A Critical Review of the Villes Sans Bidonvilles Programme in Morocco: Lessons to be Learned Toward Inclusive Urban Growth

Over the past fifteen years, the debate within urban studies regarding informal settlements has become quite lively, thanks to several outstanding voices that have brought dignity back to urban topics regarding the Global South. Despite this, the limited production of programme analyses by planning scholars is indicative of how the subject is still delegated to international agencies. By critically reviewing the framework, the goals, the implementation and the results of the program “Villes sans bidonvilles” (VSB), launched by the national government of Morocco in 2004, we underline the principal limits linked to political, economic, social and environmental dimensions. The VSB program was created with the aim of solving the precarious conditions of housing in slums and the socioeconomic marginalization of its inhabitants and was pushed by the need of eradicating potential subversive forces, in the aftermath of the Casablanca attacks of 2003. The program showed many limits: from the reduction of the complex theme of habitat to the single dimension of housing, to the further spatial and social marginalization of the residents of the relocated slums. These limits refer to several scopes: the lack of a mature and up-to-date urban planning culture; the lack of involvement of a wider party of state bodies (able to integrate habitat and work policies), the neoliberal approach adopted by the Moroccan State in the last twenty years, which aims to maximize the economic opportunities linked to major urban regeneration projects, even at the expense of weaker sections of the population. Such critical review of the program, developed thanks to the reference to the international literature, allows us to suggest more sustainable and inclusive policies and practices to address the informal settlements' question for the next future.