PARTICIPATION OF ONDH AND THE MOULAY ISMAIL UNIVERSITY OF MEKNES IN THE 28TH SESSION OF THE COMMISSION ON CRIME PREVENTION AND CRIMINAL JUSTICE IN VIENNA

Within the framework of the partnership between ONDH and the Moulay Ismail University of Meknes, the Secretary General of ONDH, El Hassan EL MANSOURI, the Dean of the FSJES of Meknes, Abdelghani BOUAYAD, the Director of the LERES of the FSJES of Meknes, Mohammed ABDOUH and the students of the Master's Degree in "Evaluation of Public Policies" were invited, through the Joint UN-NDH Programme, by the UNODC to the side-event "Best practices in evaluation and accountability in the Agenda 2030: the experience of the Kingdom of Morocco", on the side-event of the 28th session of the Commission on Crime Prevention and Criminal Justice, in Vienna from 21 to 23 May 2019.

The participation of the Moroccan delegation was an opportunity to present Morocco's experience in the evaluation of public policies related to human development as well as the progress made in the institutionalization of evaluation practice, particularly through the experience of the creation of the Master in Public Policy Evaluation at the University Moulay Ismail.

The three days of the mission were structured around :

• First day: Presentation of the three pillars of the work of the Independent Evaluation Unit by Ms. Katharina Kayser, Head of the Unit, followed by an introduction to UNODC's activities and projects in Africa and the Middle East, with a focus on the particularities of evaluation in these regions, by Ms. Kristina ALBERTIN, the regional representative of the UNODC's MENA office.

A guided visit to the Vienna International Center has been scheduled for the Moroccan delegation, presenting the history of this organization and its scope of competence vis-à-vis member countries.

• Second day : The side-event "Best practices in evaluation and accountability in Agenda 2030: the experience of the Kingdom of Morocco" was addressed by Mr. Nourredine SADOUK, Chargé d'Affaires of the Permanent Mission of the Kingdom of Morocco to the United Nations and other international organizations, who highlighted the cooperation process linking Morocco to international organizations, particularly the United Nations system, the ONDH and the Moulay ISMAÏL University of Meknes. He also stressed the role of the ONDH in the institutionalization of the practice of public policy evaluation in Morocco since its creation, as well as the importance of evaluation in the context of the 2030 Sustainable Development Goals.

Subsequently, Mr. El Hassan El Mansouri first focused on the context of the creation of the Observatory in 2006, its attributions and missions in terms of evaluation of public policies for human development in Morocco. He also presented the innovative strategic monitoring tools developed to measure poverty and human development, namely the Household Panel Survey and the Territorial Information System. He then presented the example of the evaluation of the Medical Assistance Scheme (RAMED) carried out by ONDH, which analyzes the effectiveness of the scheme, its sustainability and its impact on the public hospital and its beneficiary populations.

Then, Mr. Abdelghani BOUAYYAD came back to the pioneering experience of the creation of the Master "Evaluation of Public Policies" at the FSJES of Meknes in order to respond to the strong demand expressed by various actors because despite the institutionalization of the practice of evaluation and the dissemination of the culture of evaluation in recent years, Morocco did not have its own academic training in this field.

In turn, Mr. Mohammed ABDOUH presented an overview of the pedagogical engineering of the Master "Evaluation of Public Policies", the modules taught as well as professional opportunities. He also presented the interest of the creation of a Regional Observatory of Human Development and a Regional Center for the Evaluation of Public Policies within the Moulay Ismail University of Meknes.

Before the closing of the meeting, the students of the Master "Evaluation of Public Policies" took the floor in order to share with the audience their academic background, their motivations as well as their professional projects.      

During the afternoon, a working session was devoted to the presentation of the final theses of the students of the Master of EPP in front of a team of the Independent Evaluation Unit (Mr. Carlos ASENJO, Mrs. Charlotte GUNNARSON and Mr. Eduardo TOSCANI). This meeting was an opportunity to discuss in detail the topics of the dissertation, the problematic and the methodology adopted by each student.

           The students then took part in a workshop dedicated to "super-criminality", during which 4 member countries presented their results in terms of efforts made in the fight against super-criminality, in terms of video games content, websites, applications, etc.

• Third day : Master students participated in a focus group led by the Independent Evaluation Unit which presented, among others, e-learning tools for evaluation. This was followed by an information session on the evaluation functions of the United Nations Industrial Development Organization (UNIDO) and the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), their mandates and activities.

During the closing session, Ms. Katharina Kayser, Head of the Independent Evaluation Unit welcomed this fruitful partnership with ONDH and renewed her commitment to the continuation of the programmed activities. Mr. El Hassan El Mansouri, Secretary General of ONDH also welcomed this partnership. He recalled that it is a very enriching experience, especially for the young students of the Master's program. He stressed the role of ONDH in the development and success of the Master "Evaluation of Public Policies" and expressed the wish to continue the efforts of the three institutions.

The Dean of the FSIES, Mr. Bouayad Abdelghani, for his part, insisted on the achievements and promising prospects of the partnership between the UMI, the ONDH and the UNODC. This partnership model now constitutes a case of good practice to be developed.

Finally, the Moroccan delegation undertook to establish, in consultation with the UNODC, a mission report in two languages (French and English) and a new partnership program for the coming years.