Small Scale Fisheries Project

$116,168,028Original Compact Project Amount
$111,281,204Total Disbursed

Estimated Benefits

Estimated Benefits for the Small Scale Fisheries Project
Time	Estimated Economic Rate of Return (ERR) over 20 years	Estimated beneficiaries over 20 years	Estimated net benefits over 20 years
At compact closure	23.5 percent	128,960	$84,781,000

Project Description

Morocco has 3,500 kilometers of coastline and is the largest fish producer in Africa and the Middle East. Total annual value-at-landing of Morocco’s catch is about $832 million, making fishing one of the most important industries in the country. In addition, demand for fish is expected to continue to increase nationally, driven by an expanding tourism sector and anticipated growth in domestic fish consumption. Small-scale fisheries are one of the most underdeveloped segments of Morocco’s fishing sector due to inadequate coastal landing sites and port infrastructure, lack of a reliable temperature-controlled supply chain (cold chain) from the sea to consumer, limited access to open markets, and insufficient training for fishers and their cooperatives. The Small-Scale Fisheries Project was designed, therefore, to transform the sector by

constructing landing sites, wholesale markets and facilities;
providing technical assistance;
partially funding fresh-fish transportation equipment for mobile fish vendors;
establishing marine protected areas; and
increasing efforts to ensure sustainable use of fish resources.

The Morocco Compact funded the construction and equipping of 11 fish landing sites, 11 port facilities, and three marine protected areas, five wholesale fish markets, as well as the training and equipping of 933 mobile fish vendors. The Government of Morocco is taking steps to operationalize the remaining five of the 30 infrastructure sites funded in the project. MCC had originally agreed to fund up to 39 sites including 20 improved landing sites, 13 ports and six wholesale fish markets. Budget constraints, environmental and social considerations, and an inability to secure land titles led the exclusion of 13 sites from consideration.

Evaluation Findings

MCC conducted an interim performance evaluation of the Small-Scale Fisheries Project in 2013. With respect to the baseline, the income of artisan fishers increased by 73% in the port of Tan Tan and 54% in the landing site of Tifnit. Mobile fish vendors also benefitted from an increase in their income but 33% smaller than the increase targeted by the project. A final performance evaluation is currently underway and is slated for completion in 2020.

Key performance indicators and outputs at compact end date

Key performance indicators and outputs at compact end date
Activity/Outcome	Key Performance Indicator	Baseline	End of Compact Target	Quarter 1 through Quarter 20 Actuals (as of Dec 2013)	Percent Compact Target Satisfied (as of Dec 2013)
Development of Fish Landing Sites and Port Facilities Activity	Boats benefitting from landing sites and ports As of December 31, 2013, a total of six sites with 2,164 corresponding boats were not yet operational. They were expected to go into operation during the first quarter of 2014.	0	4,368	2,057	47%
	Number of artisan fishers who received a training certificate	0	15,000	19,750	132%
Development of Wholesale Fish Markets Activity	Average price of fish at auction markets (MAD/kg)	35.2	40.47	40.82	107%
Development of Wholesale Fish Markets Activity	Number of work days created for construction jobs in PDAs, Ports, and Wholesale Market sites	0	n/a	730,000	n/a
Support to Mobile Fish Vendors Activity	Active mobile fish vendors trained and equipped by the project	0	1,300	933	72%
Support to Mobile Fish Vendors Activity	Net annual income of mobile fish vendors (USD) Further increase in vendors' income is likely, given that many vendors were operating for only a short period prior to collection of income data.	3,827	6,201	5,382	66%