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Abstract In the September 2000 Millennium Summit, political world leaders met to agree on a set of measurable goals along with deadlines. The Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) serve as a framework within which the United Nations' system coherently coordinates to achieve the same end: achieving development and respecting human rights. In this presentation, the author studies the concept of exclusion, larger than the concept of poverty, related to the concepts of hunger and the lack of an income. In this regard, the social inclusion that stems from the Moroccan Autonomy Project for the Sahara guarantees the citizens' access to infrastructure, to social, cultural and economic services as well as to power. The Project introduces social inclusion as an approach to improve social governance. This inclusion, one of the Moroccan Project's innovations, is also a goal for the National Initiative for Human Development (INDH). This Initiative introduces community participation as a key element in the improvement of local governance. Sustainable human development combines economic and political activities with the social participation and mobilisation. In this regard, the Moroccan Autonomy Project adopts the citizens' participation as a vehicle of strength to the feeling of social inclusion, which contributes to the implementation of the MDGs. On this basis, the author demonstrates that strengthening Citizenship and the feeling of Community identity is a major asset in Morocco's commitment. He emphasizes the "positive freedom" as an approach of "capabilities" developed by the Indian economist Amartya Kumar Sen, which refers to the individual's capability to be or to do something. On the other hand, the "negative freedom" simply refers to the lack of interference. With regard to Morocco, the citizen's access to basic services and infrastructure is a fundamental aspect of the Autonomy Project. According to the author, this progress positively contributes to the community mobility and its participation in the public administration. Certainly, the Moroccan Initiative as the only serious document submitted to the Security Council, adheres to immutable principles. The Autonomy shall be implemented within the Moroccan sovereignty and the territorial integrity. It shall be in accordance with the international criteria and allow the Sahara populations to run their affairs through legislative, executive and judiciary bodies. This positive measure, as asserted by several supporters, is one of the best antidotes to the territorial separatism. It demonstrates the process of "decentralized development" that contributes to human development. "Local development" or "decentralized rural development", designations that used to characterize different visions, try nowadays to describe a unique situation, a situation of total accountability of the populations regarding the conception and the implementation of development actions. Throughout this presentation, it is highlighted that the community development approach leads the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) and the other United Nations Development Agencies to conceive "strategies of fighting poverty founded on the principle of autonomy". The INDH, besides being a partnership, is an appropriation of development. It has been supported by several international Organizations dedicated to fighting poverty, such as the UNDP and the World Bank, considering it as a Participative Programme of Community Development that fights poverty and promotes good governance, mainly at the local level (ART Gold Morocco programme). Addressing the local Authorities, the regional social and economic protagonists and the local populations, this Initiative goes in line with the principles of "regional equalization" and "territorial targeting"; in other words, a support subsidy to the implementation of basic social and community infrastructure in some Provinces of the South (Guelmim and Es-Smara). Concerning the structuring technical capabilities, they refer to social coherence and to "social capital". The author argues that the principles of social capital are being tarnished by the international Agencies of development. The World Bank and the UNDP, in particular, have rendered of it a privileged means in the field of development and programmes of fighting poverty. The theoretical aspect of social anthropology contributes to the understanding of contemporary problems such as poverty or cultural rights and human rights. On the structural level, the social capital facilitates group action, which is mutually beneficiary thanks to social networks. This capital comprises the norms and the values that help achieve a common beneficiary action. In this regard, the Sahara population of the Southern Provinces, "moulded by a set of proactive values enjoys several assets often mentioned by anthropologists. Throughout this presentation, the author suggests to incorporate the solution of the Autonomy for the Sahara as part of the unprecedented large site of reforms Morocco has undertaken, and which opens up new political perspectives. The author starts with a study of Mohamed Cherkaoui, which leads to eloquent conclusions: no one can prevent people from living together within territorial integrity. Since 2004, the Sahara Region has become a huge open site as part of the Development Programme for the Provinces of the South of the Kingdom. As the author says, the first fruits of internal autonomy are ready to reap. Abderrahim El Maslouhi
Professor at the faculty of law, rabat-agdal
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