National Human Development Initiative

The National Human Development Initiative is a program launched in 2005 by King Mohammed VI of Morocco with the objective of "ensuring a better distribution of the fruits of growth and to improve the living conditions of citizens".^[1] The program has a budget of 10 billion Dirham (about 900 million Euro) over five years (2006–2010). It is distributed equally between two country-wide programs (one called a "transversal program" and a "program against precarious living conditions") and two geographically targeted programs (an urban and a rural program). 60% of the program is financed by the national government, 20% by local governments and 20% is to be financed by external donors.^[2] For the urban program, committees at the local level identified 264 urban neighborhoods with the greatest needs in 30 cities that would benefit from the initiative. The neighborhoods have a population of 2.5m or 16% of the country's urban population. The rural program targets the 348 rural municipalities where the poverty level is higher than 30%.^[3]

The World Bank supports the initiative through a US$100 million loan^[4] and a US$7 million grant to increase access to water supply and sanitation in three cities.^[5]