The Morocco Employment Lab (MEL) seeks to create a culture of evidence-based policymaking, spurring innovation related to labor programs and addressing core employment issues in Morocco. This is achieved both through rigorous impact evaluations and capacity building in collaboration with a wide range of public and non-governmental organizations. 

As part of their work with MEL, EPoD’s Building Capacity to Use Research Evidence (BCURE) program has been active in Morocco since March 2021, offering trainings designed to equip policymakers and university students alike with skills to use research and evidence in designing public policy. In March 2021, MEL held a Training of Trainers (ToT), in which over 50 local instructors were prepared to teach BCURE content. Since then, EPoD worked with a number of local institutions to support their faculty as they teach BCURE content on their own. Among these is the University of Ibn-Tofail (UIT) in Kenitra.  

UIT kicked off their BCURE program with a BCURE training in which over 40 participants from their doctoral program at the Laboratory for Economic Research and Public Policy came together virtually in an engaging two-day training. BCURE has since been included as a learning module in the university’s master's program. 

More recently, on June 29th 2022, EPoD and MEL supported instructors at the Université Ibn Tofail (UIT) in Rabat, Morocco, in their 4th BCURE deployment. Local faculty instructors - Profs. Aziz Bensbahou, Houda Lechheb, Mariem Liouaeddine & Hicham Ouakil – all of whom were trained in the 2021 ToT - taught two BCURE modules on Descriptive Evidence and Impact Evaluations to PhD students from all over the country, using an in-person format and including case exercises on traffic law enforcement. 

Prof. Liouaeddine has been one of BCURE’s most vocal champions in Morocco. In the video below, she discusses her experience teaching BCURE content to university students: “We would like to see BCURE training established as part of a partnership or agreement between institutions, to give it more scope and also integrate it officially into our core programs”.