The integration of youth into economic and social life is a significant developmental challenge that heavily influences public policies shaped by various sectoral strategies, institutions, and elected councils. Today, more than ever, there is a pressing need for a comprehensive approach that considers all aspects of the effective and sustainable inclusion of this societal group in public life. This requires the concerted efforts of various stakeholders and actors to develop holistic and integrated strategies in a cross-sectoral manner, ensuring coherence and the achievement of the intended objectives and goals.

Despite the progress made in the economic and social integration of youth during the current governmental term, this challenge remains fraught with numerous issues and obstacles that hinder the full inclusion of this group in political life, preventing their active participation in various aspects of public life.

According to a bulletin issued by the High Commission for Planning on July 12, 2023, on International Youth Day, the total number of young people aged 15 to 34 increased from 11.5 million in 2014 to 11.8 million in 2023. Additionally, the proportion of those aged 15 to 24 rose from 16.1% in 2014 to 18.0% in 2023. During the same period, the percentage of urban youth also grew from 60.0% to 66.0%.

As part of a self-initiated review, the Economic, Social, and Environmental Council (CESE) issued an opinion on the topic: “Youth Who Are Neither Employed, in Education, nor in Training (NEET).” The study focused on young people aged 15 to 24 who are outside the education and training system as well as the labor market. Approved on November 30, 2023, the report highlighted that one in four individuals within this age group falls into the NEET category, amounting to approximately 1.5 million people.

According to the council, this figure reflects the limitations of public policies aimed at ensuring the social and economic inclusion of youth, particularly for this vulnerable group. Moreover, this fragility is often exacerbated by a set of interrelated factors that can arise at different stages of youth development, further intensifying and complicating the NEET phenomenon. Among the key contributing factors are school dropout rates, the transition from education to the labor market, and job instability, whether due to job loss or voluntary resignation in pursuit of better opportunities.

These significant figures, which highlight the shortcomings of previous public policies that targeted youth, were foreseen by His Majesty King Mohammed VI in his speeches and royal messages since he ascended the throne of his illustrious ancestors. Since his first Throne Speech on July 30, 1999, a roadmap has been outlined that embodies the social contract between the King and the people. This roadmap included clear references to the importance of providing quality education and training that prepares the nation’s youth to face the challenges of the 21st century while ensuring job opportunities in an ever-evolving world.

His Majesty the King also reiterated, in his royal speech addressed to the representatives of the nation on the occasion of his presidency at the opening of the first session of the second year of the tenth legislative term, the lack of benefit that youth have gained from the progress in the country. The royal speech stated: “The progress that Morocco is witnessing unfortunately does not include all citizens, especially our youth, who represent more than a third of the population, and to whom we give our full attention and care. In fact, the empowerment of Moroccan youth and their positive and active involvement in national life is one of the most important challenges that must be addressed.

We have emphasized multiple times, particularly in the speech of August 20, 2012, that youth are our true wealth and must be seen as a driver of development, not as an obstacle to its achievement.

In reality, the societal changes occurring in Morocco have led to the emergence of youth as a new actor with significant weight and influence in national life.

Despite the efforts made, the situation of our youth does not satisfy us nor them. Many of them suffer from exclusion, unemployment, the inability to complete their studies, and sometimes even from limited access to essential social services,” concluded the royal speech.

Youth are significantly and fundamentally concerned with the nature of the development programs and projects overseen by the government and elected councils. This means, first and foremost, the importance of viewing them with respect, and secondly, actively listening to their ideas, aspirations, and visions for both the present and the future during all stages of preparing and implementing structural and developmental programs and projects. Thirdly, this entails involving them in the diagnostic process and feasibility studies related to the projects and initiatives to be carried out, while taking into careful consideration the geographical specificity of each region. The needs and expectations of urban youth differ from those of rural youth, and the same applies to youth in different regions. For example, the youth of the Rabat-Salé-Kénitra region will not have the same priorities, needs, or aspirations as those of Tangier-Tetouan-Al Hoceima, Draa-Tafilalet, or Laayoune-Sakia El Hamra.

The February 20 Movement, for example, as one of the most important and influential social movements in the history of social activism, constituted an important social moment in Morocco’s political history because it succeeded, on the one hand, in bringing together ideologically disparate social groups, currents, political, civil and human rights bodies, on the basis of an almost unanimous social, political and human rights debate and demands. On the other hand, the movement was able to achieve a societal appeal that was reflected in the popular embrace of its demands and forms of protest by a wide variety of social groups.

To the extent that the movement succeeded in bringing its demands to the forefront through various forms of protest and in promoting its positions via social media platforms, it also managed, through its coordination bodies and general assemblies, to bridge differing views, perspectives, and positions among many political and human rights actors with ideological backgrounds that were sometimes even contradictory. This reflected a significant degree of pragmatism that the movement adopted, with the hope of forming a civil front, on which there were high hopes for achieving popular penetration into the state’s structure.

For its part, the Moroccan state took a unique approach in dealing with the movement and its demands. In his royal speech on March 9, 2011, His Majesty the King of Morocco stated: “I address you today regarding the commencement of the next phase of advanced regionalization, which entails the development of our distinct democratic and developmental model, and the deep constitutional review we deem necessary for launching new, comprehensive reforms, in continuous response to all components of the nation (…) Our profound understanding of the magnitude of the challenges, the legitimacy of the aspirations, and the need to safeguard achievements and correct imbalances is matched only by our firm commitment to giving a strong push to the dynamics of deep reform, at the heart of which lies a democratic constitutional system.” These measures were met by Moroccan youth, the central force of the social movement, with positivity, optimism, and hope.

This societal dynamism, despite the ideological divides among some of its components, has significantly contributed to the emergence of societal changes that have influenced the way youth perceive the state’s structure, the roles of the executive authority, and social mediation institutions, particularly political parties. The latter have, and continue to, suffer from a noticeable weakening of the youth voice within their structures and institutions.

Despite the significant presence of youth in the demographic composition, as they are the broad base of the population pyramid, a transversal reading of public policies aimed at youth shows the wide gap between what has been achieved under previous governments to date and the aspirations and real needs of young people in a changing world, which has resulted in the reaction of large groups of young people who have alternated between rejecting reality and escaping to the virtual worlds that have become their refuge, and those who found in illegal immigration and extremism an answer to the inability of the state to contain them and absorb their ideas and expectations. This was emphasized by the recommendations related to the national policies monitored by the Fiftieth Anniversary Report and the recommendations of the Equity and Reconciliation Commission, which were at the center of the focus of the Development Model Committee.

This accumulation requires, at various stages, frameworks and competencies to implement its contents. This raises questions for the institutions of social mediation, particularly political parties, regarding their ownership of a political project that addresses this structural challenge within their organizations. This is especially relevant as political parties have, for decades, remained a reservoir for the elites that the state relies on to formulate and implement the interim visions of the reform agendas the state hopes to successfully execute.

If youth issues in relation to public policies are transversal in their nature, which requires providing opportunities for them to participate in their formulation and implementation as partners in achieving the desired comprehensive development and as actors within the public decision-making system that concerns various areas of development, the political parties that produce these public policies through their presence in the government, parliament and other constitutional institutions and councils have regressed in their framing roles for this social group, as youth representation in political institutions no longer exceeds 1%. This reflects the failure of political parties in their ability to attract youth and contain their ideas and perceptions of youth-oriented public policies on the one hand, and on the other, the inability of successive governments to represent the expectations and needs of youth and crystallize them into public policies responsive to this social group, which explains the failure of political parties and their inaction to produce new potential delegates qualified to assume organizational, political and mandatory responsibilities, enabling them to develop and implement their vision of public policies at the national, regional and local levels.

The concept of participation here goes beyond being merely a right; it is a culture that stands in contrast to apathy, despair, and disengagement. It reflects the will to empower young citizens to contribute to the preparation and implementation of development policies, either through their own efforts or in partnership and collaboration with governmental sectors, institutions, and elected local authorities. It is a process of shared management of public affairs at both local and national levels, creating legal mechanisms that institutionalize participation in decision-making at various levels.