Tunisia, a people caught between economic crisis, fleeing migrants passing through and authoritarian drifts: support comes from the Italian Cooperation

TUNIS – Exhausted by the economic emergency, never really exiting the pandemic crisis and under the iron control of kaïs Saïed, Tunisia is on the verge of new social convulsions. To complicate the picture, rumors of the President’s precarious health are accompanied by drought. The legend of the “revolution betrayed”, which spreads on social networks and is now commonplace among young people, who are most affected by unemployment, leaves more and more room for nostalgia for the times that were. And in the memory of Ben Ali’s authoritarian regime it seems to have become a sort of age of plenty, in which there was no freedom of speech, but at least plenty of food.

Saïed’s No to the International Monetary Fund. The negotiations with the International Monetary Fund (IMF) for a loan of 1.9 billion dollars still seem bogged down, with the head of state inclined not to accept the austerity conditions imposed by the IMF. The requests for help from the European Union have not had new responses, to the point that the Tunisian government is starting to open a channel of negotiations with the BRICS, the emerging industrial powers. The group, which is made up of Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa, has shown tremendous economic dynamism in recent years, so much so that the collective contribution to global GDP has reached 31.5 percent, against 30.7 percent of the countries belonging to the G7, i.e. the USA, Germany, France, Italy, Canada, Japan and the United Kingdom. Argentina, Saudi Arabia, Algeria and Iran have applied to join the organization.

Relations with Damascus. Even the reopening of a Tunisian embassy in Syria can be seen as a sign of lack of confidence in the West and its financial institutions, especially after the US administration, through the voice of Secretary of State Anthony Blinken, has proposed to make US support for the IMF loan conditional on greater democratic openness. Also in recent days Human Rights Watch he raised an alarm for the progressive loss of democratic spaces in the Mediterranean country, asking international leaders to put pressure on Tunisia to stop the repression of all dissidents.

The role of the Italian Cooperation. In this scenario remains the commitment of Italian cooperation (AICS), with aid projects, which we went to visit, aimed at the weakest categories. In 2012, the Cooperation launched a project that provides the Tunisian government with a loan on favorable terms: 145 million euros to subsidize public investments. With an average funding of 6.9 million, tenders have been launched since 2012 with a total of 15 Tunisian administrations that have benefited from the credits. Most of the money – 40 percent – went to the agricultural sector; 15 percent to vocational training; 12 percent to public health; 11 percent to education.

Fishing as a source of life. Once in Djerba, with its turquoise sea rippled by the strong March wind, the fishermen approached the coast with wooden boats full of the day’s fruits, welcomed by the seagulls. For more than a year on this island famous for its Mediterranean beaches and white towns that allude to Berber and Arab passages, fishermen have no longer landed on the shores, as still happens in Hammam Lif, in the poor suburbs of Tunis, but have docked in small marinas built with the resources of the Italian Cooperation, precisely to avoid them uncomfortable and dangerous landing maneuvers on the beach. And this happens thanks to the project Nemo-Kantara, which is the Cooperation’s attempt to respond – which the daily news reveals to us to be insufficient – to poverty and also to the now daily, massive departures to Italy. Designed to improve the ability of fishermen and farmers of Djerba and coastal communities to react to a difficult context, the objective of the initiative Nemo-Kantara is to reduce poverty by aiming to diversify the incomes and productions of workers in the fishing sector.

The contribution of AICS. “The Italian Cooperation has allocated 5 million to Ciheam in Bari, a center for post-university training, applied scientific research and the planning of interventions in the context of international cooperation”, explains Stefano Carbonara, marine biologist. “With these funds, computer equipment, refrigerated cells and sterilizers, a monitoring laboratory for shellfish, five piers for mooring small fishing boats were purchased, otherwise forced to unload the fish on the shore in a complicated and risky way, the renewal of the Houmt Souk market, the training of technicians”, continues Carbonara. The Nemo-Kantara it serves to support and encourage the sustainable development of coastal communities in areas such as Médenine, Gabes, Sfax, Bizerte, Nabeul, also through the birth of start-ups managed by women and young people.

Poverty programmes. Another initiative, carried out by local institutions in partnership with theInternational Organization for Migration (IOM) with a total financial contribution of the Cooperation of 2.9 million euros, is aimed at encouraging a flow of investments from the Tunisian diaspora, in particular those residing in Italy, towards the populations living in the poorest areas. From the governorate of Kef, in Jendouba, in the north-western region, to Médenine and Tataouine, in the south-eastern region. The project helps to develop work and thus reduce a high rate of poverty, which is the classic origin of migratory phenomena.

Debt conversion. The debt conversion agreement is also very significant. For a total amount of 50 million euros, the agreement provides that the installments paid by the Tunisian government will not be returned, but intended for the implementation of development projects in the national territory. Until now, the sectors of basic health, the redevelopment of small infrastructures, employment opportunities and a general improvement in the living conditions of the populations have been privileged.

The presbytery of Santa Croce. It was 3 October 2017 when the ancient church of Santa Croce, in the Medina of Tunis, always so colorful and noisy, was inaugurated with a new and important function, namely that of the Mediterranean Center of Applied Arts. The restoration was carried out thanks to an intervention by the Italian Cooperation, financed with an amount of around 430 thousand euros. The project is part of a program to safeguard the historical-artistic and monumental heritage of the Tunis Medina, which aims to enhance it both as a place of high cultural value and as a resource for socio-economic development. The objective is precisely that of creating a center for craft training, museological exhibitions and cultural initiatives that had the Mediterranean as a leitmotif, seen as a place for meeting, commerce and exchange between coastal countries and cultures.

Light for artists. One in Sidi Bou Said, another in Tunis Denden and again in Monastir and in Kef: Tunisian artists, craftsmen and creatives, in these areas, finally have bright and welcoming work spaces, where they can conceive, create, produce works high quality and design. A small milestone for the country achieved by UNIDO, the United Nations organization for industrial development, thanks to funding from the European Union of 5 million euros and an allocation from the Italian Cooperation of 710 thousand euros.

Aloe as hope for the future. Hanen Hammami is a small producer of organic Aloe Vera from Bizerte, where she owns and cultivates about half a hectare of land. 65 km from Tunis, Bizerte is the northernmost city on the African continent and boasts a perfect climate for this type of crop, which could not survive too low temperatures. Hanen Hammami’s Aloe sprouts are protected in a greenhouse, then replanted in the open field and irrigated with a drip system. A modern production system, created thanks to the financing of the Cooperation, of the Italian NGO CEFA, committed to the promotion of sustainable agriculture, and of the Municipality of Fano. A total of one and a half million euros have been allocated for the agricultural micro-enterprise, with the idea of ​​tackling the problems of employment for young people and women, the abandonment of family agricultural production, the loss of biodiversity and the increase bad eating habits.