Moroccan cooperatives contribute to a sustainable future

The Souss-Massa-Drâa region in southern Morocco faces many challenges. In addition to the threat of the advancing Sahara, the traditional Berber communities are also persistently poor. 

The Trade for Development Centre has been very active in the region for several years, with on the one hand financial assistance to the local NGO Ibn Al Baytar, and on the other hand marketing support in projects of the Belgian development agency.

A sustainable future for the region inevitably depends on the development of local assets such as argan oil, dates and  saffron.

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Gender in Trade for Development Centre projects

Projects in Peru, Congo and Morocco highlight the fact that to turn fair and sustainable trade into a means of leverage in the fight against poverty and inequality reduction – which is the Trade for Development Centre's view – two questions must be kept in mind when approving projects: who does the work when producing goods and who manages the profits once the project boosts revenue?

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Projects of the Trade for Development Centre in southern Morocco

Moroccan cooperatives contribute to a sustainable future
The Souss-Massa-Drâa region in southern Morocco faces many challenges. In addition to the threat of the advancing Sahara, the traditional Berber communities are also persistently poor. The Trade for Development Centre has been very active in the region for several years, with on the one hand financial assistance to the local NGO Ibn Al Baytar, and on the other hand marketing support in projects of the Belgian development agency.
A sustainable future for the region inevitably depends on the development of local assets such as argan oil, dates and  saffron.

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Femmes de Marrakech: Moroccan fair trade fashion

  

In Morocco, textile handicrafts are traditionally made by women. This work enables them to contribute to family resources. Traditional weaving renowned around the entire Mediterranean basin has been carried out for centuries at the heart of Marrakesh, one of the most beautiful cities in Morocco.
 It is also in this timeless city of a thousand colours that the ‘Femmes de Marrakech’ cooperative was created in 1991 with the goal of developing a channel for quality fashion accessories and increasing the income of the women producing them

 

Femmes de Marrakech

Ibn Al Baytar: moroccan argan oil

  

In the heart of Morocco grows the argan tree whose fruits produce an oil with many virtues. The rapid growth in international demand of argan oil made the nearly exclusively female-run sector soon deal with industrialisation and mechanisation. Producers created cooperatives with the goal of preserving their traditional know-how, better managing the arganeraies, and optimising revenue management.

 

Ibn Al Baytar, created in 1999 and a pioneer in the field,is now involved in a new project that improves the turnover of three moroccan cooperatives. The programme, that receives financial support of the Trade for Development, makes it possible to provide the cooperatives’ teams with technical and commercial training, to acquire new equipment and to design quality promotional materials. The Tighanimine cooperative became the first argan oil producing organisation in the world to obtain the Fairtrade label.

 

Ibn Al Baytar