The city of Meknès hosted, on 20 and 21 April, the work of the restitution and awareness-raising workshop designed for the benefit of holders of Income-Generating Activities (IGA) on labelling, which opened on Wednesday in the presence of experts representing the European Union (EU) and Morocco. This two-day workshop, initiated jointly by the National Initiative for Human Development (INDH) and the EU support programme, aims primarily to raise awareness among IGA project holders of the interest in adopting labelling, and to inform beneficiaries of the regulatory aspects as well as the practical steps related to labelling. This initiative also tends to share with local stakeholders the steps and tools of the IGA emergence process according to the sector approach of its appropriation and adoption at the territorial level, to restore to institutional partners the results of the IGA emergence process at the level of pilot provinces, and to strengthen convergence between partners and the INDH around IGA projects.

Within the framework of the technical assistance mechanism for the EU support programme for phase II of the INDH, the sector approach was adopted as a method for the emergence of IGAs, and the six provinces of Meknès, El Hajeb, Ifrane, Khénifra, Midelt, and Errachidia were chosen as pilot zones for the implementation of this process, the organisers indicate. The work carried out by the INDH and the EU technical assistance allowed for the identification of 138 IGA projects by the end of 2015 with an investment of nearly 60 million dirhams for the benefit of approximately 4,000 beneficiaries, as well as the development of a methodological guide for the emergence of IGAs according to the sector approach, accompanied by a battery of practical and operational tools, the same source specifies. It adds that this process took place according to a participatory approach involving both the teams of the social action divisions, the territorial institutional partners, and the beneficiary groups.