The territoriality of public action: Rethinking governance through the local prism

The Euromed University of Fez (UEMF) organized on Tuesday January 28, 2020, in collaboration with the Agency for Sustainable Mediterranean Cities and Territories (AVITEM), a round table around the theme:

 The territoriality of public action: Rethinking governance through the local prism
 

The objective of this round table is to analyze public decision-making processes involving a multitude of actors with territorial roots. It is a question of understanding governance from the prism of territories, particularly from the angle of their contribution to the development of regional cooperation in the Euro-Mediterranean region.

This round table will be held in the presence of experts, high-level researchers and representatives of institutions and Regions interested in the theme, such as the European Union, the UfM, the OECD and the territories of Occitanie/Pyrenees – Mediterranean and Provence-Alpes-Côte d’Azur. Governance involves a complex set of actors and institutions that do not all belong to the sphere of government; it reflects an interdependence between the powers and institutions associated with public action. According to Bernard Pecqueur, specialist in local development, governance is an institutional and organizational process of building compatibility between different modes of coordination between geographically close actors with a view to resolving the new productive problems posed to territories. Understood through the prism of the local, “local governance” refers to three main dimensions of public action, territorial, institutional (actors and legislation) and organizational (instruments, resources, practices, programming, operationalization, control and evaluation).

As for territorial public action, it refers to the question of articulation between the national and local levels. It requires modulating and targeting public policy interventions according to the specificities of the territories, clarifying the allocation of skills and resources and ensuring the implementation and evaluation of territorial public action around shared benchmarks. .

Furthermore, it is important to focus on the effectiveness and consistency of public and territorial development policies, particularly the capacities of human resources to ensure strategic planning and implementation of projects. Indeed, the territory is more than ever the reference actor for the definition and implementation of the local economic development strategy, in perfect coordination and synergy with all of its partners, whether at the national level. (the State), even international as well as local authorities and the private sector.

In the Euro-Mediterranean region, Morocco is fully committed to this dynamic through the discussions initiated for a new development model and the major ongoing project of Advanced Regionalization. Indeed, in His full speech addressed during the first National Conference on Advanced Regionalization held under the High Patronage of His Majesty King Mohammed VI on December 20 and 21, 2019.

Furthermore, His Majesty King Mohammed VI had expressed the wish to see the work of these first national meetings result in "... practical recommendations which will make it possible to meet the challenge of regional development, to reduce existing disparities, to improve the 'attractiveness and competitiveness at the territorial level'.

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