80 FR 77377 - Notice of Entering Into a Compact With the Kingdom of Morocco

MILLENNIUM CHALLENGE CORPORATION

Federal Register Volume 80, Issue 239 (December 14, 2015)

In accordance with Section 610(b)(2) of the Millennium Challenge Act of 2003 (22 U.S.C. 7701-7718) as amended (the Act), and the heading ``Millennium Challenge Corporation'' of the Department of State, Foreign Operations, and Related Programs Appropriations Act, 2015, the Millennium Challenge Corporation (MCC) is publishing a summary of the Millennium Challenge Compact between the United States of America, acting through the Millennium Challenge Corporation, and the Kingdom of Morocco. Representatives of the United States Government and Morocco executed the Compact documents on November 30, 2015. The complete text of the Compact has been posted at https://assets.mcc.gov/ documents/compact-morocco-employability-and-land.pdf.

[Federal Register Volume 80, Number 239 (Monday, December 14, 2015)]
[Notices]
[Pages 77377-77379]
From the Federal Register Online  [www.thefederalregister.org]
[FR Doc No: 2015-31366]


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MILLENNIUM CHALLENGE CORPORATION

[MCC FR 15-05]


Notice of Entering Into a Compact With the Kingdom of Morocco

AGENCY: Millennium Challenge Corporation.

ACTION: Notice.

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SUMMARY: In accordance with Section 610(b)(2) of the Millennium 
Challenge Act of 2003 (22 U.S.C. 7701-7718) as amended (the Act), and 
the heading ``Millennium Challenge Corporation'' of the Department of 
State, Foreign Operations, and Related Programs Appropriations Act, 
2015, the Millennium Challenge Corporation (MCC) is publishing a 
summary of the Millennium Challenge Compact between the United States 
of America, acting through the Millennium Challenge Corporation, and 
the Kingdom of Morocco. Representatives of the United States Government 
and Morocco executed the Compact documents on November 30, 2015. The 
complete text of the Compact has been posted at https://assets.mcc.gov/documents/compact-morocco-employability-and-land.pdf.

    Dated: December 9, 2015.
Maame Ewusi-Mensah Frimpong,
Vice President and General Counsel, Millennium Challenge Corporation.

Summary of Millennium Challenge Compact With the Kingdom of Morocco

Overview

    MCC has signed a five-year, $450 million compact with the 
Government of Morocco (GoM) aimed at reducing poverty through economic 
growth. The compact seeks to assist the GoM in addressing two major 
constraints to economic growth: Education quality and land 
productivity, with an approach and methodology that incorporate the 
core issues of government and public-private coordination.

Program Overview and Budget

    Morocco was selected for compact eligibility in December 2012, and 
the subsequent constraints analysis identified (i) education quality; 
(ii) land policy and implementation (with qualitatively different 
issues for rural areas and industrial land); and (iii) governance, 
notably labor market regulations, taxes, and the judiciary system as 
binding constraints to economic growth and investment. In addition, the 
analysis identified the effectiveness of the Moroccan government's 
level of coordination as an

[[Page 77378]]

overarching issue that directly impacts the binding constraints 
identified and the efforts of the GoM to address them, resulting in low 
productivity of government investment.
    The land and education sectors represent binding constraints to 
growth and provide opportunities to develop policy responses to both 
the supply and demand for skilled labor. The compact directly addresses 
the root causes of these binding constraints, which are:
    (1) Secondary education and workforce development systems that 
produce a supply of workers that do not adequately meet private sector 
skills demand, and
    (2) Land policy and implementation that inhibit access to and 
productive uses of rural and industrial land, thus diminishing 
investment and consequent demand for labor.
    By improving the policy and institutional environment, and creating 
models to engage the private sector, the two projects will address both 
the supply and demand sides of the labor market. Both projects support 
the shift from static, state-led systems to competitive, dynamic 
systems that engage the private sector and respond to market needs. 
Further, both projects take a targeted approach to developing and 
demonstrating new models, and building capacity so that those models 
can be replicated and scaled up post-compact.
    The budget for the compact is $450 million, not including the 
contribution by the GoM of approximately $67.5 million or 15 percent of 
the U.S. contribution, allocated as follows (all figures are 
approximate due to rounding):

                         Compact Budget Summary
------------------------------------------------------------------------
                                                        Budget  (in U.S.
                   Project/activity                            $)
------------------------------------------------------------------------
Education and Training for Employability Project:
    Secondary Education...............................      $112,580,000
    Workforce Development.............................       107,420,000
                                                       -----------------
Education and Training for Employability Project             220,000,000
 Subtotal.............................................
Land Productivity Project:
    Governance........................................        10,500,000
    Rural Land........................................        33,000,000
    Industrial Land...................................       127,000,000
                                                       -----------------
Land Productivity Project Subtotal....................       170,500,000
Monitoring and Evaluation.............................        10,000,000
Program Administration and Oversight..................        49,500,000
                                                       -----------------
Compact Grand Total...................................       450,000,000
Government of Morocco Contribution....................        67,500,000
                                                       -----------------
    Program Grand Total...............................       517,500,000
------------------------------------------------------------------------

    The Education and Training for Employability Project aims to 
increase the employability and employment rate of Moroccans by 
improving the quality and relevance of, and equitable access to, 
secondary education and workforce development programs in response to 
private sector needs. Given significant social and gender inequalities 
in Morocco, a concerted effort has been made to ensure that the 
Education and Training for Employability Project results in equitable 
outcomes for both girls and boys and reduces social, gender, and 
geographically-based inequalities.
    The Land Productivity Project aims to increase land productivity in 
Morocco by enabling land markets to better respond to investor demand 
and by strengthening the enabling environment for investment

Education and Training for Employability Project

    The Education and Training for Employability Project is comprised 
of two activities aimed at increasing the employability and employment 
rate of Moroccans by improving the quality and relevance of, and 
equitable access to, secondary education and workforce development 
programs in response to private sector needs.
    1. Secondary Education Activity. The Secondary Education Activity 
aims to demonstrate a new cost-effective, sustainable, and scalable 
model of public secondary schools for delivering quality secondary 
education focused on the employability competencies needed for the 
modern workforce. It will also support key reforms to improve system 
performance management. The model will be piloted and rigorously 
evaluated in approximately 90-110 schools, which will receive a multi-
faceted package of interventions in the three key areas of school 
management, pedagogy, and infrastructure. This package will support 
schools in meeting the terms of new performance contracts and will also 
work to create an enhanced learning environment for students that 
better meets their developmental needs, and better prepares them for 
tertiary education or entry into the labor market.
    MCC funding will also support the development, planning, and 
implementation of rigorous international and national assessments of 
student learning, and the utilization of assessment data to inform 
decisions for improving performance. MCC funding will additionally 
support the development and piloting of a new approach to school 
infrastructure and information technology operations and maintenance, 
through private sector performance contracts in these areas.
    2. Workforce Development Activity. The Workforce Development 
Activity aims to increase the employability of Moroccans by: Improving 
the quality and relevance of, and equitable access to, private sector-
driven technical and vocational education and training (TVET). The 
activity will also provide: (i) Technical assistance to develop and 
implement demand-driven TVET sector policy; (ii) effective employment 
services to help unemployed or economically inactive women as well as 
at-risk urban and peri-urban youth to obtain quality jobs; and (iii) 
support to a labor market observatory that will provide dynamic labor 
market information to improve decision-making for public policy and 
private investment.

[[Page 77379]]

    An MCC- and GoM-funded grant facility will support selected private 
sector-driven training centers by issuing grants for infrastructure, 
equipment, and technical assistance. Additionally, results-based 
incentive mechanisms, such as social impact bonds, will be used to 
support promising programs that provide integrated job placement 
services for women and at-risk urban youth. MCC funding will also 
support the development and implementation of rigorous impact 
evaluations to test other non-MCC funded promising labor market 
interventions.

Land Productivity Project

    The project aims to increase land productivity in Morocco by 
enabling land markets to better respond to investor demand and by 
strengthening the enabling environment for investment. To achieve this 
objective, MCC funding will support the following activities:
    1. Governance Activity. The Governance Activity is designed to 
support the development and implementation of a long-term land 
productivity strategy to address governance and land market constraints 
to investment and productivity. Once the strategy and roadmap to its 
implementation are in place, the activity will finance implementation 
of key elements of the roadmap.
    2. Rural Land Activity. The Rural Land Activity aims to increase 
rural productivity by making the GoM's current process for privatizing 
irrigated collective lands more inclusive and less time-consuming. The 
activity will (i) develop procedures for privatization of irrigated 
collective land that can be implemented within three years or less; 
(ii) use these improved procedures to support the privatization of up 
to 46,000 hectares of collective land within Morocco's Gharb region; 
and (iii) develop and apply tools to address other land-related root 
causes of low productivity identified during due diligence, such as 
minimum parcel size requirements. The activity will engage in extensive 
consultations and outreach in the region of intervention and will 
develop and apply fair and inclusive land allocation criteria that 
protect the rights of land holders, including women.
    3. Industrial Land Activity. The Industrial Land Activity aims to 
transform the way the GoM brings industrial land to market, from a 
state- to a market-driven approach, through the development of a new 
model for industrial zone development. By using public-private 
partnerships for industrial land development, the activity seeks to 
encourage private sector participation in the development and 
management of industrial zones, and to ensure that such development and 
management responds to private sector demand in terms of location, land 
offering, infrastructure and site and social services.

                            Economic Analysis
------------------------------------------------------------------------
          Project/activity                   ERR          Beneficiaries
------------------------------------------------------------------------
Education and Training for              12.7% to 14.5%         2,019,100
 Employability Project..............
    Secondary Education.............    12.4% to 15.1%         1,744,100
    Workforce Development...........             13.2%           275,000
Land Productivity Project...........    15.8% to 18.0%           177,800
    Governance......................  ................  ................
    Rural Land......................             23.0%            81,500
    Industrial Land.................    13.4% to 16.7%            96,300
------------------------------------------------------------------------
* The costs of the governance activity are included in the Land
  Productivity Project's overall ERR.

    An economic rate of return (ERR) was calculated for each of the 
compact's projects. The costs of the Governance Activity, which is a 
critical national policy and institutional reform component that will 
support a land strategy and roadmap, as well as the long-term 
sustainability and impact of the project's other two activities, are 
included in the overall ERR for the Land Productivity Project.
    The Compact is expected to benefit 2.2 million people over a 
twenty-year period.

[FR Doc. 2015-31366 Filed 12-11-15; 8:45 am]
BILLING CODE 9211-03-P