ART INITIATIVE Scientific Committee for human development cooperation ______

Strengthening partnerships between ART GOLD Morocco Programme and Italian Decentralized Cooperation

A delegation of representatives from the Government, Oriental, Tanger-Tetouan and Fes- Boulemane Regions and provinces, visited from 23rd to 27th of June 2008.

The overall objective of the visit was the identification of joint actions to support the process of governance and local development in Morocco through the promotion of decentralized partnerships. This mission was the first realized after the finalization of the Main Lines in Support to the Regional Strategies for International Cooperation in Oriental and Tanger-Tetouan Regions. These documents, elaborated in a participative way, have a strategic role to facilitate the efforts of the decentralized cooperation to identify potential areas of collaboration, exchange and expertise support.

A meeting was held in Rome with the Bureau for Maghreb of the Italian Cooperation. The delegation from Morocco presented the results of the Programme and its potentialities for future collaborations. The representatives from the Italian Cooperation underlined the importance of the ART GOLD Programme in Morocco in order to coordinate the intervention of the actors from the Italian decentralised cooperation and expressed their support to its development.

The delegation from the Oriental Region visited different partners from Umbria Region. The delegation presented the results of the programme and the Main Lines for Development for Oriental region. The delegation was welcomed by the Mayor of Trevi Mr. Giuliano Nalli and Ms. Daniela Frullani in charge of the International Cooperation of the Province of Perugia. The main topics of discussion for future cooperation between the two regions were; governance, social affairs, agriculture and gender issues. Special attention has been given to the identification of environmental projects. The already identified projects have been discussed and new potentialities for cooperation were identified.

The delegation of the Tanger-Tetouan and Fes-Boulemane Regions met with partners of Region, namely the Regional Administration, the Province of , the and the Municipality of Florence. The delegation was received by Mr. Fabrizio Pizzanelli, Director of the International Affaires Unit for Tuscany Regional Administration. At the meeting, the delegation presented the results of the Programme in the Tanger- Tetouan Region and the Main Lines for development finalized by the regional working group, including the specificities of each Province. Both parts manifested strong interest for future cooperation and agreed on common actions toward this direction.

The delegation from Fes-Boulemane Region had the opportunity to reinforce the already existing cooperation with some historical partners as the Municipality of Florence and the Province of Florence. At the same time, the Fes-Boulemane Region will establish new partnerships with Italian decentralized actors in the framework of the ART GOLD Morocco Programme. The first activities of the Programme in this Region will start in October 2008.

On June 25th a meeting of ART UNIVERSITAS programme was held in Florence, where many representatives from Moroccan and Italian academic institutions attended to discuss the already identified projects in Morocco: the Laboratory UNIVERSITAS with the University of Tanger-Tetouan and the course for Social Workers with the University of Oujda, Oriental Region. The finalization of agreements and involvement of Italian decentralized partners were some of the main topics discussed at the meeting.

The visit of the Moroccan Delegation was concluded on 26th June in Florence with a final event “ART GOLD Morocco National Coordination Meeting”, with the participation of Mr. Massimo Toschi, President of the International Cooperation of the Tuscany Region, Mr. Daniele Panerati, vice President of the Province of Prato and many other representatives of the regional, provincial, municipal administrations, civil society and various institutions. During the meeting, the Moroccan Delegation and the Italian actors from the decentralized cooperation had a great opportunity to generate new partnerships between the two countries to support the efforts of Governance and Local Development ongoing in the Regions, in the framework of the national policies.

Sauro Gori ART Tuscany Coordinator

Cristino Pedraza Lopez CTA ART GOLD UNDP Morocco