TUNISIA - Supporting decentralisation and local governance

The Tunisia Local Governance Project 2018-2022 (TLGP 2018-2022) is the continuation of the Tunisia Local Governance Project 2015-2017 and is foreseen for a period of 48 months. The project will continue to support the democratic transition and the establishment of a democratic system of government that is based on the principle of subsidiarity in a similar way to the previous project phase, namely the provision of technical assistance to the Tunisian Parliament, relevant national Ministries, the Tunisian Local governments association (FNVT) and its members and civil society partners in order to develop proposals on specific aspects of decentralisation and drive their organisational development.

TLGP 2018-2022 understands democracy as a means to achieve the project’s overall objective; Improved conditions for human development in Tunisia through improved local government performance with the specific project objective Improved provisions for democratic local governments to interact with and respond to women’s and men’s needs and demands.

The project will apply a highly flexible and actor-centred approach. Their advancement will contribute to the stipulated objectives above. By completion, it is expected that the project will have contributed to the following:

• Legislators, contributing government institutions and other public entities strengthen legal framework of Local governments to deliver inclusive services to men and women that best fit decentralisation in Tunisia
• Relevant state bodies coordinate, monitor and contribute to a gender aware decentralisation process and support municipalities after decentralisation
• National bodies relevant to local financial management, oversight and control support local governments in realising their roles and establish routines for preventing corruption
• FNVT represents local governments towards the national government and other entities and offers services that strengthen their performance, build their capacities and enables exchange with other LGs, as well as contributes to effective and gender responsive service delivery

The project will include a special emphasis on gender equality and will provide training to Tunisian partners on tools for gender mainstreaming, gender communication and gender awareness.