Improving Foreign Support to Tunisia’s Civil Society

Since the 2011 uprising, “civil society” is at the heart of cooperation and development strategies
of the main international donors in Tunisia. The often stated objective is to reinforce the role of civil
society to promote human rights and democratic reforms, as well as to assist civil society to grow
and become stronger as part of a broader effort to promote democracy.
To concretise their support, these donors usually fund projects, which can be considered an aid delivery
method known as “project-approach”. But in a political context where the notion of civil society
is still blurry, where the role of Tunisian civil society organisations (CSOs) in the democratic process
is not yet established, the project-approach as currently practiced is not sustainably contributing
to the good realisation of the donors’ stated objective nor does it serve Tunisia’s consolidation
of democracy. Therefore, adjustments must be applied to the way development aid is currently
delivered to Tunisian CSOs, in order to allow them to go beyond mere project implementation and
bring a qualitative contribution to Tunisia nascent democracy.

by Nadia Cherif