Outcome TUN_D_7.1

In 2025, institutions, conducting effective and risk-sensitive public policies in partnership with economic and social actors, put the country's resources at the service of inclusive, sustainable, resilient socio-economic development that generates decent jobs, particularly for the most vulnerable. (UNSDCF Effect 1)

Institutions made progress toward conducting effective and risk-sensitive public policies in partnership with economic and social actors and put the country's resources at the service of inclusive, sustainable, resilient socio-economic development that generates decent jobs, particularly for the most vulnerable. Government institutions ensured a focus on SDGs and socio-economic gaps in one strategic plan and related public policies. Aligned with top national priorities on promoting decent working conditions for women in rural areas, the Ministry of Family, Women, Children and Elderly (MFFES) is developing, with substantial technical support from UN Women, a National Action Plan on Economic Empowerment of Rural Women. The action-oriented plan will aim at promoting decent and safe working conditions for women in rural areas, who are currently responsible for more than 70% of the rural working force but remain largely marginalized in the informal sector. UN Women is providing technical support for the development of the strategy, ensuring that it is action-oriented, with SMART indicators and budgeted for implementation. The support is being provided through the deployment of a national economist who has been working closely with MFFES representatives, and other line ministries in the design of the new strategy.

In 2025, institutions, conducting effective and risk-sensitive public policies in partnership with economic and social actors, put the country's resources at the service of inclusive, sustainable, resilient socio-economic development that generates decent jobs, particularly for the most vulnerable. (UNSDCF Effect 1)

The outcome is on track with progress made in the area of gender-sensitive public policies, as two major institutions for policymaking and implementation in Tunisia have committed to gender equality and women’s empowerment through Memorandums of Understanding (MoU) and programmatic collaboration with UN Women. First, the National School of Administration (NSA) signed an MOU with UN Women. The NSA is an important public administrative institution under the supervision of the Presidency of the government and mandated to ensure training for high and medium-level civil servants during the tenure of their positions. An MoU was signed between the National School of Administration and UN Women on 27 May 2022. As a result, 35 senior government officials, including 26 women, from the gender units of seven ministries have improved their knowledge in planning and implementing gender-sensitive public policies according to the training report of a training series provided by UN Women. Participating ministries included: the Ministry of Family, Women, Children and Elderly (MFFEPA), the Ministry of Finance, the Ministry of Education, the Ministry of Higher Education and Scientific Research, the Ministry of Interior, the Ministry of Justice, and the Ministry of Equipment and Housing. In interviews with participants, they confirmed the success of the training and asked for additional training for the future. The training included the following modules, with two days per module: Team building in the context of governance and gender (September) Communication and public speaking (October) Inclusive governance and women's rights (October) Strategic planning towards the integration of gender perspective in the whole process as a lever of good governance (October) Organizational leadership towards a balanced representation of men and women in management and positions of power (October) Drafting of gender-sensitive legal texts (October) Advocacy and negotiation techniques (November) Gender-Responsive Budgeting (GRB) (November) Human resource management towards the integration of a gender perspective (November) Public policies and gender (November) Managerial practices to reduce professional gender inequalities (November) Women's leadership and knowledge transfer (December) UN Women conceptualised the training and hired the expert trainers and the NSA provided the training venue throughout the three months, all under a programme financed by the Government of Canada. Second, the Ministry of Finance has increased their commitment and capacity for gender-sensitive public policies and budgets. The Ministry of Finance and UN Women also formalized their partnership in an MoU signed on 27 May 2022. Within the framework of this partnership, 45 senior civil servants (10 men and 35 women) increased their understanding of gender-responsive budgeting (GRB). They represented the following ministries: MFFEPA, the Ministry of Finance, the Ministry of Education, the Ministry of Higher Education and Scientific Research, the Ministry of Interior, the Ministry of Justice, and the Ministry of Equipment and Housing. According to the training report, participants improved their ability to prepare sectoral action plans for gender mainstreaming and institutionalizing gender and to promote gender equality at all levels of the public budgeting process. During this training, the Finance Ministry’s Unit for Results-Based Budgeting (GBO) developed and provided the participants with “Gender-Responsive Budgeting sheets” (“Fiches BSG”) which explain how to integrate gender into budgetary processes. Throughout the workshop, the expert trainer used these sheets and updated them to explain in detail how every ministry may mainstream gender into their respective processes to develop gender-sensitive policies and budgets. The training report clearly showed the added value of the training with two concrete results: First, the participants are now convinced GRB must be integrated into budget processes and second, they have an actionable tool – the “GRB sheets” –to use to ensure their budgets are indeed gender-sensitive. Prior to this, 43 civil servants among the cohort (28 women and 15 men) had already increased their knowledge of the frameworks, methods and analytical tools of GRB based on feminist economics and how to apply them through two training sessions provided by UN Women between January to March 2022 . There, they learned about the latest and most innovative practices worldwide and evidence-based practices that facilitate effective implementation of GRB. In addition, they learned how GRB fits into the framework of the Sustainable Development Goals. The training also facilitated peer-to-peer exchange and learning of participants' innovative strategies, processes and good practices through discussion forums and experiences from other countries such as Morocco and Senegal. At the end of the training, participants were able to analyse the current state of GRB practices in Tunisia and develop GRB strategies that can be adapted to different contexts. Since the participants were the budgeting and planning focal points within their respective ministries, the training efficiently targeted the ideal audience for the implementation and sustainability of the training content. The two GRB training series were organised by UN Women Tunisia in partnership with the Central Unit for Results-Based Budget Management of the Ministry of Finance and in collaboration with the UN Women Training Centre in New York, which provided extensive technical support. Based on progress made, the strategy and theory of change are largely still applicable. If this strategy is successful, impact-level changes in the lives of women through public policies for inclusive, sustainable, resilient socio-economic development are expected in five (5) years.

In 2025, institutions, conducting effective and risk-sensitive public policies in partnership with economic and social actors, put the country's resources at the service of inclusive, sustainable, resilient socio-economic development that generates decent jobs, particularly for the most vulnerable. (UNSDCF Effect 1)

This outcome is partially achieved, as planned. Institutions made progress toward conducting effective and risk sensitive public policies in partnership with economic and social actors and put the country's resources at the service of inclusive, sustainable, resilient socio-economic development that generates decent jobs, particularly for the most vulnerable. Government institutions ensured a focus on SDGs and socio-economic gaps in one strategic plan and related public policies. First, the Ministry of Women launched its work to develop its new national strategy for the economic and social empowerment of women and girls in rural area. 93 executives (40 men and 53 women) from different ministries (Ministry of Women, Ministry of Interior, Ministry of Justice, Ministry of Education, Ministry of Employment, Ministry of Social Affairs, Ministry of Agriculture, Ministry of Health, Ministry of Culture, and Ministry of High Education) had strengthened their awareness towards the role of economic empowerment of women and theirs rights to decent work, in addition to the specific need of empowering women in rural area and exchanged how the national concertation platform will be used to improve the situation of rural women, in particular regarding decent transportation. According to some interviews recorded by different media during the workshop (national radio and some private radios), participants from different ministries reported increased knowledge on the needs of women in rural area. UN Women contributed to this by supporting the Ministry of Women to develop and operationalize the national strategy for the economic and social empowerment of women and girls in rural area 2022-2027. UN Women contributed to the organisation of the launch event by providing an expert and catering for all attendees. Second, 12 key ministries (Ministry of Family, Women, Children, and Seniors; Ministry of Justice; Central GBO Unit - Ministry of Finance; Ministry of Social Affairs ; Ministry of Higher Education; Ministry of Health; Ministry of Interior; Ministry of Tourism; Ministry of Defense; Ministry of Commerce; Ministry of Equipment; Ministry of Technologies of Communication) started using the updated Balanced Scorecard on Gender (BSG) sheets in their Annual Performance Reports 2024 which allow the integration of gender into each ministries’ budget for the year. UN Women contributed to these results by building the capacities of 22 women and 12 men representatives of the 12 key ministries on how to design, create and implement Gender-Responsive Budgeting (GRB) tools – in particular the new GRB sheet- and Law 2017-58 on Ending Violence Against Women. Workshops on the use of BSG sheets in Annual Performance Reports were conducted (in March and in July). UN Women provided the expertise and organizing the capacity-building workshops. The GBO unit co organized the workshops and provided the BSG sheets. Finally, 40 representatives of National Institutions, Ministry of Agriculture (include all regional rural women's support office), Ministry of Women and Ministry of Social Affairs (38 women and 2 men) have increased their knowledge of the basic concepts of target-based budget management, its impact on the government budget, and have increased their understanding of the GRB approach and its entry points in the budget process. Participants have also improved their understanding of the process of adapting the National Action Plan for the Integration and Institutionalization of the Gender Approach on Goal 3: Policies guaranteeing the economic and financial empowerment of women and their right to decent work and equal pay. The representatives of rural women’s support offices are now able to understand their right to decent work and to the equal pay according to the training report. This is a result of a collaboration between UN Women and the GBO Unit. UN Women contributed by providing the trainer, the accommodation, and the catering for participants while the GBO unit contributed by providing technical support.