Targa HELP, since 1998

The Targa Association is a natural extension of the activity of a group of young research professors who have been working since the early 1980s within the Direction de Développement Rural (DDR) - created by Paul Pascon - at the Hassan II Agronomic and Veterinary Institute (IAV) of Rabat. 

The militant (and somewhat romantic) commitment of its members has gradually enabled the construction, with the rural population of landlocked areas (Ouneine valley in the High Atlas and the oases of southeastern Mauritania), of a concerted approach for the identification and implementation of small community development projects.

The action of this group of researchers was conducted, until the mid-1990s, under the label of the IAV Hassan II, which made it possible to circumvent the vigilance of the State, whose policy with regard to the rural world was oriented , at that time, towards the monitoring and control of any exogenous intervention.

However, from the second half of the 1990s, the flexibility enjoyed by the IAV in the conduct of its mission of Research-Action and management of development projects has largely diminished following increasingly strict regulations imposed by the Ministry of Finance.

To deal with these constraints, the members of the team decided – with the support of the management of the IAV – to set up an institutional framework of an associative nature. This is how the creation of Targa - Interdisciplinary Association for Development and the Environment - took place in 1998 in accordance with the laws regulating the right of association.

Over the years and thanks to its expertise, the diversity of its activities and the development of its management structure, Targa has been increasingly called upon by rural populations, local authorities and local development associations. Since 1998, Targa has traveled a long path of maturity marked by three periods.

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Community development (1998 – 2000):

 

Targa continued in the same dynamic as that initiated within the IAV Hassan II, in particular the setting up and implementation of community development projects, with the rural populations of the mountain areas (Ouneine in the High Atlas, the of Bni Idder, the commune of Tanaqob, the commune of Tassift in the western Rif). Targa knew how to keep a distance - probably justified - with the administration and the state departments, by participating in projects mainly financed by international cooperation funds (Austrian, Swiss and Spanish cooperation).

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Rural development (2000-2004):

 

This period is characterized by a major rapprochement between ministerial departments, local authorities and state bodies to promote rural development. Indeed, it is only for about ten years that the strategic planning of rural development has been placed at the center of the concerns of the public authorities in Morocco. Targa has conducted and participated in studies resulting in the definition of certain public policies targeting the rural world, in particular the definition of a new approach to Integrated Rural Development (DRI) projects, particularly for non-irrigated areas.

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Participatory development planning and capacity building (2004 - present):

 

Following the significant contextual changes that Morocco is experiencing, particularly with the advent of the INDH and the acceleration of the decentralization process, the public authorities have realized the need to adopt a participatory approach to development and introduce conceptual and methodological innovations in their work with populations. Since then, Targa has invested heavily in support and capacity building, strategy, implementation and monitoring and evaluation of public development programs.

This period is marked by a partnership between Targa and the Agency for the Promotion and Economic and Social Development of the prefectures and provinces of the North of the Kingdom (APDN) which completes, in 2014, a full decade of fruitful collaboration. Other public operators, such as the General Directorate of Local Authorities, the Agency for the Promotion and Economic and Social Development of the Southern Provinces and the Department of the Environment have also approached Targa for institutional partnerships.