EIIP Policy Brief

Tunisia: Empowering women through the induced effects of investments for economic diversification

The “Support Programme for the Development of Underprivileged Areas” (AZD) was launched in 2012 in a difficult economic, social and political conjuncture, following the Tunisian revolution.
Its intervention targets five disadvantaged governorates of the interior of the country, namely Siliana, Kef, Kasserine, Sidi Bouzid, and Gafsa. The programme has set up and is running a number of different technical assistance projects to support decent work creation: building infrastructure, training and integration of young and unskilled women into the labour market and providing them self-employment opportunities, and local economic development initiatives.
One of the most important target groups of the project are women due, on the one hand, to the still significant gender gap, and, on the other, the importance of ender equality for economic development.