Morocco: Reducing Gender Inequality Can Boost Growth
IMF News, March 1, 2017
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- Published: March 1, 2017
Executive summary
- Policies that better integrate women into the economy could help increase overall income and significantly improve Morocco's growth prospects, IMF study finds.
- If there were as many women working as men currently are in Morocco, income per capita could be almost 50 percent higher than it is now.
- Morocco’s population growth is slowing, and the United Nations projects that the dependency ratio—the age population ratio of those out and in the labor force—will rise by 2040, creating potential for more people to be out of work over the next few decades.
- The government has implemented legal and fiscal reforms to improve women’s rights, but stronger and better targeted measures are needed to increase female labor force participation and employment, and to address gender gaps in education.
Key facts and statistics
- Jamila is a 12-year-old girl living in rural Morocco; about 78 percent of girls between the ages of 12 and 14 are no longer in formal schooling in the country’s rural areas.
- Youth unemployment: 22 percent.
- Female labor force participation: 25 percent participation rate compared to over 66 percent (men).
- Potential income impact: income per capita could be almost 50 percent higher if women worked at the same rate as men.
- Demographic projection: dependency ratio projected to rise by 2040.
- Legal and policy milestones:
- Family code revised in 2004 to expand the rights of women in marriage, guardianship, child custody, and access to divorce.
- Constitutional guarantee for equality enacted in 2011.
- Maternity leave of 14 weeks at full salary introduced in 2004.
- Gender budgeting initiative launched in Morocco in 2002 (described as the first and most advanced in the Middle East and Central Asia region).
Findings from the IMF assessment
- Gender inequality is materially linked to lower growth in Morocco; closing gender gaps in labor force participation and education would raise income per capita substantially.
- Slowing population growth combined with a rising dependency ratio implies potential labor market pressures that could be offset by greater female labor force integration.
- Current reforms have advanced women's legal rights and fiscal attention to gender, but gaps remain in practice—particularly in childcare, tax treatment, education access, and rural women’s skills.
Policy recommendations (targeted measures highlighted by the study)
- Increase access to education for girls and address gender gaps in schooling, including through conditional transfer programs for education to promote secondary education for girls.
- Expand public childcare facilities to free women’s time for education, training, and labor market participation.
- Improve public transportation to make it safer and easier for women to get to work.
- Implement vocational training and literacy programs for women in rural areas.
- Support female entrepreneurship and vocational training programs for all women.
- Reform tax rules so that tax deductions or credits are not limited to men—address the current rule where a female taxpayer may not claim dependent deductions for spouse and children unless she proves legal guardianship.
- Implement the recently-adopted national employment strategy recommendations, including conditional transfer programs that can support girls’ education and women’s literacy and vocational training.
Implication for individuals and society
- If the recommended policies are implemented, barriers to girls’ and women’s economic participation—illustrated by Jamila’s case—would be greatly reduced, increasing opportunities for individual fulfillment and contributing to a more prosperous and inclusive Moroccan society.
Anta Ndoye and Vincent Dadam, Middle East & Central Asia Department; Lisa Kolovich, Strategy, Policy & Review Department — March 1, 2017. International Monetary Fund.
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References
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