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Millennium Development Goals in Tunisia

Tunisia has made significant progress towards attaining the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs), and has become one of the most developed countries in Africa. The rate of poverty is forecast to be below 2% by 2015 – a major reduction on the 6.7% of 1990. The target of reducing gender disparities in education was achieved in 2000 and the proportion of women holding seats in the national parliament has risen from 4.3% in 1990 to 22.8% in 2005. The mortality rate of children under five has halved in the same time period.

Though Tunisia has made major steps to achieving the Millennium Development Goals, a division in prosperity between the rural West and urbanised East indicates that at a regional level targets may not be met. Tunisia has made some headway in addressing this disparity but a core of marginalized and vulnerable people, in both rural and urban areas, remains at risk of being neglected. This concern is identified as a priority in the country’s latest 5 year plan. The UN has cited that further participation of NGOs, the private sector and marginalized people must be encouraged to ensure that Tunisian society as a whole benefits from the reforms.

Health and HIV/AIDS in Tunisia

The state has invested considerably in health services in recent decades, and this is reflected in development indicators. Tunisia’s response to its first cases of HIV/AIDS was immediate, and by 1987 a national program to control sexually transmitted infection and AIDS had been implemented and the AIDS Control and Prevention Committee formed. Largely as a consequence of these measures, Tunisia’s HIV prevalence is one of the lowest in Africa with less than 0.1% of the population affected.

A look at other indicators however reveals once again a regional dichotomy. As Tunisia’s economy has transitioned from traditional agriculture to a diversified and relatively prosperous state, Tunis has acted as a hub for trade, private investment and state spending. As a result, poverty in the largely rural West has remained with child mortality in rural areas twice that of urban areas. Basic sanitation is as low as 10% of households, in comparison to almost universal coverage in the governate of Tunis. These examples indicate that the reputation of Tunisia as one of the more modern countries of Africa may need some degree of qualification.
Politics in Tunisia

With independence from France in 1956, President Habib Bourguiba established a one party state which was strictly opposed to Islamic fundamentalism. Far reaching rights for women were granted - a move previously unseen in North Africa - and measures were made to create an outward-oriented economy.

In 1987 the present leader Zine El Abidine Ben Ali succeeded Bourguiba, and his influence can be seen clearly throughout political structures and processes. In his 18 years in office, Ben Ali has done much to combat poverty and has made significant steps towards economic diversification. Some moves have also been made to create political diversity, authorising legal parties additional to the ruling Constitutional Democratic Rally, including the Union Démocrates Socialistes (MDS); the Union Démocratique Unioniste (UDU); and the Parti de L’Unité Populaire (PUP).

However, election results continue to produce 98-99% majorities, implying an artificial process. As a consequence opposition parties boycotted the 2004 election, believing participation would create a false impression of a democratic political landscape. Ben Ali further inflamed his opponents by engineering a referendum in 2002 which raised the retirement age of the president, effectively permitting him to stand in two further elections.

Though Ben Ali presents an open society to foreign press and political circles, civil society in Tunisia is denied a coherent identity and struggles to play a role in the political process. EC funds for the Tunisian Human Rights League (LTDH) have repeatedly been blocked and in June 2005 the government froze the activity of the Arab Institute for Human Rights.

President Ben Ali with George Bush

In recent years, Tunisia has emphasised positive relationships with its regional counterparts and, unlike many of its North African neighbours, is committed to strong relations with Sub-Saharan countries. It is a member of a number of international and regional organisations including the United Nations, the Arab Maghreb Union, and the Arab League and is also active in the Euro-Mediterranean co-operation process. In December 2005 six NATO ships visited Tunis as part of the Alliance’s policy to foster cooperation. However, Tunisia is unlikely to escape current international pressure on Arab countries for more public freedom and democracy.
Information and Media in Tunisia

Freedom of information and media is authorised by the constitution, yet in reality political and human rights content is heavily censored. Websites both within and outside of Tunisia have been banned including those of opposition parties. Fines and prison sentences are stipulated for press in opposition to the state, and there are reports that journalists are regularly intimidated by officials. Placed as low as 145 in the press freedom ranking published by Reporters Without Borders, few countries in the world have poorer reputations for freedom of expression and civil liberties.

Nevertheless, some signs of freedom of expression are becoming apparent. In past years, government run television and radio channels were the dominant form of media, yet in 2003 private radio stations were legalised. Satellite technology has also created access to television channels outside of the government’s control, with Egyptian television and UK based opposition channels becoming hugely popular. The government however is still trying to suppress these channels from broadcasting material deemed inappropriate. In 2007 a journalist from the satellite TV station Al-Hiwar Attounsi was attacked by plain clothes police. In the same year human rights lawyer Mohammed Abbou was released after serving a prison sentence for criticising the government but was then refused permission to attend an interview in London for TV station Al-Jazeera.

The World Summit on the Information Society (WSIS) was held in Tunis in November 2005, sparking controversy. There was widespread hope that Tunisia could improve its international reputation, however during the summit a foreign reporter was attacked for coverage of human rights violations and the authorities reportedly intimidated numerous civil society groups.

One possible positive outcome was unveiled with plans to create a virtual university providing African students with internet based training on the environment and biotechnology. The academy is to be set up by Tunisia’s Borj-Cedria Science and Technology Park and the United Nations.
Human Rights in Tunisia

Although Tunisia has done much to adapt to a progressive and rapidly changing society, there is significant state suppression of political activity. The case of Daniel Zarrouk, an activist imprisoned since 1992, has become a broader campaign to review the cases of around 100 political prisoners who are serving multiple sentences for a single offence, in violation of international and domestic law. Tunisian courts have convicted Zarrouk four times for his past membership of the banned Islamist an-Nahdha movement. Human Rights Watch has expressed the view that anti-terrorism legislation passed in 2003 is being exploited to deal with political dissent.

Many human rights NGOs in the country and internationally have protested against such human rights violations and the ill-treatment of those detained, yet their views and very existence is ignored or prohibited by the government. In May 2006 the Swiss Amnesty International representative Yves Steiner was arrested while attending an annual meeting of the organisation's Tunisian branch. The ban on women wearing headscarves in schools and government offices has recently been more rigorously enforced, reflecting the extent of Ben Ali's secular resolve but drawing criticism in the 2007 Amnesty International report for harassment of women’s rights. 98% of the population are Sunni Muslims.
The Economy in Tunisia

After gaining independence, Tunisia adopted a socialist economic model for a number of decades, with high levels of state intervention. Gradual economic diversification occurred in later years, though this was greatly accelerated with the balance of payments crisis of 1986. This event forced the government to adopt the IMF and World Bank economic liberalization programs in exchange for aid, and as a consequence opened the country to trade and foreign investment.

Since the late 1980s government fiscal prudence, and its increasingly positive attitude to foreign investment have ensured a stable economy which is less commodity dependent and has considerable scope for development. The country joined the WTO on its creation in 1995 and became the first North African country to enter a free trade agreement with the EU, demonstrating its commitment to regional and international trade. Today the traditional agricultural economic base has grown to encompass tourism, mining, manufacturing and energy, and moves to embrace the information technology and telecommunications sectors have also been made. Though government-run enterprise is still significant and unemployment remains high at over 14%, foreign trade and privatisation have played a large part in growth in prosperity within Tunisia, and acted as a means to draw outside influences into the country’s cultural and political spheres.
The Environment in Tunisia

As a semi-arid country with an expanding and youthful population, the balance between Tunisia’s natural resources and human demands is precarious. In the North and Central regions 3 million hectares of land are being strongly eroded, and 7 million hectares in the South suffer from secondary salination, wind erosion and sand invasion. In a sensitive environment of this profile, the potential impact of climate change on agriculture and water supplies is clearly cause for concern to the Tunisian authorities.

The government has made some headway in tackling these problems through soil and water conservation programmes, the development of green belts to combat desertification, and sustainable land use by rural dwellers. According to the MDG Report for 2004 significant reforestation has been underway in recent years and latest figures show that forest coverage has expanded from 4.1% in 1990 to 6.8% in 2005.



Catriona Wright studied Geography at the University of Manchester and later became a volunteer project officer for an African development charity. She is now a research executive at a leading London accountancy firm.

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