The head of government, Aziz Akhannouch, said, on Monday, that the government places the enshrining of social justice in the southern provinces at the heart of its priorities, just as in all the Kingdom’s provinces and regions.
Speaking during question time at the House of Representatives, Akhannouch stressed that the government sees the Social State project “not only as a simple economic or social model, but a genuine political choice.”
In this respect, the head of government commended the positive results achieved by the department of Education in the southern provinces, which registered tangible progress in the generalization of the “Pioneering Schools” program.
This program was implemented in all primary and middle schools of the region of Dakhla, while in the Guelmim-Oued Noun region, it now covers all 183 primary schools as well as 31 additional middle schools, he pointed out, adding that in the Laayoune-Sakia El Hamra region, the coverage rate has reached 78% in primary schools and 61% in middle schools.
The Kingdom’s southern regions have witnessed a significant development of their university infrastructure during the recent years, Akhannouch noted, underscoring the increase of the number of students enrolled in faculties and specialized institutions, which reached 11,000 students during the previous academic year.
He added that Dakhla’s City of Trades and Skills, inaugurated during the last weekend for a total cost of MAD 238 million, is set to provide a new generation of professional training that meets the needs of the job market.
With regard to healthcare, Akhannouch stated that the southern provinces of the Kingdom have made tangible progress in upgrading their health infrastructure, thanks to projects to rehabilitate primary healthcare facilities in more than 104 establishments in the regions of Guelmim-Oued Noun, Laayoune-Sakia El Hamra, and Dakhla-Oued Ed-Dahab. According to the head of government, this demonstrates the state’s commitment to bringing health services closer to citizens and improving access to essential treatments.
In the regions of Guelmim-Oued Noun and Laayoune-Sakia El Hamra, two large university hospitals are currently under construction as part of a new generation of integrated healthcare facilities.
These are the Guelmim University Hospital, with a capacity of 500 beds and a cost of approximately MAD 2 billion, scheduled for completion at the end of 2026, and the Laayoune University Hospital, with a capacity of 500 beds and a total cost of approximately MAD 2.36 billion, which is scheduled to open before the end of the year, Akhannouch pointed out.
He added that the efforts to expand the healthcare offering are ongoing through several regional and local projects, some of which have already been operationalized recently, such as the provincial hospital in Tarfaya, while others are under construction, such as the provincial hospital of Sidi Ifni and the province’s local hospital, as well as Dakhla’s regional hospital (80 beds) and two psychiatric units, one in Guelmim and the other in Dakhla, with a capacity of 30 beds each.
The southern provinces aim to further develop their healthcare infrastructure by 2027 through the creation of the Mohammed VI Foundation for Health Sciences, a university hospital complex in Dakhla comprising a 300-bed hospital and faculties of medicine, biomedical engineering, nursing, and health professions, where more than 700 students are currently enrolled.
Similarly, the head of government reported on the commissioning of several pioneering facilities, including a reproductive health reference center in Guelmim, a regional oncology center in Laayoune , and a regional blood transfusion center in Dakhla, as well as a modern epidemiology laboratory, in addition to the expansion of the Dakhla regional hospital.
On the social front, Akhannouch said that the southern provinces’ vulnerable populations benefit from the generalization of the mandatory health insurance, pointing out that 70,000 people benefit from the “Amo Tadamoun” program and some 68,400 from the three regions of the south benefit from direct social assistance.
He emphasized that the Royal Vision for the development of the southern provinces transcends the procedural and technical aspects of the implementation of some programs and projects in the Moroccan Sahara, to adopt a sovereign and prospective approach, based on solid historical and social anchoring and an institutional maturity which reflects the national consensus on the Kingdom’s first cause.
MAP: 10 November 2025
