When Civil Society Sets the Social and Economic Agenda

Since 2011, Moroccan civil society actors have experienced an important political opening that has allowed them to play a much more direct and influential role in the process of policy-making. The National Dialogue that has taken place between the government and civil society in the writing of different pieces of legislation represents a demonstrable step towards increased participation and legitimacy conferred to social actors. Yet at the same time, this process has not been without its controversy and drawbacks: as those participating in the Parallel Dialogues state, the inclusion of civil society in policy-making is perhaps less an attempt at participatory democracy than the redrawing of the red lines in which civil society’s action is constrained. Both experiences – National Dialogue with the government and Parallel Dialogue as an oppositional bloc – have provided Moroccan activists with a breadth of experience not only in the policy-making process but also in the building of coalitions and consensus on policy itself. And beyond the particular framework of policy-making, Moroccan civil society actors have benefited from this post-2011 political opportunity to strengthen their ability to set the public agenda and increase their capacities in both lobbying and development. While civil society actors in Egypt do not currently face a political context favorable to their actions, nor do they possess the margins of manoeuvre to influence policy, they nonetheless strive to remain active and to find alternative modes of engagement that will allow them to fulfill their missions. Thus although a replication of the Moroccan experiences of National and Parallel dialogues are not currently conceivable, there are still lessons for actionable strategies that can be gleaned from the Moroccan experience and applied in Egypt, and indeed farther afield