The World Bank Group’s Engagement in Morocco, Fiscal Years 2011–21

This Country Program Evaluation assesses the development effectiveness of the World Bank Group’s support to Morocco between fiscal year FY11 and FY21. The report evaluates the World Bank Group’s contribution in solving four systemic constraints to Morocco’s development: (i) lack of policy coherence with the country’s development aspirations; (ii) an uneven economic playing field that favors some firms and stateowned enterprises (SOEs), creates rent-seeking behaviors, and discourages new entrants; (iii) weak policy implementation caused by the limited public sector capacity to carry out reforms; and (iv) weak citizen, labor force, and subnational participation in the country’s development. This evaluation identifies lessons to guide future World Bank engagement in Morocco, including: (a) at times, it is possible for the World Bank to gain traction in Morocco’s policy reforms by trading recognition for influence; (b) global benchmarking data can be effectively utilized to motivate reforms; (c) IFC can significantly impact the business environment and financial architecture reforms by effectively deploying its advisory work to influence major companies, including SOEs, in making institutional changes; (d) the experience of PforR operations in Morocco suggests that to maximize their effectiveness, the World Bank needs to proactively involve the full range of stakeholders and ensure resources are deployed for technical assistance gaps; and (e) engagement at the subnational level requires the ability and willingness to take new risks and experiment with new approaches.