As part of the cycle of regional conferences on the strengthening and support of female leadership at the level of Moroccan territorial collectivities, this meeting essentially aims to strengthen democracy and local governance through the promotion of female transformational leadership. The conference also set itself the objectives of supporting the various reform projects carried out in the Kingdom in favour of promoting the status of women, strengthening women's mobilisation and communication capacities, anticipating change, particularly in the context of preparing the advanced regionalisation project, valuing Moroccan women with exceptional backgrounds, strengthening the political, managerial and participatory management capacities of women, as well as promoting networking between local elected women. During the opening ceremony, Zineb El Adaoui, Wali of the Gharb-Chrarda-Beni Hssen region and governor of the Kénitra province, took this opportunity to stress the extreme importance of combining the efforts of authorities, elected officials and civil society components with a view to developing a roadmap aimed at consolidating women's representation, while allowing them to participate in the development process, strategic planning and economic upgrading of the communes and collectivities to which they belong. "The territorial collectivity constitutes the appropriate institutional framework for the exercise of democracy at the local level. It represents the space closest to the populations for the creation of conditions conducive to a just society based on the principle of equality in rights and duties between the two sexes," she indicated, stressing that "the success of this symposium will constitute proof of our capacity to mobilise all stakeholders with a view to collective adherence to the philosophy of gender equity, as well as a guarantee of our aptitude to operate changes at the level of concepts and a certain culture that constitutes a handicap for the success of women."

For his part, Abdelouahab El Jabri, governor and director of Administrative and Technical Staff Training at the Ministry of the Interior, stressed that this conference is part of the strategy to support territorial collectivities and support their capacities with a view to laying the foundations for advanced regionalisation. He indicated, in this regard, that nearly 3,230 elected women, civil servants and executives have benefited from these conferences organised in the various regions of the Kingdom, specifying that the DGCL has put in place a strategic plan aimed at supporting the capacities of elected officials and human resources of territorial collectivities by adopting the gender approach. A plan that obtained, in 2013, the first United Nations excellence award for the integration of the gender approach in the civil service at the African level. For his part, Mekki Zizi, president of the Council of the Gharb-Chrarda-Beni Hssen region, wished to stress that the gender approach has today become a political priority and a strategic choice for Morocco for the consolidation of the rule of law. He recalled on this occasion the ratification by the Kingdom of international conventions relating to this approach. "Morocco has begun to reap the fruits of the efforts it has made in terms of adopting the gender approach, knowing that a total of 3,432 women were elected during the 2009 communal elections, against only 127 women in 2003," he said in substance.

The inaugural session was also characterised by the intervention of Leila Rhiwi, representing UN-Women, Tamika Cameron, acting director of USAID-Morocco, and Soulaymane Idrissa Maiga, chief of staff and operations of the "United Cities and Local Governments of Africa" (UCLGA) organisation. Unanimously, they wished to salute Morocco's great achievements in terms of consolidating local democracy and promoting women's rights. On the menu of this 10th regional conference, in which more than 300 elected women and high-ranking female executives from the region participated, were five training and production workshops on the definition of concepts, the analysis of the experiences of women who have already exercised leadership within public and private organisations, the identification of styles and types of female leadership, the knowledge of the negative consequences of solitary participation in decision-making positions, as well as the importance and role of networking in strengthening and supporting female leadership at the local level.