Benchmarking the MAP in Tunisa
Who:
World Bank Group & ProFound
What:
In 2018-2019, the World Bank Group worked on a program to support structural change in the Tunisian economy. ProFound participated in these efforts through the development of a Benchmark Analysis on Medicinal and Aromatic Plants, focused on one of the poorest regions in Tunisia: the Northwest.
Service:
Where:
Northen Tunisa
PROJECT DESCRIPTION:
In Tunisia, development is happening faster along the coast. Internal regions, particularly the Northwest and the Center West, lag behind. Here, around 47% of the poor live. Job opportunities are low, and indicators in education, employment, and health are also low. Even though agriculture is the main activity in these regions, the income remains quite low. They also face challenges regarding resource management and the impacts of climate change.
This report was part of the “Value Chain Development for Jobs in Lagging Regions – Let’s Work Program in Tunisia” and aimed to identify the challenges affecting the creation and productivity of jobs and opportunities for locals and small-scale farmers.
The objective was to improve the position of local firms and the efficiency of the value chain through a series of policy recommendations based on benchmarking analysis using case studies in Kosovo, Nepal, Albania, and Egypt. If these countries have faced similar challenges and bottlenecks, what can they teach us? How did they solve these problems? This was part of the study as well.
Results
This report is based on the notion that by improving the value chains, better and more jobs can be created. It also concluded that:
- The Medicinal and Aromatic Plants (MAPs) sector in Tunisia offers good opportunities.
- Kosovo, Nepal, Albania and Egypt, countries with a strong medicinal and aromatic plants sector, have faced similar bottlenecks, what best practices help these countries overcome them? How can these be applied to the MAP sector in Tunisa?
- It offered policy recommendations to address the challenges in the MAP sector.
- It concluded that growth should go hand in hand with sustainable practices. Six areas were identified to achieve sustainable growth objectives: a) reform of the forests code12 b) domestication of spontaneous MAPs and planting of cultivated MAPs c) better access to strategic markets d) processing and innovation e) coordination of producers and collaboration with industries, and f) improved access to financing.
Youth Employment
Youth mainly contribute as unskilled permanent workers across the distribution and manufacturing sectors.
Establishments
Mention access to finance as a top obstacle.
Access to finance is the most common obstacle faced by actors.
Companies
Dominate access to resources and are largely export-oriented.
Individual or Family Owned Farms
Dominate access to resources and are largely export-oriented.
Women-Led Business
42 % in manufacturing and lowest in distribution (5 %). In most cases, women are the ones doing the picking of the plants, and constitute most of the seasonal and temporary workforce.
Service Providers
With improved capacity to provide service support.
A woman who spoons 10 kg per day will have 20 to 25 dinars. Men will get a little more even if they work less than women.
To learn more about the Value Chain Development, Let’s Work Together in Tunisa overall results, please go to:
The objective of the benchmarking exercise is to: i) to identify good practices used in other countries to solve bottlenecks comparable to the ones identified through the MAPs survey in Tunisia, and ii) to inform policy recommendations that could improve the productivity of the Tunisian MAPs sector as it exists today.