Civil society in Morocco is celebrating the country’s first-ever crowdfunding law, which they say offers every other investment version to assist entrepreneurship and the sector’s sustainability, after a campaign by Innovation for Change (I4C) MENA Hub, “SimSim-Participation Citoyenne” along with multiple crowdfunding platforms in Morocco.
Crowdfunding is an alternative form of financing method, it is typically achieved through online platforms that connect funders and investors directly with those who need financing for social or commercial projects.
The idea for the campaign was sparked by the Hub’s focus group on digital currencies and Crowdfunding in Morocco in 2018, followed by a research program launched by the MENA Hub to assess CSOs’ needs, capacities, and potential of these technologies for the civic sector in 2019.
After I4C MENA and local Moroccan CSO partner -Simsim-Participation Citoyenne- went through a policy change process through advocacy and campaigning efforts to influence policies, through consultative meetings gathering parliamentarians, crowdfunding practitioners, and representatives of civil society to discuss amendment proposals to be presented to the parliament followed by sending official letters to and meeting with the parliamentary groups and the committee of finance and economic development to discuss and co-create the law’s provisions that included a total of 17 proposed recommendations to 5 different parliamentary groups in Morocco
Bill 15.18, pertaining to crowdfunding, was passed in February 2020 with ten of the amendments recommended by I4C MENA and local partners.
By leveraging the co-design approach, I4C MENA and Moroccan partners were able to boost public support through an awareness campaign disseminated via numerous channels and working closely with various legislative groupings to support the revisions.
The new crowdfunding legislation finally saw the light in 2020 as a result of the various civil society efforts, particularly The Crowdfunding Morocco Federation (CMF) initiated advocacy efforts and in collaboration with the Ministry of Economy, Finance and Administration Reform were able to table a bill in March 2018, which I4C MENA and local partner build the efforts on which is a win for Morocco’s civil society in ensuring a more open Civic Space.
This new law is expected to benefit civil society organizations, non-profit organizations, social enterprises, and start-ups to adopt more sufficient funding methods and ensure financial sustainability.