Tunisia - Evaluation of the performance of the social assistance system in Tunisia and the challenges of informality

The evaluation of the performance of the social assistance system in Tunisia and the challenges of informality was initiated because of a desire to introduce more rationality to social spending while ensuring a significant improvement in its distributive impacts on the beneficiary populations. This project started with the launch of an evaluation survey of the two flagship social assistance programmes in Tunisia, namely: the National Programme of Assistance to Needy Families (PNAFN) and the Programme of Access to Reduced Fee Health Care (AMGII). The former is the only cash transfer programme and one of the most extensive social programmes in terms of population covered and geographical spread. It targets needy families by providing them with direct cash assistance on a monthly basis of around 150 Dinars while offering them free health care. The second programme allows access to care in public health structures for a fixed annual fee (stamp) of 10 TD. The project should also enable the Centre de Recherches et d'Etudes Sociales (CRES) to respond to the government's request to evaluate the social assistance system in Tunisia. This project will allow for a better understanding of the functioning of social assistance programmes and the generation of lessons learned necessary for the implementation of an optimal redeployment strategy for these programmes.