DataFeed

Tunisia

11.9

Population 2021
(Millions)

0.74

HDI Score
2019 (Max. 1)

70.7

SDG Score
2020-2021
(Max. 100)

0.30

Gender Inequality
Index Score
(Max. 1)

66

Internet Inclusivity
Index 2022
(100 countries)

Sources: 1. World Bank (2021), 2. UNDP (2019), 3. Sustainable Development Report (2021), 4. UNDP (2019), 5. Economist Impact (2022).

Overview

Located in North Africa and spread over a coastal region, mountains, a hilly steppe and even some of the Sahara Desert, Tunisia benefits from significant natural resources (including phosphate and petroleum), in addition to other diversified economic activities. These advantages have led to an upper-middle income classification for the small country. However, many important challenges are still present in Tunisia, impeding social, economic, and political progress. Perhaps most famously, Tunisia is where the Arab Spring began in 2010, which led to the overthrow of the government. Despite emerging from the Arab Spring as a democracy, the country still faces a number of challenges, including high unemployment, continued corruption, and outsized impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic on one of its main revenue streams (tourism).

Projects

Professional Training Program “Leveraging Big Data for Sustainable Development”

  • Colombia, Kenya, Senegal, Brazil, Tunisia,
  • 2016 - 2019
  • P2 - AI and Statistics for the SDGs

Carried on in partnership with United Nations System Staff College (UNSSC), this series of courses aimed to help practitioners and policy-makers to develop and implement Big Data innovation projects, policies, and partnerships in support of sustainable development objectives. The content was structured into three main modules: contexts and concepts; methods and tools; and strategy and conception / ethics and engagement. The workshops were delivered in Cambridge at MIT (June 2016), Bogotá (December 2016), Nairobi (June 2017), Dakar (March 2018), Bangkok (March 2018), and the MIT Media Lab (October 2018). The same workshop was also conducted in Tunisia (April 2019) with support from UN Tunisie.

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Mental Health and Gender Inequality in the MENA Region: An Analysis of Shock Related Factors Within the Context of the COVID-19 Pandemic

  • Egypt, Jordan, Morocco, Tunisia,
  • May 2021 - May 2022
  • P3 - Resilient Livelihoods and Ecosystems

In partnership with the French Development Agency (AFD) and the Economic Research Forum (ERF), DPA produced a research paper investigating the potential associations between the socioeconomic impacts of COVID-19 on the gendered mental health inequalities in the MENA region. The study adopted a mixed-methods approach, based on a thorough literature review, and the analysis of quantitative data via the application of the Oaxaca-Blinder (OB) decomposition model. The results of this study were used to produce a policy paper with targeted recommendations to mitigate the impacts of the pandemic on women’s mental health, as well as to improve their social and economic well-being.

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Support to the Design of Tunisia’s National Strategy for Development of Statistics (NSDS)

  • Tunisia,
  • June 2022 - April 2023
  • P2 - AI and Statistics for the SDGs

DPA, in collaboration with the UN System in Tunisia, the National Statistical Council (NSC), the National Institute of Statistics (NIS), and under the implementation leadership of UNDP, sought to assist the NSC and the NIS in the development of the National Strategy for the Development of Statistics in the country. The general objectives of this consultancy focused primarily on (i) Identifying the strengths, weaknesses and needs of the Tunisian National Statistical System (NSS) through a comprehensive strategic review of the NSS; (ii) Developing a National Strategy for the Development of Statistics that facilitated the timely production of reliable statistics to contribute to informed public policy making aligned with the SDGs; and (iii) Developing a three-year action plan and a financing plan to effectively implement the NSDS.