Supporting the Government of Tunisia in the development of a system of internationally comparable indicators at the subnational level

Tunisia’s new constitution, adopted in 2014, places regional development as one of the government’s main priorities, and gives local authorities a key role in economic and social planning and development. Five years after the revolution, significant regional disparities persist; the Strategic Development Plan 2016-2020 seeks to reduce them for the duration. The project is part of a broader initiative on Supporting the design and implementation of economic and social reforms for inclusive growth in Tunisia through capacity building in statistics, monitoring and evaluation, supported by the Middle East and North Africa Transition Fund. It is developed in collaboration with the Ministry of Development, Investment and International Co-operation of the Government of Tunisia.  

Improving regional statistics for an inclusive and sustainable territorial development in Tunisia (2019) || Améliorer les statistiques régionales pour un développement territorial inclusif et durable en Tunisie (2019)

This report aims to provide recommendations for improving territorial statistics in Tunisia in order to support inclusive growth across the entire Tunisian territory. The report proposes a statistical classification of Tunisian territories which allows international comparisons with OECD countries in terms of socio-economic trends in urban and rural areas. These classifications along with a set of statistical indicators can help Tunisian policy makers strengthen inclusive regional development with targeted policies that address region-specific development challenges.

The report also examines aspects of and offers recommendations for better governance of the statistics system in Tunisia, in order to improve its capacity to provide robust and up-to-date territorial statistics. Modernising the system and governance of territorial statistics in Tunisia can improve its policy relevance and help make the most of digitalisation to inform evidence-based policies.

Access the report (in French only)

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Objective of the project

This project aims to improve the implementation, monitoring and evaluation of regional development policies in Tunisia through a strengthened governance of regional statistics. The work will provide a diagnosis of: 

• the governance of regional statistics
• data gaps in the context of a reformed multi-level governance system
• capacity needs at the national and the subnational level to carry out new functions in the production and use of regional statistics.

Main outputs of the project

• A capacity-building workshop organised and facilitated by the OECD to support the sustainability of Tunisian regional indicator production over time and the use of territorial indicators in policy making. International experiences will be presented to foster knowledge transfer. 
• A report summarising the results of the diagnosis; this document will be peer reviewed by the OECD Working Party on Territorial Indicators. 
• Tunisia’s inclusion in the 2018 OECD Regions at a Glance publication

Field studies

The first field study took place on 22-24 March 2017. The OECD participated in the first meeting of the Steering Committee of the project organised by the Ministry of Development, Investment & International Cooperation and interviewed the following key stakeholders of regional statistics in the country. 

• Tunisian Ministry of Development, Investment and International Co-operation (MDICI)
• Statistics Tunisia (INS)
• Ministry of Social Affairs
• Bureau of Research, Planning and Programming
• Ministry of Employment,  National Observatory for Employment and Qualifications (ONEQ)
• Ministry of Finance
• Commission in Support of Decentralisation (Instance d’appui à la decentralisation)

The mission was also an opportunity to finalise the implementation plan with the MDICI and to launch the main activities of the project.