Publication: Harnessing Morocco’s Coastal Wealth: A Strategic Review of Marine Aquaculture for Job Creation and Sustainable Growth
Loading...
Files in English
153 downloads
Published
2025-09-18
ISSN
Date
2025-09-18
Author(s)
Editor(s)
Abstract
The Blue Economy is a transformative approach to sustainable development that balances economic growth, job creation, and environmental conservation by harnessing ocean resources responsibly. It serves as a key pillar in diversifying the economy, strengthening food security, and generating employment, particularly in coastal communities. Morocco is actively investing in its blue economy and has developed a national blue economy strategy that stresses the importance of traditional sectors (fishing, tourism, and port activity) and recognizes the need to develop new sectors with high growth potential like aquaculture, ecotourism, marine biotechnology, shipbuilding and renewable energies.
Link to Data Set
Citation
“World Bank. 2025. Harnessing Morocco’s Coastal Wealth: A Strategic Review of Marine Aquaculture for Job Creation and Sustainable Growth. © World Bank. http://hdl.handle.net/10986/43746 License: CC BY-NC 3.0 IGO.”
Digital Object Identifier
Associated URLs
Associated content
Other publications in this report series
Journal
Journal Volume
Journal Issue
Collections
Related items
Showing items related by metadata.
Publication Managing the Marine and Coastal Environment of Sub-Saharan Africa : Strategic Directions for Sustainable Development(Washington, DC: World Bank, 2002-07)The trends toward ecosystem degradation and social change are affecting coastal areas around the world, not least in Sub-Saharan Africa. The crisis affecting this region's coastal and marine areas requires an urgent and resolute response from the global community. This report details the challenges facing coastal and marine environments in Sub-Saharan Africa. It describes the World Bank's strategy for supporting sustainable development in the sector, while stressing an integrated approach to coastal management in Sub-Saharan Africa, which will be strategic in design, with both traditional investments in fisheries, or coastal biodiversity, and creative interventions for making large-scale investments in infrastructure, or water "coastal friendly", to avert impacts, while bringing tangible benefits to coastal populations, and ecosystems.Publication Yemen/China South-South Exchange : Systematic Management of Coastal and Marine Areas(World Bank, Washington, DC, 2011-07)In March 2010, a delegation of Yemeni decision makers and practitioners visited five cities in China: Fuzhou, Xiamen City, Xiangshan, Qingdao and Beijing. The Yemeni delegation was headed by Mr. Salem Ahmed Al-Khambashi, Governor of the coastal governorate of Hadramout, and comprised representatives from relevant central and local authorities, the Fisheries Cooperative Union and the private sector. The delegation's aim was to study the country's institutional arrangements for coastal zone management:, to examine integrated coastal zone management (ICZM) arrangements, and the local economics of sustainable fishing. In view of applying the National ICZM Decree (2009), the delegation also sought to better understand the modalities, roles, policies and practices applied towards effective management of coastal zones and the fisheries sector in China. The program was designed based on a needs assessment by Chinese experts who visited Yemen in May 2009 to learn about the country's coastal system.Publication Changing the Face of the Waters : The Promise and Challenge of Sustainable Aquaculture(Washington, DC: World Bank, 2007)This study provides strategic orientations and recommendations for Bank client countries and suggests approaches for the Bank's role in a rapidly changing industry with high economic potential. It identifies priorities and options for policy adjustments, catalytic investments, and entry points for the Bank and other investors to foster environmentally friendly, wealth-creating, and sustainable aquaculture. The objectives of the study are to inform and provide guidance on sustainable aquaculture to decision makers in the international development community and in client countries of international finance institutions. The study focuses on several critical issues and challenges: 1) Harnessing the contribution of aquaculture to economic development, including poverty alleviation and wealth creation, to employment and to food security and trade, particularly for least developed countries (LDCs); 2) Building environmentally sustainable aquaculture, including the role of aquaculture in the broader suite of environmental management measures; 3) Creating the enabling conditions for sustainable aquaculture, including the governance, policy, and regulatory frameworks, and identifying the roles of the public and private sectors; and 4) Developing and transferring human and institutional capacity in governance, technologies, and business models with special reference to the application of lessons from Asia to Sub-Saharan Africa and Latin America.Publication India Marine Fisheries : Issues, Opportunities and Transitions for Sustainable Development(World Bank, 2010-08-01)This study represents a collaborative initiative by the World Bank and the Department of Animal Husbandry, Dairying and Fisheries Ministry of Agriculture, Government of India, to review the marine fisheries sub-sector, within a broader sector that also includes aquaculture and inland fisheries. The policy note provides a major step forward in understanding current issues and future opportunities facing the marine fisheries sub-sector. The marine fishing sub-sector accounts for approximately one percent of national Gross Domestic Product (GDP), but forms an important component of the rural coastal economy, generating income, employment, livelihoods, and food security for an estimated 3.52 million people along the 8,118 km Indian coastline, who depend on fishing for their livelihoods. The study represents an initial analytical review of the Indian marine sub-sector with special emphasis on inshore waters, which faces the greatest challenges for management and sustainable development. The main objectives of the study were to: a) appraise the general structure, conduct and performance of the marine fisheries sub-sector in India with particular focus on the role that marine fishery plays in rural livelihoods for coastal communities; b) identify the main constraints in the marine sub-sector that are impacting on biological sustainability and economically healthy fisheries; c) draw on national and international experience to recommend alternative policy approaches and strategies to address these issues; and d) inform the Government of India during subsequent consultations with key stakeholders about long-term transformations towards better sub-sector performance.Publication Fish to 2030 : Prospects for Fisheries and Aquaculture(Washington, DC, 2013-12)This report analyzes global prospects for fisheries and aquaculture. The World Bank Group (WBG) Agriculture Action Plan 2013-15 summarizes critical challenges facing the global food and agriculture sector. An ever-increasing global population necessitates adequate food and nutrition for the growing population through increased production and reduced waste. Production increase must occur in a context where resources necessary for food production, such as land and water, are even scarcer in a more crowded world, and thus the sector needs to be far more efficient in utilizing productive resources. The important issues addressed herein are: 1) health of global capture fisheries; 2) the role of aquaculture in filling the global fish supply - demand gap and potentially reducing the pressure on capture fisheries; and 3) implications of changes in the global fish markets on fish consumption, especially in China and Sub-Saharan Africa.
Users also downloaded
Showing related downloaded files
Publication Reboot Development: The Economics of a Livable Planet(Washington, DC: World Bank, 2025-09-01)“Reboot Development: The Economics of a Livable Planet” explores how the foundational natural endowments of land, air, and water—long taken for granted—are under growing threat, putting at risk the very progress they helped create. For generations, natural resources have powered development, supporting health, food, energy, and economic opportunity. Today, strains on these resources are intensifying. This report argues that failing to maintain a livable planet is not merely a distant environmental concern, but a present economic threat. Drawing on new data, the report shows that over 90 percent of the world is exposed to poor air quality, degraded land, or water stress. Loss of forests cuts rainfall, dries soils, and worsens droughts, costing billions of dollars. The nitrogen paradox emerges—fertilizers boost yields but overuse in some regions harms crops and ecosystems. Meanwhile, air and water pollution silently damage health, productivity, and cognition, sapping human potential. The report warns that these hidden costs are too large to ignore. Yet the message is not one of constraint but of possibility. Nature, when wisely stewarded, can drive growth, create jobs, and build resilience. The report shows that more efficient resource use—like better nitrogen management and forest restoration—yields benefits that far exceed the costs. It also urges a shift to cleaner sectors and producing “better things,” noting that these provide new sources of growth, creating more jobs per dollar invested. The findings are clear: Investing in nature is not only good for the planet, it is smart development.Publication Global Economic Prospects, June 2025(Washington, DC: World Bank, 2025-06-10)The global economy is facing another substantial headwind, emanating largely from an increase in trade tensions and heightened global policy uncertainty. For emerging market and developing economies (EMDEs), the ability to boost job creation and reduce extreme poverty has declined. Key downside risks include a further escalation of trade barriers and continued policy uncertainty. These challenges are exacerbated by subdued foreign direct investment into EMDEs. Global cooperation is needed to restore a more stable international trade environment and scale up support for vulnerable countries grappling with conflict, debt burdens, and climate change. Domestic policy action is also critical to contain inflation risks and strengthen fiscal resilience. To accelerate job creation and long-term growth, structural reforms must focus on raising institutional quality, attracting private investment, and strengthening human capital and labor markets. Countries in fragile and conflict situations face daunting development challenges that will require tailored domestic policy reforms and well-coordinated multilateral support.Publication Disentangling the Key Economic Channels through Which Infrastructure Affects Jobs(Washington, DC: World Bank, 2025-04-03)This paper takes stock of the literature on infrastructure and jobs published since the early 2000s, using a conceptual framework to identify the key channels through which different types of infrastructure impact jobs. Where relevant, it highlights the different approaches and findings in the cases of energy, digital, and transport infrastructure. Overall, the literature review provides strong evidence of infrastructure’s positive impact on employment, particularly for women. In the case of electricity, this impact arises from freeing time that would otherwise be spent on household tasks. Similarly, digital infrastructure, particularly mobile phone coverage, has demonstrated positive labor market effects, often driven by private sector investments rather than large public expenditures, which are typically required for other large-scale infrastructure projects. The evidence on structural transformation is also positive, with some notable exceptions, such as studies that find no significant impact on structural transformation in rural India in the cases of electricity and roads. Even with better market connections, remote areas may continue to lack economic opportunities, due to the absence of agglomeration economies and complementary inputs such as human capital. Accordingly, reducing transport costs alone may not be sufficient to drive economic transformation in rural areas. The spatial dimension of transformation is particularly relevant for transport, both internationally—by enhancing trade integration—and within countries, where economic development tends to drive firms and jobs toward urban centers, benefitting from economies scale and network effects. Turning to organizational transformation, evidence on skill bias in developing countries is more mixed than in developed countries and may vary considerably by context. Further research, especially on the possible reasons explaining the differences between developed and developing economies, is needed.Publication The Global Findex Database 2025: Connectivity and Financial Inclusion in the Digital Economy(Washington, DC: World Bank, 2025-07-16)The Global Findex 2025 reveals how mobile technology is equipping more adults around the world to own and use financial accounts to save formally, access credit, make and receive digital payments, and pursue opportunities. Including the inaugural Global Findex Digital Connectivity Tracker, this fifth edition of Global Findex presents new insights on the interactions among mobile phone ownership, internet use, and financial inclusion. The Global Findex is the world’s most comprehensive database on digital and financial inclusion. It is also the only global source of comparable demand-side data, allowing cross-country analysis of how adults access and use mobile phones, the internet, and financial accounts to reach digital information and resources, save, borrow, make payments, and manage their financial health. Data for the Global Findex 2025 were collected from nationally representative surveys of about 145,000 adults in 141 economies. The latest edition follows the 2011, 2014, 2017, and 2021 editions and includes new series measuring mobile phone ownership and internet use, digital safety, and frequency of transactions using financial services. The Global Findex 2025 is an indispensable resource for policy makers in the fields of digital connectivity and financial inclusion, as well as for practitioners, researchers, and development professionals.Publication Africa’s Pulse, No. 32, October 2025: Pathways to Job Creation in Africa(Washington, DC: World Bank, 2025-10-07)Economic growth in Sub-Saharan Africa is expected to increase from 3.5 percent in 2024 to 3.8 percent in 2025 and accelerate further to an annual average rate of 4.4 percent in 2026–27. Improved terms of trade are helping to stabilize local currencies, but real income per capita is only set to rise slightly, leaving extreme poverty largely unchallenged. By 2050, the region is projected to have over 620 million more working-age individuals. This demographic shift calls for innovative and transformative approaches to job creation, as current growth doesn't significantly lead to wage employment. To tackle these issues, foundational infrastructure and skills, a favorable business environment, and good governance are essential. Addressing the constraints to the private sector development opens the door for productive sectors of the economy to grow and generate quality employment, including but not limited to agribusiness, tourism, and healthcare, among others. With the right approach, Sub-Saharan Africa can establish a vibrant job market. This would help meet the needs of its growing labor force.