W-GDP and Advisor Ivanka Trump's Trip to Morocco

W-GDP and Advisor Ivanka Trump’s Trip to Morocco

November 9, 2019 Comments Off International Affairs, Latest, Press Releases, RNHA News Articles, Trump, White House RNHA NEWS

This Week, Advisor to the President Ivanka Trump and Millennium Challenge Corporation (MCC) CEO Sean Cairncross are in Morocco for events related to the Women’s Global Development and Prosperity Initiative (W-GDP). The delegation will visit Rabat and Casablanca, and meet with Moroccan government officials and local leaders to discuss USG efforts to integrate women’s economic empowerment in the region. This will be the third international trip that Advisor Trump has made specifically regarding W-GDP, with previous trips including visits to Ethiopia, Côte d’Ivoire, Colombia, Argentina, and Paraguay. The visit comes at a particularly apt time as Morocco has recently taken important steps forward in the realm of women’s economic empowerment with the passage of laws reforming communal land rights. Advisor Trump and MCC have worked closely with the government of Morocco to advocate for the adoption of these reforms, as well as providing technical support for their implementation. The delegation will focus on strengthening commitments to address gender equality and continue steps to address implementation, including at the local level.

Highlights from today’s events in Morocco includes the following:

· GHARB REGION SITE VISIT: The W-GDP Delegation met with local women farmers from Sidi Kacem (the Gharb region of Morocco) to learn first-hand about collective land. Building on the Moroccan government’s recently passed legislation to improve women’s rights to collective lands, the MCC Compact is working on land titling covering 165,000 acres of collective land, and that will reach an estimated 56,000 women beneficiaries in the Gharb Region, and more in Haouz Region. To support that work, MCC will awarded two partner organizations nearly $6.4 million to provide additional training and support for beneficiaries.

· BILATERAL MEETING WITH MINISTER OF FOREIGN AFFAIRS: The W-GDP delegation also met with Mr. Nasser Bourita, Minister of Foreign Affairs, African Cooperation, and Moroccans Residing Abroad for a bilateral meeting. Advisor Trump and CEO Cairncross recognized the important partnership between the United States and the Government of Morocco, and discussed ways to deepen the bilateral partnership and strategies to advance women’s economic empowerment through W-GDP

· W-GDP ROUNDTABLE WITH MOROCCAN WOMEN LEADERS: Advisor to the President Ivanka Trump and the Millennium Challenge Corporation (MCC) CEO Sean Cairncross joined community women leaders and beneficiaries from MCC Compact programs for a round table discussion in Rabat. They discussed challenges and ways to increase economic opportunities for women in Morocco. A recent participant of the inaugural W-GDP International Visitor Leadership Program (IVLP), Ms. Ikrame El Houdali, spoke to her involvement with the W-GDP program and her work with Moroccan government on identifying sectors where economic growth projects are possible, including education for women’s employability and support for increasing land productivity.

· BILATERAL MEETING WITH HEAD OF GOVERNMENT: In a meeting with Moroccan Head of Government Saadeddine El Othmani, Advisor Trump and CEO Cairncross recognized the important partnership between the United States and the Government of Morocco, and applauded Morocco’s recent achievement of the adoption of land laws to improve women’s rights to collective lands. MCC and the Moroccan Government will sign an implementation letter in which they commit to supporting the implementation of these laws, the establishment of a Land Gender Inclusion Center, and the development of a National Land Strategy in a manner to further women’s participation in the economy through their improved access to land in Morocco by December 31, 2019.