Tunisia

This report assesses climate risks and opportunities and proposes actions. It provides a synthesis of evidence of climate variability and change, impacts, and uncertainties... Show More + associated with climate change that may affect Tunisia’s water, land, agriculture, and coastal zones. The report then provides a detailed analysis of the potential impacts of climate change on food security and gross domestic product (GDP) as well as on local populations looking in particular at seven governorates. The report goes on to discuss possible policy options for reducing human vulnerability and for better adapting to climate variability and change. The report provides guidance to policy makers in Tunisia in three ways. First, it provides a Framework for Action on Climate Change Adaptation, represented by an adaptation pyramid. Second, it puts forward a typology of policy approaches that are relevant to the region in order to facilitate the formulation of effective policy responses by decision makers. Finally, a matrix is provided, which outlines key policy recommendations. Actions align with the World Bank’s 2012 Interim Strategy Note (ISN) for Tunisia, which guides the World Bank investments in Tunisia over the next two years and is focused on three main areas of intervention: (1) sustainable growth and job creation, (2) the promotion of social and economic inclusion by improving access to basic services for underserved communities and improving the efficiency of social safety net programs, and (3) strengthening governance through improved access to public information as the basis for increased social accountability and transparency. Show Less -

In economies characterized by low labor demand and high rates of youth unemployment, entrepreneurship training has the potential to enable youth to gain skills and create... Show More + their own jobs. This paper presents experimental evidence on a new entrepreneurship track that provides business training and personalized coaching to university students in Tunisia. Undergraduates in the final year of licence appliquee were given the opportunity to graduate with a business plan instead of following the standard curriculum. This paper relies on randomized assignment of the entrepreneurship track to identify impacts on labor market outcomes one year after graduation. The analysis finds that the entrepreneurship track was effective in increasing self-employment among applicants, but that the effects are small in absolute terms. In addition, the employment rate among participants remains unchanged, pointing to a partial substitution from wage employment to self-employment. The evidence shows that the program fostered business skills, expanded networks, and affected a range of behavioral skills. Participation in the entrepreneurship track also heightened graduates’ optimism toward the future shortly after the Tunisian revolution. Show Less -

Executive Directors approved the Governance, Opportunity and Jobs Development Policy Loan (DPL) Project to the Republic of Tunisia in the amount of Euro 387 million... Show More + on the payment terms and conditions set out in the President's Memorandum. Executive Directors expressed support for the DPL, which would help Tunisia lay the policy foundations for a more competitive business environment, a strengthened financial sector, more inclusive and accountable social services, and more transparent public governance. However, Directors stressed the need for faster improvements in public sector transparency and accountability, regional development, and social sector and encouraged the authorities to accelerate progress in consolidating the reforms launched in 2011 to secure tangible results. Directors also emphasized the importance of women's inclusion in the Tunisian economy. Going forward, the need to maintain fiscal sustainability was highlighted, and in this context, Directors encouraged the authorities to improve the targeting of social programs toward the most needy. Finally, Directors acknowledged the close collaboration between Bank for Reconstruction and Development (IBRD) and International Finance Corporation (IFC), and other donors in the preparation of the operation. Show Less -

United Nations Environment Program (UNEP) is implementing an effective and innovative program, Projects including the Program Solaire (PROSOL), for financing domestic... Show More + Solar Water Heater (SWH) equipment in Tunisia as part of its Mediterranean Renewable Energies Program (MEDREP). Even with strong consumer confidence in the reliability of SWH technology, the high initial cost of SWHs was still a substantial market barrier when compared to cheaper water heating alternatives such as gas water heaters. Show Less -

There is a growing consensus that what you export matters for growth (see for instance, Haussman and al. 2007 and Krishna and Maloney (2011)). This paper examines whether... Show More + and to what extent Jordan and Tunisia, the two most globally integrated countries of the Middle East and North Africa region, are moving up the technological ladder. To that effect, we use two highly disaggregated panel export database (products captured at the 11-digit level) and a 'product-based' methodology that allows a mapping of products classified by technological content and their sector of origin. We find that Jordan and Tunisia have experienced contrasting dynamics over the last decade. Thanks to its large exports of pharmaceutical products, Jordan enjoys a much higher share of high tech products in its export basket (11.5 percent versus 5.4 percent respectively) but this share has been declining overtime due to the rapid rise of exports of textiles products. In contrast, from a very low basis, Tunisia has been catching up thanks to a slow but steady rise in medium-high tech products (electronics and mechanical components) and a corresponding decline in the preeminence of exports of textile products. Interestingly, success stories identified in both countries are all associated with the establishment of an 'enclave' where transparent 'rules of the game' are credibly enforced with the help of an external policy anchor either through international agreements (e.g. Jordan's free trade agreement with the US and the signature of and compliance with WTO's Intellectual Property Rights) or the establishment of a 'special zone/regime' such as Tunisia's 'offshore' regime and Jordan's Qualifying Industrial Zone. This finding underscores the importance of overcoming institutional weaknesses and establishing transparent and rules-based Government-business relationships as a pre-requisite for successful global integration in developing countries countries. Show Less -

Doing business sheds light on how easy or difficult it is for a local entrepreneur to open and run a small to medium-size business when complying with relevant regulations.... Show More + It measures and tracks changes in regulations affecting 10 areas in the life cycle of a business: starting a business, dealing with construction permits, getting electricity, registering property, getting credit, protecting investors, paying taxes, trading across borders, enforcing contracts and resolving insolvency. In a series of annual reports doing business presents quantitative indicators on business regulations and the protection of property rights that can be compared across 183 economies, from Afghanistan to Zimbabwe, over time. This economy profile presents the doing business indicators for Tunisia. To allow useful comparison, it also provides data for other selected economies (comparator economies) for each indicator. The data in this report are current as of June 1, 2011 (except for the paying taxes indicators, which cover the period January-December 2010). Show Less -

Public-Private Infrastructure Advisory Facility (PPIAF) assistance was requested in early 2003 to fund a study covering cross-sectorial aspects of private participation... Show More + in infrastructure in Tunisia, as well as a round table/dissemination workshop to discuss and build consensus on the findings of the report and disseminate the study to stakeholders. The PPIAF-funded study consisted of an action plan to attract private participation in infrastructure, as well as a report summarizing a legal study, macro-economic study, financial study, employment study, and report on international experience. The PPIAF-funded activity contributed to best practice in several ways. In particular, the close involvement of government officials and local consultants in the study laid foundations for greater ownership. Substance-wise, new types of contracts such as design-build-own, which had not been used in Tunisia before, were introduced. The ministry of transport thus requested PPIAF assistance in 2009 to establish template bidding documents for a concession contract of these logistics zones and to tailor them to a test case regarding the development by private investors of a logistic zone at the port of Rades that can be replicated in other zones. The conceding authority is the Office de la Marine Marchande et des Ports (OMMP), and this concession will be the first case of private investment in logistics zones in Tunisia Show Less -

Among the root causes of the current political turmoil in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) region are the large numbers of unemployed but increasingly educated... Show More + youth. For the region to achieve stability, it will have to ensure a more inclusive and faster growth path and find enough jobs for this cohort. Exports will play a key role in moving in this direction and this fast brief examines the impact of Matching Grants (MG) in supporting exports. This quick note is another addition to this body of work and presents results from one of the first ex-post Impact Evaluation (IE) of an active export promotion MG in a middle income country, Tunisia. This IE was undertaken in preparation of a lending operation. Finally, it must be noted that with the matching process, the untreated group with high propensity score will be more used for comparison than those with low propensity score so this will give more weight to firms that were 'targeted' by second Export Market Access Fund (EMAF). Hence it is key to see if the firms especially targeted by second EMAF would have done better or worse without the support. Show Less -

The health equity and financial protection datasheets provide a picture of equity and financial protection in the health sectors of low-and middle-income countries.... Show More + Topics covered include: inequalities in health outcomes, health behavior and health care utilization; benefit incidence analysis; financial protection; and the progressivity of health care financing. The tables in this report show how health outcomes, risky behaviors and health care utilization vary across asset (wealth) quintiles and periods. The quintiles are based on an asset index constructed using principal components analysis. Benefit-Incidence Analysis (BIA) shows whether, and by how much, government health expenditure disproportionately benefits the poor. The distribution of subsidies depends on the assumptions made to allocate subsidies to households. Under the constant unit cost assumption, each unit of utilization is assumed to cost the same and is equal to total costs incurred in delivering this type of service divided by the number of units of utilization. Show Less -