilast when the mine was operating.)
  • Elhouafi and Taghilast also list as problems unemployment among the young and education among children. These are not identified as problems by villagers in Oulad Lfqir, since irrigated agriculture offers more income-earning opportunities for the young, and there is a school in the village (which indicates that government authorities choose school sites based on the economic potential of villages).
  • Credit (inability to repay and "high interest rates") is mentioned as a problem only in Oulad Lfqir, since formal borrowing is not a common practice in Elhouafi and Taghilast.

Almost all the problems listed are ones that the state is expected to solve: electrification of the villages, building roads and health centres, digging wells, establishing veterinary services and a training centre (seen as a solution to the problem of unemployment) and controlling prices and speculation.

It is considered the responsibility of the state to provide school supplies and to improve the living conditions of teachers.

Villagers in Oulad Lfqir expect the state to provide fertilizers and seed, and they think the CNCA should lower interest rates. Local authorities are expected to force industries not to dump waste into the river. The state is further expected to control prices and speculation.

The only solution to unemployment among the young is seen in wage labour. Crafts and other forms of self-employment are apparently not contemplated as alternatives by the young.

People are, however, prepared to contribute their labour for state-promoted and state-funded initiatives. They feel they should be allowed to use the forest and express willingness to be organized to plant new trees.

In Taghilast, the survey teams discussed with women how the lives of women in the village had changed and what the women expected and desired for their daughters. The results of the talks cast an interesting light on the dynamics of change and on the values and perceptions of women in the community (Table 18). The women perceive themselves as leading lives that are less risky and more comfortable than the lives of the previous generation of women. The main contributing factor in this change appears to be the greater availability of income to pay for services (such as milling and butane gas) and to buy donkeys for transport. City life is idealized by the village women, for whom it means avoiding the drudgery of fetching water and fuel wood, making carpets, and so on. Their hope is that their daughters marry city men and lead better lives than theirs.

In summary, the problems, priorities and expectations of the households clearly reflect critical issues that need to be addressed in a development perspective: the improvement of infrastructure, reducing the drudgery of rural life, offering economic alternatives of interest for youth, decreasing dependency on the state where this is possible and justified, and promoting participation and people’s involvement in planning.

1/ The reference is to the tables in Annex II.

2/ The study has been conducted by a team composed only of women and led by Rahma Bourqia, rural sociologist and anthropologist at Mohamed V University in Rabat, and two assistant researchers (a master's student in rural sociology and an extension worker).

3/ "A striking example of exploitation of women in many rural areas in the Region is manifested in the usual custom of daughters being pressured by family members to forgo their share of land, for the sake of their brothers, in order to enjoy the continued support of the brothers, particularly in case of divorce. This custom even deprives women of the share prescribed by Islamic law." (V. De Lancey and E. Elwy, 1989.

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