The 11th Steering Committee of the Swiss cooperation programme in Tunisia met on Friday February 4, 2022 at the Ministry of Economy and Planning in the presence of the Tunisian authorities and representatives of the Swiss cooperation in Tunisia.
Representatives of the various organisations concerned took part in this meeting, which aimed to take stock of the past year and discuss the prospects for the implementation of the programme in 2022.
“Switzerland continues to implement its 2021-2024 cooperation programme launched in April 2021, which provides for support of 25 million Swiss francs per year (about 75 million Tunisian dinars) in the form of a grant. The first year of the programme was undoubtedly marked by the continued presence of the pandemic and the political uncertainty in Tunisia”.
Swiss Cooperation has had to adapt its commitments to the changing context in the country and take the necessary adjustment measures to ensure the continued and effective implementation of its projects, explains the Ministry of the Economy.
As a result, Swiss cooperation and its Tunisian partners have managed to implement new projects, most of which have progressed as planned. In the economic field, the new projects “TAKWEEN” on vocational training and “BIOREST” on organic agriculture as a means of combating global warming were launched, as was the new programme of the International Finance Corporation (IFC) on good practices in environmental and corporate governance.
“Another important priority of the Swiss cooperation programme in Tunisia is governance, where the second phase of the “RESPECT” programme on the prevention of violent extremism and the “IPDLI” pilot initiative, which aims to strengthen the capacity of municipalities to rehabilitate health centres and schools, have been launched.
Finally, in the field of migration and protection, the preparatory phases of several large-scale projects were carried out, in particular with a view to the launch of the “PERSPECTIVES” project on circular migration and the “EJRM” regional programme on support for unaccompanied children and young people on the migration routes of West and North Africa.
In order to ensure optimal coordination with other donors and to effectively support the structural reforms undertaken by Tunisia, Swiss cooperation has also joined the new Tunisia Economic Resilience and Inclusion Umbrella Fund (TERI) of the World Bank in 2021.
The TERI fund aims to strengthen Tunisia’s capacity to respond to current economic and social challenges and to support reforms, including decentralisation. The latter theme has become a cross-cutting priority in the 2021-2024 cooperation programme.
The Steering Committee meeting was also an opportunity to review the emergency aid provided by Switzerland to Tunisia in the context of the COVID-19 crisis. The Swiss Cooperation reaffirmed its confidence that the 8.1 million Swiss francs (about 25 million Tunisian dinars) mobilised to increase the economic resilience of the communes most affected by the health crisis will be disbursed for relevant initiatives in the communes selected by the Caisse de prêts et de soutien des collectivités locales (CPSCL).
This emergency assistance was provided by Switzerland under the World Bank’s Urban Development and Local Governance Programme (UDLGP).
TunisianMonitorOnline
