King urges govt to act on social woes

RABAT: Morocco’s King Mohammed VI on Sunday urged the government to take “urgent action” to address social issues, in particular health and education in the north African country which has been hit by protests over employment and corruption.

Despite the “achievements accomplished, I have the feeling that we continue to be lacking something in social matters”, the king said in a speech marking the 19th anniversary of his accession to the throne.

King Mohammed VI pointed to social support and protection programmes that “overlap each other and suffer from a lack of consistency”.

Morocco is marked by glaring social and territorial inequalities, against a backdrop of high unemployment. In 2017, it was ranked 123rd out of 188 countries on the Human Development Index.

In his speech, the king called for accelerating the establishment of a national system to register families for social support programmes and invited the government to “undertake a comprehensive and deep restructuring” of existing programmes.

He also called for “a strong boost to programmes to support schooling” and a reshaping of the health system, which “is characterised by glaring inequalities”.

The king’s speech was delivered in the northern city of Al-Hoceima which was the epicentre of the “Hirak” protest that rocked the country in 2016 and 2017.