Women’s empowerment: Morocco cited as an example by US State Department

The US State Department cited Morocco as an example in terms of women’s empowerment through the campaign to support the melkization operation aimed at enabling women inherit Soulaliyate lands, an operation launched as part of the partnership with the Millennium Challenge Corporation.

During a virtual event on the development and prosperity of women in the world in the presence of the Advisor to the US president, Ivanka Trump, Assistant Secretary of State Stephen Biegun indicated that the “Millennium Challenge Corporation has worked, through the Global Women’s Development and Prosperity Initiative (W-GDP), with the Moroccan government to recognize the rights of all heirs, including daughters, to inherit and own land.”

The US official mentioned the case of Samira Sabri of the Marrakesh-Safi region, who will finally be legally able to inherit land passed down to her from her father.

“She will now have the right to work the land that her family has been farming for generations and use it to provide for her own family. As a landowner, she’ll also have better access to capital, to education, and to opportunity. Samira will contribute to the prosperity of her nation, and she will be economically self-sufficient,” Stephen Biegun said.

“We’re excited to see more women like Samira succeed as the State Department works to improve women’s access to courts in Cote d’Ivoire, Eswatini, South Africa, Indonesia, and Papua New Guinea,” he said, noting that similar programs to educate women on their legal and inheritance rights are undertaken in other couyntries such as Afghanistan and Pakistan.

Women should have the opportunity to learn a skill, provide for their families, own property, and contribute to their own communities. These activities are all a great expression of human dignity, the US official said, adding that Promoting women’s empowerment is also smart economic policy.

At the virtual event held on Tuesday, the Trump administration, in partnership with 10 US government agencies and departments, presented detailed plans on how they would work together to remove legal and regulatory barriers to women’s full and free participation in the global economy, building upon the W-GDP’s foundation.

US President Donald Trump launched the W-GDP initiative with the goal of empowering 50 million women worldwide by 2025.

The Advisor to the US President, Ivanka Trump, who heads the W-GDP, last year visited Morocco where she learned about women’s access to collective land, a project initiated under the guidelines of King Mohammed VI to consolidate the empowerment of Moroccan women.

Ivanka Trump welcomed during her visit the reforms undertaken under the leadership of the Sovereign over the past twenty years, in particular on the issue of the promotion of women’s rights and their economic empowerment.

The W-GDP is based on three pillars, namely support for women to develop their capacities with a view to greater profitability, access to credit and technical assistance for the creation of businesses as well as the promotion of the working environment for women through change mentalities and laws.