Search results

The purpose of this paper is to explain the Moroccan Roadmap to regionalize the country (with the Western Sahara) that is currently presented in principle or general guidelines. By providing greater operational definition to the Roadmap and specific recommendations (including budgetary) for its implementation, the Moroccan and international public and policy makers will see the challenges and merits of the plan, including the potential to significantly advance human development and resolve the Western Saharan conflict.

There are three methods applied in the research of this paper. First, public statements made by King Mohammed VI of Morocco related to regionalization and all aspects of development (community, gender (though not addressed here), human, participatory, reconciliation, and sustainable) were organized chronologically and categorized. This put in place the principle tenets of Morocco's Roadmap. Second, the basic constructed Roadmap is then evaluated against the literature in the field of decentralization and development. This provides a sense of direction the Roadmap intends for transferring power to the sub‐national level and promoting local development. Finally, recommendations for the Roadmap's implementation are presented that reflect the literature and the author's 18 years experience in development in Morocco.

Morocco's Roadmap is relatively innovative as compared against other international decentralization models because it incorporates three of the four major approaches applied in cases around the world to transfer power from the national to sub‐national tiers, and does so in a way that intends to marshal local to national resources toward supporting community‐driven initiatives. This presents considerable opportunities to improve socio‐economic and environmental conditions, and reform vital institutions.

Morocco's Roadmap is broadly stated, and the Advisory Committee on Regionalization appointed by the King is due to have its recommendations for implementation ready to present by 2011. Thus, there is an element of projection in the research by way of building a more clearly defined Roadmap (in order to make it operational) through a literature analysis of its basic‐stated precepts.

The leaders and people of the region and the international community feel a new sense of urgency to resolve the Western Saharan conflict because of the disunity it creates in North Africa, and therefore insecurity and volatility at a crossroads of its hemisphere in a globally insecure time. The international community also seems generally receptive to Morocco's regionalization proposal, which now extends to the whole of the Kingdom a transferring of power from the capital to the regions. The essay provides a clear rationale and description of the proposal/plan, and specificity as to how it can be implemented. It will likely be well received by policy‐makers internationally and those charged in Morocco with implementing the plan.

Just in this past year, there has been a real increase in scholarly, governmental, civil, and public attention on Moroccan regionalization, but it generally remains abstract and unclear as to what it is and involves. This essay provides more vivid detail by thoroughness of research of Moroccan and international sources and the author's extensive experience in working with Moroccan administrations in regards to development, project management, and applying the participatory method (the approach Morocco's King repeatedly stated is intended to drive Moroccan regionalization).

Morocco is an expanding developing economy in North Africa with increasing bilateral trade relations with larger economies. This paper aims to examine the features of the expanding market economy and the preceding structural reforms initiated by King Mohammed VI. The paper’s primary focus is to study the systematic feature of anti-money laundering and combatting of terrorist financing (AML/CTF). Morocco has emerged as a staunch opponent of terrorism and terrorist financing while garnering joint-investigative operations with European countries against transnational organised crime and money laundering.

The paper is divided into two primary series. The first is a view of Morocco’s economy, with a qualitative analysis of significant economic, political and social structural reforms. Second, a qualitative and quantitative analysis of Morocco’s AML and combating of terrorist financing infrastructure is assessed. The qualitative analysis is conducted in two parts; first, by studying the country’s AML/CTF legislation and regulation, and second, by examining the independent international evaluation of the legal structure and its implementation by authorities. The quantitative analysis is conducted by investigating the available statistics relating to money laundering and terrorist financing.

The paper finds Morocco to have accomplished essential economic reforms, especially considering greater institutional management and autonomy. Other structural reforms include the reformation of the constitution, a more comfortable business climate, social development projects focusing on enhancing skill labour and connectivity and the development of strong trade capacity. The primary objective discovery concerns the country’s AML/CTF structure, which is found to comply with international standards. Also, efforts enhancing the country’s regulatory environment with low corruption, low risk of money laundering and low risk of terrorist financing have been taken in a series of legislative amendments and programs. The banking sector and Morocco’s Customs agency have reflected the best improvement as per the study in this paper.

Morocco is witnessing high levels of investment, with year-on-year growth in most existing industrial sectors. The market is also providing for new skilled labour and better trade incentives with the European Union. It is essential for investors, observers and policymakers to understand the market economy reforms and systematic deficiencies in a developing economy. Morocco presents observers with information about policies pre-reform, providing a guide for economic and AML/CTF policy implementation elsewhere.

The paper concerns itself with two levels of analysis concerning Morocco. The first, broad study, is a review of market economy reforms, which are mostly structural and have assisted in the expansion of the economy greatly. The second objective is specific to examining the country’s AML/CTF structure, which has undergone significant development in legislation, regulation and implementation in the past decade. The paper makes a specific attempt to discuss associate indicators to the AML/CTF network as a part of this study.

This paper aims to explore the information technology environment in a developing country, Morocco, through a discussion of the people, their information environment, and libraries. Concepts of modern library and information studies (LIS) education and the new role of the library professional in this context are also to be explored.

Largely based on a review of literature on the people, their information environment, and technology in Morocco, this paper incorporates both synthesis and discussion from an LIS point‐of‐view.

Basic elements of the culture make library work difficult in Morocco. In reflecting on other cultures and participating in the international LIS dialogue, librarians can develop new perspectives on difficulties they experience at their home institutions while contributing to solutions of problems abroad.

By supporting library work in developing countries, western librarians can have a positive impact on users both at home and abroad.

Third world librarianship is not a phenomenon happening “over there” in a vacuum – real librarians trained in library and information science in countries like Morocco are helping users to access information. Their work contributes to the international conversation taking place in LIS, a discussion that is ultimately of benefit to all involved.

Environmental urbanism is reflected for the last years in the design of urban megaprojects. This trend is spreading in Morocco to the point that it is considered as the leading player in this emerging field across North Africa. The purpose of this paper is to advance the twofold hypothesis that these specific urban projects are on the one hand tools of capitalism and on the other hand leverage for clear change in the global management project process compared to non-eco-projects. In addition to these two hypotheses, the lack of environmental regulations at the national level and the copy and paste of international standards are serious limits of the approach at the local scale.

Drawing on an in-depth case study (Benguérir “green town”) and interviews conducted from 2012 to 2014, the paper will aim to build up a critical and operational research on emerging eco-megaprojects in Morocco.

The paper provides empirical insights and confirms the connection between capitalistic megaprojects and environmental urbanism in Morocco. However, it partially rejects the hypothesis that this new trend opens up dramatic change in the making of projects. This study case points sharp limitations and mismatches between virtuous environmentalism and reality on the ground: the problem of adjusting projects to urban policies, a lack of coordination and trust between local officials and developers, excessive reliance on standards and labels, conformity of developers with the international doxa of urban sustainability. However, eco-urbanism can give birth to better integrated and sustainable projects than “mainstream” urbanism when strongly related to local financial, technical and economic capacities of end users and stakeholders in North Africa.

Because of the chosen research approach, the research results may lack generalizability. Therefore, researchers are encouraged to test the proposed propositions further.

Recommandations are proposed to improve principles in eco-urbanism in Morocco and beyond in North Africa.

The skills of residents are a source of education to be tapped into and developed further for eco-projects.

This paper provides an “in situ” analysis of the preparation and implementation of eco-projects in Africa and the national and local adaptations of the internationally promoted eco-city.

The purpose of this paper is to explore how ownership concentration affects cost of debt (CoD) in one of the most important emerging markets in the Middle East and North Africa, Morocco.

The study employs panel data analysis using non-financial firms listed on Casablanca Stock Exchange (CSE) between 2004 and 2016. To unveil the hidden facets of the relationship between ownership concentration and CoD, and examine if this relationship changes with market conditions, we conduct a pre–post-crisis analysis.

The results demonstrate that controlling shareholders promote decent governance as long as they are able to generate appropriate returns. However, this behavior seems to change during the post-crisis period. In their attempts to increase their returns adversely affected by the financial crisis, controlling shareholders switch from guardians of decent governance and firm’s resources to a menace to creditors’ interests.

Our results expose the severity of agency problems in CSE. It is the duty of all market participants including regulators, board of directors, financial analysts, shareholders and creditors to scrutiny and reinforce governance mechanisms to alleviate expropriation by controlling shareholders. Improving country and firm-level governance mechanisms would enhance investors’ protection, attract international investors and boost the economic activity.

Prior research is inconclusive about the impact of ownership concentration on CoD. Hence, it is worthwhile to seek new evidence in a new market on the nature of this relationship.

The purpose of this paper is to examine corporate finance practices in the frontier market of Morocco and compare the practices used by Moroccan companies to those in other countries. It focuses primarily on capital budgeting and real options. The study also examines whether corporate finance practices used in Morocco are consistent with more theoretically superior techniques.

The study uses a mail questionnaire to gather data from chief financial officers and other senior executives of Casablanca Stock Exchange (CSE) listed companies.

Moroccan managers generally view the internal rate of return, accounting rate of return, and payback method as more important than the theoretically superior net present value. Few of the responding firms use real options when making capital budgeting decisions. They tend to use less sophisticated techniques to evaluate investment opportunities and calculate the cost of capital than their counterparts in developed countries. The most frequently used techniques by CSE-listed companies to estimate the cost of equity capital are the cost of debt plus an equity risk premium and the accounting return on equity. CSE-listed companies rely heavily on management’s subjective judgment to estimate cash flows.

Despite a 40 percent response rate, the number of responses did not permit examining whether differences in firm size, industry, educational background, and other characteristics affect the results. Although non-response bias is a potential limitation, test results show no statistically significant differences between the responding and non-responding companies on any of the five characteristics analyzed. These findings lessen concern about potential non-response bias. Given that the findings relate to a frontier market, they are most likely generalizable to similar countries in the Middle East and North Africa region.

The findings may be useful to various parties including corporate managers, boards of directors, and financial analysts. Given that investment decisions affect shareholder wealth, understanding the practices used by corporate managers is crucial in deciding what projects to undertake. This research raises awareness for management to review their corporate finance practices, compare them with their peers, and examine whether these techniques are aligned with proper allocation of resources and value maximization.

Overall, the findings imply that Moroccan firms have room to improve their corporate finance practices. Failing to do so could have serious implications ranging from the inefficient allocation of resources in the economy to the destruction of shareholder value.

To the authors’ knowledge, this is the most comprehensive study using survey methodology to investigate corporate finance practices in Morocco. It provides new insights on such topics as capital budgeting, capital structure, cost of capital estimation, and real option techniques.

The Arab world is made up of 22 countries in the Middle East and North Africa. These countries are subjected to many social, economic, political and geographical vulnerabilities contributing to increased risks or ineffective emergency and disaster management. This paper examines these vulnerabilities, how they may impact the country's ability to face disasters, and how they can improve disasters' overall management.

The author selected Qatar, Oman to represent the Arab oil-rich countries, while Jordan, Egypt and Morocco to represent non-oil rich countries. The research was conducted in a qualitative, inductive systematic literature review based on a well-established systematic literature review methodology. Selected literature was based on its recency and the countries in question.

The review reveals population gaps that could threaten the social system in the event of a disaster in countries like Qatar and Oman. The majority of the countries lack community engagement and pre-planning for emergency preparedness due to social and cultural barriers. Other nations like Jordan, Egypt and Morocco are prone to long-lasting economic challenges due to lack of resources, mismanagement or corruption. The paper also highlights the need to raise the educational attainment among citizens to understand disaster risk reduction.

This study utilized the research method developed by Williams et al. (2017) to present a comprehensive systematic and comparative review of disaster management in the Arab world. Considering that disaster and emergency management has remained disproportionately unexplored in the Arab world, this paper reviewed several vulnerabilities and how those vulnerabilities may affect disaster and emergency management efforts in the Arab countries.

The purpose of this study is to prepare various CeO₂-based carbon material (CNT, CB, GO) nanocomposites through a wet chemical process for the development of a sensor probe to detect various environmental toxins by using an electrochemical approach under room temperature conditions. A comparative study on sensitive and selective phenolic sensor (4-methoxyphenol; 4-MP) has been fabricated by modifying a glassy carbon electrode (GCE) with various nanocomposites (NCs) such as CeO₂, CeO₂–CNT (carbon nanotubes), CeO₂–CB (carbon black) and CeO₂–GO (graphene oxide) NCs.

The CeO₂–CNT NCs were prepared by the wet chemical method at low temperature. NCs were characterized by various methods such as transmission electron microscopy (TEM), Fourier-transform infra-red (FTIR), ultra-violet/visible (UV-Vis) spectroscopy and XRD (X-ray diffraction). CeO₂–CNT NCs were immobilized as a film on the flat surface of the GCE by using binders (5% Nafion). The electrochemical measurements of the 4-MP detection with the CeO₂–CNT NCs/Nafion/GCE sensor were studied by the current-voltage method.

In the optimal conditions, the sensitivity, detection limit and limit of quantification of 4-MP sensor probe were found to be 47.56 µAcm-2 µM⁻¹, 12.0 ± 0.2 nM and 40.0 ± 0.5 nM (S/N of 3), respectively.

This electrochemical sensor showed an acceptable analytical performance in the detection of 4-MP with higher sensitivity, lower detection limit, large dynamic concentration range, good reproducibility and fast response time.

This electrochemical approach can be applied practically for the determination of selective 4-MP in real environmental and extracted samples.

CeO₂–CNT NCs/Nafion/GCE sensor probe was used for the safety of environmental and health-care fields at larger scales.

This electrochemical approach is a significant achievement on the development of sensor probe. The results are indicated as being technically detailed with an up-to-date account of recent chemical sensor research studies.

The importance of housing in enhancing the quality of life has been widely reported. It represents one of the basic human needs, provides protection from harm and ensures survival. Like many developing countries, different Ghanaian governments have variously pursued several programs and interventionsdirected at addressing the country's housing challenges including housing loan schemes in the colonial era to affordable housing projects in the 2000s. Notwithstanding, access to adequate housing for the low to middle-income groups still remains unresolved. This paper is an attempt to gain deeper insights into Ghana's housing situation, its challenges and the efforts made by governments during the periods before independence and after independence. The nature of the housing policies implemented during such eras is explored and the reasons for the implementation failures examined. In the end, the paper provides policy recommendations that could potentially help increase the supply of affordable urban housing in the country. The paper calls for a strong political will and pragmatic intelligence in the implementation of housing policies and programs in the country. Mechanisms to provide sufficienthousing finance for the poor to adequately participate in the housing market have also been outlined. It is concluded that the over-empowerment of the private real estate sector to be the major providers of housing may not be optimal. Rather, it would only lead to the inability of the poor to be able to actively participate in the housing market, consequently exacerbating housing poverty. Effective public-private partnership has the potential to guarantee the supply of reasonably-priced and affordable housing provision.

Islam stresses on the practice of transparency and sufficient disclosure particularly when it concerns the ethical identity of Islamic institutions. This is to make sure that the activities conducted in business adhere to Shari’ah principles. The purpose of this paper is to examine the impact of Shari’ah-compliant status on the accuracy of initial public offering (IPO) earnings forecasts and to investigate the effect of the existence of Muslim directors on IPO companies’ board of directors on the accuracy of earnings forecasts.

This study makes use of absolute forecast error as a proxy for earnings forecast accuracy. As obtained from the list of Shari’ah-compliant securities established by the Shari’ah Advisory Council of the Malaysian Securities Commission, the study sample comprised 190 Shari’ah-compliant and non-compliant IPOs. The collected data were analyzed through univariate analysis and ordinary least squares regression.

The initial findings show that during the study period, the earnings forecasts of Malaysian IPOs are accurate to some level, although such level is still unsatisfactory. The findings also showed that Shari’ah-compliant status and Muslim directorship do not positively affect the accuracy of IPO earnings forecasts.

The findings of the study provide some implications for regulators, financial analysts, investors and users of financial statements, particularly those desirous of investing in Islamic capital market.

The present study provides a new and far-reaching contribution into the debate about the earnings forecasts disclosure in the context of Islamic ethical perspective. In addition, this study is considered as the first study to extend IPO literature by examining the impact of Shari’ah-compliant status and Muslim directorship on the accuracy of management earnings forecasts disclosed in the IPO prospectus.