Emergency Governance and Good Governance in the Management of COVID-19 Crisis in Morocco

Abstract

The present article aims to explore the key elements of the "emergency governance model" adopted by Morocco in the context of the Covid-19 crisis. On the one hand, this paper proposes to analyze the specificities of this crisis and to evaluate the various assets and challenges of the Moroccan model of governance during and even after the pandemic and on the other hand, it presents health and socio-economic government responses to manage this pandemic. Additionally, this article analyses how well Moroccan's management to COVID-19 complies with the expectations of principles of good governance. Likewise, this study tries to determine the different lessons learned from the management and governance of COVID-19 crisis and present the different prospects for overcoming it in order to make it a phase for a new start for Moroccan and others economy.

Our article constitutes an innovative contribution, based on an analysis of the two years period from early March 2020 to mid-November 2022. This research is based on an examination of a wide range of Moroccan planning documents, departmental and crisis committee websites, blogs, and news commentary, authoritative media reports, professional papers published in academic journals, official documents, self-reports, with source descriptions attached, while drawing on a variety of literature from the fields of governance, principles of good governance, public management, public administration and Moroccan politics and policy.

This study finds that during the Covid-19 crisis, strict adherence to national polities, effective and multi-level governance, and solidarity at the national level resulted in better outcomes. Moreover, the findings show that all the principles discussed in our research of good governance are necessary for the effective and efficient implementation of government programs and policies. Nevertheless, these principles are not respected in the Moroccan case.