Rapid Situation Analysis of Young People in the Ennakhil Slum

The province has a poverty rate of 7.19% and a vulnerability rate of 13.04%. Despite having three rural communes (Bouskoura, Dar Bouazza, and Ouled Saleh) and one urban commune (Nouaceur), the urbanization rate is high, standing at 44.45%. Additionally, Nouaceur has the highest annual growth rate (10.1%) among all prefectures and provinces in the Grand Casablanca region. The province has a good land base and significant capital in terms of aeronautical, industrial, and urban development. It serves as a hub for investors and will play a crucial role in the regional economic development in the near future. The province of Nouaceur has 29 slums and 8,770 households, totaling a large number of populations living in slums: one inhabitant out of five lives in a slum, and two out of five inhabit the municipality of Nouaceur, which is the capital of the province. Today, the province is experiencing an improvement in the living conditions of its inhabitants thanks to the introduction of basic services such as potable water, electrification, sanitation networks, and social equipment, as part of the Ville Sans Bidonville program and the National Human Development Initiative. The Ennakhil slum is located in the urban commune of Nouaceur. This neighborhood has 1,049 households and 5,160 inhabitants. It accounts for 40% of the population of the municipality of Nouaceur and 38% of the existing households in the municipality. This neighborhood was originally a French military barracks, which later became a military base for the Royal Armed Forces. After the military personnel retired, civilians from the Casablanca region and Chaouia-Ouardigha began to settle there, leading to the formation of the slum (46.14% of the population settled in the slum between 1984 and 1992). The Ennakhil slum is composed of two types of families: retired military families and civilian families. This composition creates social and organizational disparities, with the military considering themselves legitimate owners of the neighborhood and civilians being perceived as intruders. Additionally, military personnel considered as reserve forces cannot join any civil organization, such as associations, creating a situation of rejection on both sides and explaining the low level of social solidarity and the multiplication of conflicts between community members. The slum is currently undergoing transfers to the new relocation site "Ennakhil complex," located 2 km from the slum. To date, 400 families have been relocated, and the relocation of the remaining households is ongoing. The complete eradication of the slum will not be possible until a year from now. The main socio-economic indicators resulting from the socio-economic diagnosis conducted by NEF in 2006, as part of the social accompaniment project, are as follows: - Children under 14 years old account for approximately 30.5% of the total population. - The active population (15-59 years old) represents 65.84% (almost two-thirds of the population concerned by the survey), and more than 47% is under 40 years old. A young and active population is observed. The proportion of the active population is slightly higher than the national rate, which is around 64%. - The illiteracy rate is very high compared to that in urban areas; it is 47% among household heads and nearly 39% among the rest of the population. - The majority of the literate population does not exceed the secondary level (59%). For the higher level, it is around 1.5% among the population of the housing groups. - 0.5% or 28 people out of 5,172 have been able to follow a professional training. - The active population employed is 1,080 people, representing 21% of the active population, while the unemployed population represents 15.5%. - Household incomes are generally irregular and very low: - 14% of households have no regular income. - 25% of households have an income below 1,000 Dh. - 49% of households receive monthly incomes ranging from 1,000 to 2,000 Dh. - 2% of households have a monthly income above 3,000 Dh. The Ennakhil slum is located approximately 3 km from the Nouaceur commune. Apart from the water fountains, it has no basic infrastructure. To benefit from the various services, residents must travel to the Nouaceur municipality or the Deroua urban commune, located at the other end of the main road connecting Casablanca to Berrechid.