ABSTRACT
This chapter argues that all countries of the Maghreb – Morocco, Algeria, Tunisia, and Libya – have suffered from 'urban bias' in their recent socio-economic development. It reviews the structural changes attempting to re-organise the Maghreb's agrarian systems. The development of rural resources, especially water resources, can be seen as dominated by a large project mentality and the resulting irrigation schemes suffer from urban-industrial competition for the Maghreb's decidedly finite water resources. The chapter evaluates the regional development initiatives with respect to whether they are anything more than mere palliatives compared with the national plans which are usually dominated by urban-industrial development. The rural peripheral parts of the Maghreb subject to the infrastructural and structural developments, often with an inherent urban bias, have also sometimes been the focus of regional development policies. In both Tunisia and Morocco, less effort has gone into regional development policies despite strong regional disparities.
