PROMESS’: Promotion des Organisations et Mécanismes de l’Economie Sociale et Solidaire

Five years after the revolution of January 14, 2011, Tunisia has brought about significant improvements at the political front, such as greater freedom of expression and the establishment of a democratic regime, but failed to generate a similar progress in the economy. The turmoil and instability of the post-revolutionary period in 2012 and 2013 have negatively affected the tourism industry and at the same time diminished the flow of foreign direct investment. The economic difficulties have increased the unemployment rate mainly in rural areas, especially among young people and, within this group, particularly for young women and graduates which in 2014 stood at 14.8% of the active population (11.4% in men, 22.2% women) . In this context, the Dutch funded project DEPART (TUN/12/03/NET), by using ILO’s DEL approach to promote youth employment for young Tunisian men and women in three regions (rural and urban remote areas) Le Kef, Gafsa and Ariana, has successfully implemented action plans to create decent jobs for youth through the full participation of local committees representing all local actors and stakeholders (including ILO social partners), the project achieved all planned outputs focusing on creating decent jobs for youth through social economy enterprises and organizations (SEEO) (cooperatives, social enterprises, group based income generation activities as spin-off associations, etc..) as well as building the capacity of local actors to further support youth employment at the local level, especially in rural remote areas. Building on these achievements the PROMESS’ project will consolidate, replicate and upscale the positive outcomes of DEPART. PROMESS’ will assist the Tunisian government, social partners and civil society in establishing a conductive legal and institutional environment for social and solidarity economy in Tunisia. The project will continue and upscale the successful rural youth employment initiatives implemented under DEPART in the Le Kef governorate, and replicate those in three additional governorates, thus covering the entire North West region. Moreover, PROMESS’ will make its expertise, strategies and tools available to other development projects promoting social and solidarity economy organizations and mechanisms in Tunisia.

Project symbol

TUN/16/01/NLD

Admin unit

CO-Algiers

Start date

01/09/2016

End date

30/09/2020

Total allocation

2995082

Total expenditure

Status

Closed

2995082

Development Partners

Netherlands, Ministry of Foreign Affairs

Country/Countries

Tunisia

Outcomes

Outcome 4: Sustainable enterprises as generators of employment and promoters of innovation and decent work