Columbia International Affairs Online: Working Papers

CIAO DATE: 03/2011

Morocco's Experience With Poverty Reduction: Lessons for the Arab World

Lahcen Achy

December 2010

Carnegie Endowment for International Peace

Abstract

Despite a lack of significant natural resources, Morocco's poverty rate has fallen by more than 40 percent in the last decade, with less than 9 percent of its population considered poor. While lifting 1.7 million people out of poverty in ten years is notable progress, Lahcen Achy explains in a new paper that Morocco's leaders must rethink their poverty-reduction strategy to sustain the positive trend and overcome remaining challenges.