Rabat, Morocco
ADMINISTRATOR SAMANTHA POWER: Thank you all for coming here today. I'm sorry you had to watch me play football. I know it was not a pretty sight. But for me, it was a great pleasure to be with Moroccan young people – to hear a little bit about the challenges that they're facing, the fears that they have, but also the joy and the resilience that football helps build, and sports in general, help build young people.
USAID here in Morocco working so closely with the Moroccan government and Moroccan local organizations have a program called FORSATY, which is “my opportunity.” And one of the young women that I met today, Intissar Chaabani, is an incredible example of somebody who has made her own opportunity, through education and through football. She came to a USAID educational program, a youth empowerment program. She was having some trouble in school, and in the program, she discovered football. She had never played before – she was an absolute beginner, this’s just six years ago. But she loved it so much like so many Moroccan kids, so many American kids as well these days, that she threw herself into it. And she decided I want to make the national team. She is now playing in the second division for the national team. But more than that, it completely changed how she handled school, how hard she worked, how hard she studied, how she engaged with her teachers and her classmates, because it gave her joy, it gave her confidence, and it gave her an ability to get back up after falling down, which is what all of us need just in a world that is increasingly complicated.
USAID takes a lot of pride in all of the learning that we have done from the Moroccan people. We do work with the Moroccan Ministry of Education on improving curriculum. Indeed, nearly four and a half million students in grades one through six here in Morocco, are benefiting from this improved curriculum. But what is so exciting about the very special partnership we have here in Morocco, is that often USAID can experiment or learn from something that is happening somewhere else in the world, and we can work with our Moroccan partners to try it out. And if it improves reading levels, if it improves literacy, if it improves math, we have such a productive partnership with the Ministry of Education, that the Ministry of Education, of course, wants the best outcomes possible. And it scales these solutions, like few partners we have in the world. And this is going to be incredibly important, of course, as young people have to obtain new skills in an economy that is very different from the economy that I grew up with. So we hope, as USAID, to be able to listen, and to learn to what the needs of the communities are, and adapt our catalytic programming in a way that is supportive of the aspirations of Moroccans like Intissar, like all the players here, but like so many young people in this beautiful country. Thank you, happy to take your question.
QUESTION: We're gonna take the first question from the sports national TV, and we have the: the context of your visit, going to Al Haouz and to Marrakech region, and what brought you to play a football game with the youth of Rabat?
ADMINISTRATOR POWER: I think there is really nothing like sports – to be side by side with people, to ask them about what they're most worried about, what they dream about, to ask them about their lives, how they got here. You know, I can come, I can have a press conference, I could meet with government officials. But that is not the way to stand as equals with one another because we are all equal. We are all the same. And so I think sports wherever I go, is a very good way to signal we're all the same – the very similar struggles, we're all worried about our kids, the next generation, worried about climate change, all of us. And so I think it's really important to extend the hand of friendship from the field. And we've seen the magic of sport from the Olympics hundreds of years ago to the present, the ways in which countries that never spoke with one another, suddenly find themselves playing each other in the World Cup, and they exchanged jerseys. We have seen people of different religions or ethnic groups who might have been at war, maybe five years before, suddenly they're playing on the same basketball team, and they say “hey, give me the ball, give me the ball.” So we know the importance of sports, to building life skills for young people. And we know the importance of sports to breaking down barriers, and making sure that ideology and a sense of difference doesn't get in the way of knowing what we all have in common. So this is an opportunity to explore those ideas.
QUESTION: So now, just about your next project?
ADMINISTRATOR POWER: Well, first of all, we stand still in solidarity with the survivors of the terrible earthquake eight months ago. We have our ears to the ground to listen to the local cooperatives, the local associations, of course, the Moroccan government, about what the needs are. I was near the epicenter of the earthquake yesterday, and there's still so much rubble, so many people still living in tents. And that is, in part because, you know, some of the areas are so inaccessible, they're very hard to reach. But making sure that education is not interrupted, that young people's dreams are not deferred. We stand ready to support, again, our Moroccan partners, if we can help do that. I think, you know, the big challenges for the world are also Morocco's challenges. So when you ask what is next, we want to be doing more with Moroccan innovators in helping Moroccan farmers and others adapt to the effects of climate change. Yesterday it was amazing at the UM6P to see the groundbreaking innovation being done to try to develop drought resistant, heat resistant seeds. Morocco is going to be an innovator, and those innovations are going to feed not only people in this country, but people around the world who are suffering significant food insecurity. So we want to support those kinds of efforts.
At the same time, along with climate change, as a big tectonic plate shift, there is digitization, and the technological revolution, and we can barely keep up. Even we, at USAID, you know, we and even in the United States, the home of Silicon Valley, it is very hard to keep up. But we want to work with our Moroccan partners to make sure that we are taking advantage of new technologies, for example, giving people the ability to predict extreme weather or drought further in advance, so they can plan around it. Making sure that the new technologies are also harnessed to help transition to clean energy, which is cheaper, it's going to be cheaper for Moroccan families. So we want to harness the great possibility of this technological revolution, while also recognizing that at a time when it is already hard to find jobs for young people in Morocco and across Africa, in so many countries in the world. Of course, technological innovation in the past – automation has meant that some people, you know, do jobs that can be replaced with technology. So we want to be standing side by side with our Moroccan partners, hearing what we can do to help upskill those individuals who can do other things in the new economy that is powered by technology. And clearly, Morocco has built a huge amount of intellectual capital here, to be able to know just what those skills are that the next generation will need. And again, USAID is just here, extending the hand of friendship and partnership, and eager to hear from the leaders on the ground, Moroccan leaders on the ground, how we can support.
QUESTION: [inaudible]
ADMINISTRATOR POWER: Yeah, well, let me just say that in Morocco, of course, the government has made a focus on young people a big priority. That is true in many countries in the world, and it should be true in every country in the world because of course young people are our future. They bring new ideas, fresh eyes, and a lot of experiences. You know, all of us who have kids, our kids know far more about technology and how to take advantage of technology than you do. But you know you in Morocco, when over 50 percent of the population is under 30, that also presents a lot of people entering the workforce who are looking for lives of meaning and dignity. You know, nobody wants to be having to stay home, they want to go out and get work and have agency over where they live and how they live. And so, of course, the number one priority of every country is to create jobs for its youth. And as the King and the broader Moroccan government places focus on that, we have a critical role to play as USAID, linking American investors, American companies with all that Morocco has to offer.
You know, one of the great things about Morocco is incredible tourism and its tourism industry. As many people come here for tourism but then they see – young people they talk to them, they see the innovation that is happening here, they see that more than 40 percent of energy is now renewable energy. So they see Morocco as a cutting edge destination. And so our job as at USAID can be to describe back in the United States with American companies or large multinationals what the investment climate is like here. While also working with the Moroccan people to make sure that whatever barriers exist, that might deter a company from coming here, you know, regulation, procurement that we can work together and provide a little bit of technical partnership, to help make sure that those barriers go away, so that not only do the companies come and invest, but the jobs are here in Morocco for that growing population.
QUESTION: What motivated you to wear the national team jersey? They had a stellar performance during the World Cup, can you say a few words on your choice to put on the Moroccan one?
ADMINISTRATOR POWER: Okay, great. Well, like so many millions, maybe billions of people around the world, I was so inspired by Morocco's deep run in the World Cup. By total coincidence, on the day of its biggest match, I actually found myself with Morocco's Prime Minister at a fancy lunch in Washington. We got to say a little prayer together routing for the Moroccan team. And, you know, even though they didn't come back winners that day, it's clear that the Moroccan team captured the hearts of billions of people around the world, and really inspired young people in countries that had never been considered football powerhouses to believe that if they worked hard enough, that they to not only could advance themselves, and maybe one day work in the Premier League and get to play professionally, but that they could carry their country and carry their flag for the whole world to see Because the great thing about the World Cup is that people don't only learn about the football team and the name of the players, they learn about the country and the beauty, and the warmth and hospitality of the people. And I know, you know, for many Americans got some of their first exposure to Morocco, the country, the beaches, the possibilities here because of the success of the team. And that creates a wonderful opportunity for people to come here and to discover that Morocco, yes, is a football powerhouse – but it is so much more.
QUESTION: What does this mean to you to be here and to play football with the youth?
ADMINISTRATOR POWER: Well, I think sports are the great equalizer. I can come in my suit, representing USAID, representing President Biden and try to engage with young people and hear about their dreams and their challenges. But it is a lot easier if I'm falling down, and they are helping pick me up, and they had to do that quite a few times today.
So for me, it is a way of getting to know young people having more than a superficial encounter with Moroccans on my visit here. But it's also a way of affirming for them that sports are not everything. But sports can really matter. They can build confidence, particularly for girls, as families more and more allow their girls to play football for them to be mixing it up here in a co-ed way – that's good for their confidence across the rest of their lives. It builds a recognition that things don't always go your way. But when you lose a football match, or you miss on an open goal, you get back up and you try to win the next day, you try to score the next day. And so I really loved having the chance to hear from them why football was so important to them. But also to remind them, you know that their schoolwork matters too, and it's important. Sometimes football can be what gets kids to come to school so they have, you know, lots of players to play with. But once they're in school, it is up to those of us who care about curriculum and teaching, to make sure that they are captivated and that they work on their other skills as well. And so to have the chance to convey that was important as well.
Administrator Power Travels to Morocco
