Long before her signing appeared on policy papers and her concepts were heard in classrooms, Aawatif Hayar had already put forward a question that would mark her path: how can knowledge be a real service to peoples? This query has helped her turn from an academic and technical guru to a leader who puts human dignity, social justice, and sustainable impact at the core of his leadership.
Currently an Expert in Frugal Sustainable Smart Cities at Mohammed VI Polytechnic University and the University Hassan II of Casablanca, she is the one who makes technology, policy, and society come together. Throughout her career, she has been able to unravel complicated systems and transform them into solutions that are still accessible, ethical, and local-based. As minister, she had the opportunity to see how the decisions made in government move from the realm of theory to affecting the lives of individuals especially women, young people, and the less privileged segments of the population.
There is no doubt that her activism has seriously questioned the traditional, expensive smart city models; she has done so by putting forward a frugal and people-oriented city model through which society is included, is made resilient, and participates in the whole innovation process just as much as it is tech-based. Furthermore, she is vocally promoting the digital change that is in a social alignment as well as responsible AI where technology is the one that amplifies human intelligence and not the one that replaces it.
She has the qualities of being a good listener, having leadership skills, and being morally clear. She does not consider speed or large scale as the only measures of success, but rather the lasting social value. Her odyssey goes on to change the very definition of the progress that is when mankind is at the heart of it.
From Technical Expertise to Human-Centered Leadership
Hayar’s transition from the technical and academic sphere into leadership roles marked a fundamental shift in her understanding of power and purpose. She discovered that leadership transcends technical proficiency demands an unwavering commitment to the people whose lives hang in the balance of every decision.
Her tenure as Minister brought this reality into sharp focus. Policies that once seemed like abstract frameworks suddenly transformed into tangible forces that could either protect or expose women, children, and families to vulnerability. This realization anchored her conviction that leadership must remain ethically grounded, socially useful, and attentive to human dignity at every turn.
“Every decision I make is guided by a simple question: will this improve people’s lives in a lasting way? Innovation, strategy, and performance only matter if they serve that purpose,” she explains.
This philosophy distinguishes her approach from leaders who prioritize metrics over meaning, efficiency over equity.
Giving Voice to the Voiceless
Throughout her career, Hayar has witnessed a persistent pattern: women, young people, and marginalized communities frequently find themselves consulted for appearances but excluded from genuine influence. She made a deliberate choice to disrupt this dynamic.
She established participatory mechanisms, interdisciplinary teams, and inclusive governance structures within the institutions she led. During her public service tenure, she prioritized digital transformation while maintaining direct engagement with communities and civil society actors, recognizing that lived experience often yields insights far richer than administrative reports.
Creating environments where people feel safe to speak honestly became a cornerstone of her leadership style. She actively welcomes disagreement and questioning, understanding that leadership weakens when it becomes echo driven. This belief shapes her work on Frugal Social Smart Cities, where she positions citizens not as mere users of technology but as active partners in crafting solutions.
“Listening is often cited in leadership, but practicing it requires discipline and courage,” she notes, acknowledging the gap between rhetoric and reality that plagues many organizations.
The Courage to Challenge Convention
Transformation demands courage, and Hayar has demonstrated this quality repeatedly throughout her career. One of her most significant contributions came when she promoted Frugal Social Smart Cities at a time when smart city models centered almost exclusively on costly, technology-driven solutions that often overlooked the communities they claimed to serve.
She defended an alternative approach centered on people, inclusion, resilience, and efficiency—a vision that initially met resistance from those invested in conventional models.
This same courage guided her work on social norms related to women’s roles. As Minister responsible for women’s affairs and through her involvement in the Instance for revising the Moudawana—launched by His Majesty King Mohammed VI—she worked tirelessly to promote women’s empowerment and education. She articulates a vision where equality, rooted in the fundamental values of Islam, strengthens societies rather than threatens them.
“An educated woman raises educated and resilient generations, benefiting the whole community,” she emphasizes, framing women’s advancement as a collective gain rather than a zero-sum competition.
Balancing Speed with Sensitivity
Hayar rejects the false dichotomy between decisiveness and empathy that often characterizes leadership discourse. She views these qualities as complementary rather than contradictory forces.
“Acting quickly without understanding human consequences leads to failure; delaying decisions out of fear undermines trust,” she explains. Her approach involves listening deeply before deciding, then acting clearly and consistently. She explains her decisions, acknowledges concerns, and remains accessible even when choices prove difficult.
People may not always agree with her decisions, but they respond to the honesty and coherence she brings to her leadership.
Principles That Guide Through Uncertainty
Uncertainty reveals what truly guides a leader, and Hayar relies on five core principles when navigating ambiguous terrain: purpose, coherence, integrity, adaptability, and a genuine commitment to people and the common good.
Purpose gives direction when the path forward seems unclear. Coherence aligns actions with values, preventing the drift that compromises many leaders. Integrity protects the trust that forms the foundation of effective leadership. Adaptability enables continuous learning in dynamic environments. Above all, her love for people and dedication to community service keep leadership human rather than purely transactional.
These principles sustained her through the COVID-19 crisis and continued to guide her work in digital transformation and social innovation.
Redefining Success
Hayar measures success beyond conventional metrics like budgets or institutional rankings. She focuses on meaningful outcomes: improved quality of life, genuine inclusion, strengthened capacities, and enhanced resilience, along with the ethical path taken to achieve them.
In her work on Frugal Social Smart Cities and Frugal Sovereign Social AI, success depends significantly on how solutions are designed and governed. She prioritizes accessibility, energy efficiency, citizen empowerment, and local ownership as much as technical performance. True success, in her view, lasts beyond individual leadership mandates.
This long-term perspective distinguishes her from leaders who chase short-term wins at the expense of sustainable impact.
Ethics in the Age of AI
Ethics face their greatest tests under pressure, and Hayar embeds integrity through transparent governance and accountability mechanisms. She refuses to compromise ethics for short-term gain, understanding that such compromises destroy the trust that enables long-term success.
In artificial intelligence and digital transformation, she believes this responsibility grows even greater. She advocates for sovereign, frugal, and socially aligned AI grounded in what she calls Social AI, a hybrid human-AI model that augments human intelligence rather than replacing it, respects privacy and culture, and serves humanity above all else.
This vision challenges the Silicon Valley orthodoxy that often treats AI development as a purely technical challenge divorced from social context.
Cultivating the Next Generation
Mentorship holds deep personal significance for Aawatif Hayar . She looks for curiosity, ethical awareness, and courage rather than impressive titles when identifying emerging leaders. She gives young professionals and women leaders space to lead, decide, and learn, even when they don’t feel fully ready.
“Empowerment means trusting people before they feel fully ready,” she explains. She views leadership development as a multiplier effect: empowering one leader positively impacts many others through ripples that extend far beyond the initial investment.
Advice for Aspiring Leaders
When speaking to women aspiring to leadership positions, Aawatif Hayar delivers a clear message: trust your competence, even when doubts surround you. Confidence grows through learning rather than perfection. She encourages women to seek mentors, build alliances, and refuse to wait for permission to lead.
She emphasizes that strength and empathy are not opposites. When ambition aligns with purpose, leadership becomes truly transformative rather than merely transactional.
A Legacy of Service
Aawatif Hayar hopes to leave a legacy of inclusive, frugal social innovation and resilient communities. She wants people to remember her as someone who connected technology, policy, and humanity in service of the common good.
Through Frugal Social Smart Cities and Frugal Sovereign Social AI, she envisions a future where innovation remains ethical, accessible, and rooted in local realities rather than imposed from above or imported from abroad.
“Leadership, for me, is a journey of service and empowerment,” she reflects, a simple statement that captures the essence of a remarkable career dedicated to ensuring that progress benefits everyone, not just the privileged few.
In an era when technology often advances faster than our ability to govern it ethically, leaders like Aawatif Hayar remind us that innovation without humanity is hollow, and that the most transformative changes emerge when we center people rather than merely problems to solve.
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