Action plan – Tétouan (Municipality), Morocco, 2022 – 2026

At-a-Glance

Duration

Jun 2027

Date Submitted

30th November 2022

Foreword(s)

The commune of Tetouan has capitalized for many years on a set of good practices relating to transparencyAccording to OGP’s Articles of Governance, transparency occurs when “government-held information (including on activities and decisions) is open, comprehensive, timely, freely available to the pub... More, accountability, citizen participationAccording to OGP’s Articles of Governance, citizen participation occurs when “governments seek to mobilize citizens to engage in public debate, provide input, and make contributions that lead to m... More, and convincing results in terms of improving the quality of services (transport, collection of household waste, local equipment) as well as a notable effort to ensure territorial equity in terms of the generalization of municipal services.

As a result, the strategic vision adopted during the development of the 2023-2028 municipal action plan revolves around a major objective based on three components: working for an inclusive, sustainable and open city.

This action plan, developed using a participatory approach, is co-constructed with citizens, CSOs, private sectorGovernments are working to open private sector practices as well — including through beneficial ownership transparency, open contracting, and regulating environmental standards. Technical specificat... More actors, decentralized services, and around four strategic axes and two key axes: Anchoring the objective of the open municipality and locating the sustainable development goalsOGP countries are experimenting with open government innovations to accelerate progress on the Sustainable Development Goals, particularly SDG 16+ which includes peaceful, just and inclusive societies....

This OGP action plan: Tetouan, open commune 2023-2026, is anchored in the municipal action plan (PAC) and constitutes an enhancement of the actions programmed therein.

The implementation of the action plan will be one more opportunity for the municipal body and its civil society partners to work together in order to meet all the commitments of this plan.

Open Government Challenges, Opportunities, and Strategic Vision

What is the long-term vision for open government in your context and jurisdiction?

Our vision for open local government echoes that of the municipal action plan. Tetouan wants to be an inclusive, resilient and open city, so the action plan: Tetouan, open commune, focuses on the following guidelines:

1. Capitalize on gains in transparency and build a sustainable practice of inclusive access to public information.
2. Strengthen citizen participation by creating the appropriate space and multiplying the steps that allow citizens to participate in the planning of territorial action, the monitoring of municipal activities, and the evaluation of results.
3. Improve the quality of local services provided by the commune through a kind of citizen co-management via civic participation applications.
4. Relaunch cultural and sports events and economic development activities permanently affected by the pandemic.

These will be the main objectives of our action plan: Tetouan, open commune 2023-2026.

What are the achievements in open government to date (for example, recent open government reforms)?

The commune of Tétouan has been involved for ten years in a good number of initiatives aimed at strengthening citizen participation, the transparency of municipal management, the improvement of local services, and the quality of life of citizens:

1. The participatory development of municipal action plans (2016-2021) and (2023-2028) through thematic co-creation workshops to discuss topics relating to municipal management (7 workshops were organized in 2022 on the following themes: Local infrastructure and equipment, GenderOGP participating governments are bringing gender perspectives to popular policy areas, ensuring diversity in participatory processes, and specifically targeting gender gaps in policies to address gov... More and social inclusionOGP participating governments are working to create governments that truly serve all people. Commitments in this area may address persons with disabilities, women and girls, lesbian, gay, bisexual, tr... More, Economic animation and employment, SDGs and climate change, Cultural and sporting animation and heritage preservation, Governance and open municipality, Spatial planning and urban mobility).
2. Eight local workshops were also organized at the level of peripheral districts with the aim of strengthening citizen participation in this territorial planning process and increasing ownership of the projects and initiatives that will be programmed.
3. In 2018, the commune of Tétouan obtained the national label of “Citizen Municipality” rewarding the efforts made by the commune in terms of setting up tools for access to information and mechanisms allowing citizen participation and associative action.
4. The commune is committed to the digitization of services by acquiring a large number of administrative and technical management applications.

What are the current challenges/areas for improvement in open government that the jurisdiction wishes to tackle?

If the commune of Tetouan has undertaken since the implementation of its 2016-2021 action plan, the implementation of a set of measures and initiatives that are part of an open approach based on the principles of transparency, accountability, and participatory democracy, the communal council, by adopting a specific action plan, aims to engage citizen participation around an “inclusive, resilient and open city project” by:

1. The transparency of municipal management: not only through the proactive publication of the main financial management documents and user guides but also documents relating to any decision-making process.
2. Accountability and responsibility of the municipal governing body, opening the annual report on the implementation of the communal action plan 2023-2028 to public debate.
3. Citizen participation in improving the quality of local services: by establishing a space for participation, but also by digitizing services and providing digital interfaces for citizens allowing them to obtain information, monitor and demand, remotely, the correction of any deficits or shortcomings.
4. Raising the awareness of all our public, private, and civil society partners on the fact that the OGP action plan is an initiative to unite all the local territorial actors around a project which aims to improve the quality of life of citizens and which requires the pooling of all efforts.

What are the medium-term open government goals that the government wants to achieve?

The objectives we plan to achieve in the medium term are:

1. Co-construct an open government ecosystem for the city based on citizen participation and the “leave no one behind” principle.
2. Improve the quality of local services and ensure territorial equity within a framework of transparency and accountability.
3. Put in place a series of support measures to activate economic and cultural recovery and environmental resilience.
4. Make use of digitization as a tool for the co-management of local public affairs.

How does this action plan contribute to achieving the Open Government Strategic Vision?

The communal action plan (PAC) revolves around four strategic axes, it is designed to translate our vision of an inclusive, resilient, and open city, through four series of commitments:

1. The first concerns the transparency of financial management by undertaking to publish budgetary and accounting documents and their popularization as well as the proactive publication of public information on appropriate media.
2. The second is devoted to the accountability of the management team by ensuring public monitoring of the implementation of the communal action plan (PAC) and the OGP action plan.
3. The third is a package of actions relating to the improvement of local services through awareness-raising, communication, and citizen contribution tools.
4. The last is the establishment and coordination of consultative bodies for the development of thematic action plans (gender, disability, young people, etc.).

How does the open government strategic vision contribute to the accomplishment of the current administration’s overall policy goals?

The development of the municipal action plan 2023-2028 was the opportunity to renew the strategic vision for the development of the city. This vision is intended to integrate all territorial actors and all development efforts, particularly in terms of open local government.

The OGP action plan: Tetouan, open commune 2023-2026 constitutes an integral part of the municipal action plan and contributes to the development of citizen initiatives by increasing the participatory component that the municipal action plan tends to expect from its proactive nature.

The vision adopted for the OGP action plan takes into account the benefits of citizen participation and the impact of the renewed confidence of citizens for a concerted implementation of the SDGs and in particular those relating to the urban socio-economic environment.

Engagement and Coordination in the Open Government Strategic Vision and OGP Action Plan

Please list the lead institutions responsible for the implementation of this OGP action plan.

• General Directorate of Communal Services
• Major Projects and Communal Action Plan Department
• IT and digitalization Department
• Communal Works Department
• Associative Relations and Social Solidarity department
• Communications department
• Budget department
• Communal Council Secretariat

What kind of institutional arrangements are in place to coordinate between government agencies and departments to implement the OGP action plan?

The organizational architecture adopted for the implementation and monitoring of the implementation of the action plan is established as follows:

The objectives of the OGP action plan are in line with those of the strategy of the municipal administration in terms of improving the performance of the various municipal services, the general directorate of communal services is responsible via a dashboard developed for this purpose to:

• Coordinate between municipal services for the effective implementation of the action plan.
• Involve the delegated management operators in the scheduled activities.

The OGP technical team is responsible for:

• Monitoring the implementation of the action plan.
• Organizing training and supervision workshops for project managers and officials responsible for executive tasks.

What kind of spaces have you used or created to enable the collaboration between government and civil society in the co-creation and implementation of this action plan? Mention both offline and online spaces.

Three types of spaces were created and used for the co-creation, coordination, and monitoring of the implementation of the OGP action plan:

1. A joint steering committeeThe Steering Committee is OGP’s executive decision-making body. Its role is to develop, promote and safeguard OGP’s values, principles and interests; establish OGP’s core ideas, policies, and ru...: composed in equal parts of representatives of civil society and representatives of the municipality (elected officials and administration), its decisions are taken by consensus and its mission is to fully guide the process of co-creation and implementation of the action plan.
2. A forum of “co-creation workshops”: run by member associations of the steering committee. This is the space where the foundations of the action plan were co-constructed through an open debate on the themes of transparency, accountability, and tools for citizen participation with the aim of improving quality. municipal services and for an inclusive and resilient commune.
3. An online consultation space: through an online quiz, we were able to quantitatively approach the priorities expressed by citizens on issues relating to the themes chosen for the co-creation workshops.

What measures did you take to ensure diversity of representation (including vulnerable or marginalized populations) in these spaces?

To ensure a broader participation of the different fringes of local society through the mobilization of the active and very lively associative fabric, we have exploited the potential of our network made up of a panoply of civil society associations (working in themes such as gender, disability, youthRecognizing that investing in youth means investing in a better future, OGP participating governments are creating meaningful opportunities for youth to participate in government processes. Technical ... More, and retirees), neighborhood associations, professional corporations and the partnerships that the municipality has established with the university, NGOs and professional associations.

A form has been developed and posted online to collect proposals and suggestions from groups such as students, residents of outlying areas, and employees unable to attend the regular forum.

The OGP technical team sent more than a hundred invitations to civil society organizations and individuals (teachers, experts, neighborhood leaders, etc.) to participate in the ordinary Forum and to satisfy the diversity criteria (age, gender, activist, non-activist, expert, resource person, public-private) and territoriality.

Who participated in these spaces?

We proceeded by organizing thematic workshops for the co-creation of the action plan project through a presentation of the issues relating to transparency, accountability, the mechanisms of citizen participation, and the quality of its municipal public services, then a phase of a joint search for solutions that will be the basis of subsequent commitments.

Sectors represented: citizens, associations, universities, and professional corporations.

Dynamics: Exchange forums (organized by theme) for the development of the diagnosis and the expression of ideas, proposals, and suggestions.

The total number of participants in the co-creation processCollaboration between government, civil society and other stakeholders (e.g., citizens, academics, private sector) is at the heart of the OGP process. Participating governments must ensure that a dive... was 376, broken down as follows:

• Representatives of civil society organizations: 258
• International NGO: 1
• Suggestions received online: 56
• Total number of participants in thematic workshops (not affiliated with an organization): 35
• University participants (network or institution): 5
• Private sector: 6

How many groups participated in these spaces?

11

How many public-facing meetings were held in the co-creation process?

9

How will government and non-governmental stakeholders continue to collaborate through the implementation of the action plan?

The joint steering committee, made up of an equal number of representatives from the municipality and civil society, is responsible for supervising the implementation of the action plan, organizing its mid-term update, and proposing all corrections and improvements it deems necessary.

The stakeholder forum is the space for participation open to civil society to contribute to monitoring and updating the plan.

Please describe the independent Monitoring Body you have identified for this plan.

The independent body monitoring the action plan is the “Tétouan Association for Local Initiatives” (ATIL), which has a recognized track record in the evaluation of local development programs or projects, particularly in the areas of citizen participation.

Provide the contact details for the independent monitoring body.

• Fuad IMRANI, General Director, contact@asociacionatil.ma

What types of activities will you have in place to discuss progress on commitments with stakeholders?

The OGP technical team will take care of:

• The systematic collection of evidence of the implementation of commitments.
• The establishment of a periodic data collection activity necessary for the calculation of result indicators and quantified elements allowing the development of impact indicators follows the completionImplementers must follow through on their commitments for them to achieve impact. For each commitment, OGP’s Independent Reporting Mechanism (IRM) evaluates the degree to which the activities outlin... More of the implementation of a commitmentOGP commitments are promises for reform co-created by governments and civil society and submitted as part of an action plan. Commitments typically include a description of the problem, concrete action....

The independent reporting body is empowered to use the data collected for the purpose of preparing an annual report monitoring the implementation of the action plan, producing recommendations, and proposing corrective measures if necessary.

How will you regularly check in on progress with implementing agencies?

The OGP technical team will develop a monitoring matrix containing all the actions planned as part of the implementation of a given commitment, and mentioning the results to be achieved and the related result indicators.

A half-yearly meeting will be organized with the municipal services concerned to fill in the said matrix which will be sent to the steering committee for study and to take the necessary measures.

How will you share the results of your monitoring efforts with the public?

The results of the implementation will be communicated to the public through the following means:

1. The OGP Local website of the municipality will allow continuous monitoring of the results indicators relating to the activities programmed for the fulfillment of each commitment.
2. An online publication on the municipality’s official portal of the annual report monitoring the implementation of the OGP action plan drawn up by the independent reporting body.
3. Organization of a study day to present the progress made and the obstacles to be overcome for an open local government.

Endorsement from Non-Governmental Stakeholders

• Ahmed AIDANI, President, Association “white dove” for the rights of people with disabilitiesA government is not open unless it is accessible to all, and governments are working to ensure people with disabilities are afforded equitable services and opportunities to participate. Technical spec...
• Amina EL MAHMOUDI, President, Association “ASSAIDA AL HORRA” for women
• Abdelouahab IDELHAJ, President, HERITAGE CITIZENSHIP AND DEVELOPMENT Association
• Tourine EL BERRAJ, President, Association “MILITANT WOMAN”
• Amine HOURAIRI, President, Association AESVT teachers of life and earth sciences – subsidiary of Tetouan

Introduction Letter
General questionnaire to achieve the goal of an open community in Tetouan.