The “Support for Citizen Participation in Morocco” program funded by the European Union (EU) aims on the one hand to strengthen the capacities of civil society, and on the other hand to support the country’s efforts in promoting participatory democracy. This concept of participatory democracy is mainly realized through the active engagement of civil society organizations (CSOs) as well as citizens themselves in the process of developing, monitoring and evaluating public policies, whether either at the central, regional or local level.
The general objective of the program “Support for Citizen Participation in Morocco” aims to “develop a critical mass of citizen participation in the 5 targeted regions, to strengthen local governance through transparency, the legitimacy of the social pact and the public action, as well as the quality of the services provided.

The PAGIE aims to promote the phoenicicole sector of different oases in Morocco via the aggregation of family producers (women and men) by professionalized GIEs, allowing them to penetrate the market with quality products and competitive capacity. Four main outcomes underpin this objective, namely:
• Valorization units managed by GIEs can count on a sustainable supply of quality dates based on aggregation models which improve the structuring, supervision and training of phoeniciculturists.
• Valorization units are operational, marketing increasing volumes and penetrating competitive markets.
• An effective and sustainable model of coordination, support and advisory support for the date value chain is operational.
• The development of professions and service organizations allows a growing role for women and young people in the date value chain

The 4 Belgian partner NGOs – FIAN, Quinoa, Solidagro and Viva Salud – have joined forces and complementarities in terms of interculturality, the fight against inequalities, the right to health, the right to food and the rights of peasants and approaches to lead a common program that aspires for citizens to have more power and for their political participation through social movements to be strengthened to bring about structural change in our economic, political system and social so that a just, united, decolonized and sustainable world, based on human rights, can come about.

The consortium’s 4 strategies are:

• Awareness raising, training and mobilization: to strengthen citizen engagement

• Support for movements and networking: to strengthen their capacities for action and organization

• Advocacy and expertise: to drive political choices favorable to system change

• Strengthening and supporting alternative models: to improve the socio-economic conditions of the population and promote these good practices.

The mid-term evaluation aims to answer the question: “How does our approach and practice of strengthening and supporting social movements contribute to achieving the objectives of the joint program?” “.

To do this, it will be:

• Evaluate practices with social movements (are they effective, do they create change).

• Nurture learning and reinforce practices with these movements in order to be more effective and efficient

• Confirm that this work contributes to the change sought by the outcome.

• Ensure monitoring of certain indicators: measure the level of achievement and the relevance of actions with regard to these indicators (outcome Belgium);

• Train in evaluation techniques, strengthen synergies and the sharing of knowledge and good practices between the staff and local offices (and therefore their organization) of the program;

• Formulate conclusions and recommendations (with a clear relationship between the two) with a view to strengthening the quality and impact of the joint program, in particular through the sharing of lessons learned and innovative practices.