At the Brussels Forum, Africa’s in the picture with OCP Policy Center
Intergenerational dialogue
Lilia Rizk, program officer at the OCP Policy Center, in charge of the Atlantic Dialogues Emerging Leaders, has been invited on the first day of the Brussels Forum along 30 young transatlantic professionals, mainly from Europe and the United States, to reflect on this year’s theme for the conference : « Revise, reboot, rebuild : strategies for a time of distrust ».
As a speaker on « Citizen redefined : using identity, technology and culture for social good », Lilia Rizk explained how « the demographic dynamics in Africa emphasize the need for the youth (a third of the population) to be heard on their lack of access to jobs and their lack of representation ». She reminded that « 27 is the average age of the OCP Policy Center’s staff, a baby think tank ranked n°1 in Morrocco and Maghreb, and which operates as a platform for intergeneration dialogue, and as a bridge between the academic world, policy makers and the youth ».
A plead for reform
Brexit, the Trump administration, the migrant crisis and the rise of populism have been discussed, in the presence of Youssef Amrani, former minister of Foreign Affairs of the Kingdom of Morocco and Special Advisor to the King Mohammed VI, who traveled with the OCP Policy Center delegation. He shared the Moroccan experience on immigration policy, a place of “export, transit and now a destination” for immigrants.
He also urged the international community to “change its tools for global crisis management”, with a “much needed reform of the United Nations Security Council”, and a change of “focus” for the European Union (EU) public policies dealing with migration. “We told you ten years ago that Frontex would not work”, he stated.
Humanitarian protection
Abelhak Bassou, senior fellow at the OCP Policy Center, has asked: “Must we let the people go when there is a crisis or give them protection inside their countries, instead of organizing refugee camps abroad ? This question has to be asked, because it’s too easy for some governements to get rid of huge parts of their population.”
He also shared the Moroccan experience in that field, with a foreign policy of building field hospitals : 11 of them have been deployed between 1993 in Somalia and 2017 in South Sudan. In 2016 alone, a Moroccan field hospital with a capacity of 60 beds has provided medical services to 138 000 Syrian refugees in the Zaatari camp in North-Eastern Jordan.
Moreover, some 25 000 illegal migrants within the Moroccan borders have benefited from a regularization policy launched in 2014. On a total of 35 000 asylum seekers and illegal immigrants, 28 000 have submitted a file and 25 000 have been regularized, among them 19 % Syrian nationals. A second wave of regularization, still ongoing, was launched in 2016, in order to guarantee “a decent, correct and comfortable life to our Syrian and African brothers”, said Abdelhak Bassou.
About the OCP Policy Center :
OCP Policy Center, a Moroccan think tank launched in 2014 in Rabat, with 39 associate fellows from the South and the North, wants to share knowledge and to contribute to a richer reflexion on economics and international relations. Through a Southern perspective on the main questions at stake for developing countries, it offers a real added value. It aims at helping strategic decisions processes in a meaningful way, through its four research programs : agriculture, environment ans food security ; economics and social development ; raw material economics and finance ; geopolitics and international relations.
www.ocppc.ma
Press contact :
OCP Policy Center: Mrs. Hanane Harrath, Hanane.Harrath@ocppc.ma
212 (0) 5372 70 918