A true lever for economic and social development, cooperatives are multiplying in the Southern provinces. Their creation often relies on subsidies and support from the INDH or organisations such as the Southern Agency, the National Mutual Aid, or the Agency for Social Development. The opening of these cooperatives to new markets means that their activities, in addition to substantial profits, generate a significant number of jobs.

According to the Office for the Development of Cooperation (ODCO), 58 new cooperatives were created last May in the three Southern regions: 26 in the Guelmim-Smara region, 18 in Oued Eddahab-Lagouira, and 14 in the Laâyoune-Boujdour-Sakia El Hamra region. These cooperatives, which are divided between the agriculture, maritime fishing, and craft sectors, will have to play an essential role, particularly in rural areas, in the fight against poverty and the strengthening of women's integration.

To accompany them, the Office has redoubled its efforts at the level of these three regions through actions that have focused essentially on raising awareness of cooperative work through training and the dissemination of cooperative culture via specialised magazines and information and communication meetings. It ensures the emergence of a new generation of high-performing and innovative cooperatives, by helping them overcome certain constraints and by guaranteeing them a level of entrepreneurship. The cooperatives working at the level of the Southern provinces are distinguished by a great dynamic, since they offer in particular the possibility for young graduates to create their own businesses and to integrate into active life, and ensure additional income-generating activities for women.

These entities, however, encounter several obstacles including the lack of expertise and competence to develop projects, the imbalance of financial management, the insufficiency of products, the difficulty of access to financing, and the absence of regulations governing this sector of activity. Let us recall that the Laâyoune-Boujdour-Sakia El Hamra region has been endowed since 2010 with a programme contract for the promotion of the social and solidarity economy of small and very small enterprises. This programme extends over five years and is financed by the Social Economy Fund to the tune of 105.5 million dirhams.