Strengthening employment promotion structures in rural and pre-urban Tunisia

projekt beendet

ContextDespite the economic potential of Tunisia’s rural regions in agriculture, tourism, crafts and other sectors, these regions suffer from several socio-economic issues. One of them is unemployment, which for young people is close to 20 per cent. In some disadvantaged regions, this rate reaches 30 per cent, despite the multiple interventions of several actors (institutions, private sector and civil society).In order to deal with unemployment, it is essential to help young people develop their capacities and raise their awareness for employment opportunities.ObjectiveMore people in selected rural regions use services that help them to find work and support them to improve their socio-economic situation.ApproachThe project "Promoting Employment in Rural Regions" (PERR) suggests a chain of specific solutions that intend to meet the expectations of young men and women in terms of employment and employability relying on the support and efforts of the public and private sector and the civil society.This project mainly targets the regions of Kairouan, Mahdia, Tozeur and Kebili. The choice of these areas was made together with the Ministry of Professional Training and Employment (MFPE), the political institutional partner of the project.By creating a more enabling environment, the project promotes income generating opportunities by integrating young people into local job markets. Moreover, it promotes the integration of small and medium sized enterprises (SMEs) into value chains.The project aims to create regional platforms for dialogue on employment and seeks to organise training sessions for young people that lead to more promising perspectives on the job market. Moreover, the project aims to establish efficient and innovative qualification and employment services for job-seekers that are based on innovative approaches.In order to achieve this, the project rests on three pillars:1st pillar: Collaborative intelligence for employmentClose cooperation between all the actors involved in the area of employment is of paramount importance for the promotion of employment. Conscious of this reality, the PERR project encourages a permanent and target oriented dialogue between these actors at the regional level, while aligning with the national employment strategy. Smart collaboration makes it possible to enhance the synergies between them in the ecosystem linked to the theme of employment.2nd pillar: Transparency, a guarantee for sustainabilityIn order to ensure the effective implementation of the activities and their sustainability, it is essential to work according to the principles of organisational transparency. Indeed, a governance structure has been set through regional monitoring committees and a central committee.These committees are represented by actors from public institutions, the private sector and civil society.3rd pillar: Establishing best practicesThe strategic choices of the activities take into account the previous results of the project Fund for Training and Promotion of Youth Employment (Employment Fund). Its activities are based on the phenomenon of capitalisation of the good practices of the micro-projects of the Employment Fund as well as the scaling up of successful experiences and their effective implementation in the selected regions.Results• Collaborative measures are planned and implemented by supporting partners, social partners, the private sector and civil society;• Training sessions with attractive perspectives for youth in sectors with high employment potential and entrepreneurship are organised;• Qualification and employment services for job seekers are replicated on the basis of innovative approaches in the selected regions.To align with these intended results, the PERR project aims to create employment dialogue platforms that will be managed by members of public and private institutions linked to employment in each region. Also, the project team works on the awareness of young people on value chains (eg: by-products of the palm grove, small livestock, aromatic and medicinal plants), to provide them with training and capacity building and to support existing agricultural groups. The project also works on promoting entrepreneurship and enterprise establishment (example: SMSAs).

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