Civil Society and Politics, training

From Friday October 27^th through Sunday October 29^th, 2017, the NIMAR organized in collaboration with the Eduardo Frei Foundation (EFF) the first session of a three sessions training program on Civil Society and Politics for the benefit of a group of Moroccan youths.

 Welcome by Léon Buskens

On the first day, Friday, Oct. 27^th, an introductory speech was given by Professor Léon Buskens, the director of the NIMAR, followed by a lecture entitled “academic reflections on integrity in the Moroccan context” delivered by Professor Abdoulhey Mouden, Professor of Political Science at Mohammed V University and the founder of the Center for Cross Cultural Learning (CCCL) in Rabat. The speech has brought to light a number of issues related to the concept of integrity as far as the Moroccan context is concerned. One of the participants, Nour-Sadate, in an interview reflected on the speech saying that:

“Integrity is a moral issue lacking a certain theme in Moroccan academia, while its reverse, i.e. corruption, is strongly present within academic discussions in Morocco. What yielded the discussion on corruption and integrity within Moroccan academic discourse is another discussion on development which is taking place. It is often argued that corruption hinders and prevents development.” 

The lecture was closed by a question-answer discussion between Professor Moudden and the participants. The speech was followed by a number of discussions and group works. Most of what came in the discussions was primarily based on the speech and that by being integer one can actually fight corruption and corrupt systems of governance.

The second day, Saturday, Oct. 28^th, served as a part two of the discussion on integrity that took place the preceding day. This second part aimed at engaging the participants in discussing integrity on conceptions of integrity on the basis of their personal experiences and perceptions. This second day has also witnessed the discussion of the role of social media in helping one to be integer and fight corruption, while also engaging the participants in a discussion of the negative side of social media which mars one’s integrity. This second day also engaged the participants in building their public speaking and debating skills. The participants were asked to bifurcate into two groups, while each group is debating the other on a certain issue.

Political actionOn the third and last day of this first session, Sunday, October 29th, the training turned towards authentic governance and political action, asking the question if this is a matter of integrity. This part of training focused on political action. It took the participants into attempting to discuss and suggests practical ways of dealing with certain issues in real life that can be translated into action on the ground.