PADGL - Decentralisation and Local Governance Support Programme

Project

Modernisation of State
Governance

Project start date: October 1 2016

Status
Closed
Project end date: March 31 2018
Financing amount (Euro): 388 382
Country and region: Tunisia, Africa
Funders: Agence Française de Développement

The project supports the Tunisian Ministry of Local Affairs and the Environment in implementing the decentralisation and deconcentration reform.

After choosing in 2014 to enshrine decentralisation in its Constitution, Tunisia adopted a new Local Authorities Code (CCL) in April 2018. A few days later, the first municipal elections since the 2011 revolution were held.

The challenge now is to facilitate the application of this new Code and to support elected representatives in implementing their commitments and the powers that have been transferred to them.

To this end, the project is supporting the Tunisian Ministry of Local Affairs and the Environment (MALE), and in particular its Instance générale de la prospective et de l'accompagnement du processus de la décentralisation (IGPAPD), in implementing the decentralisation and devolution reform in three areas:

Legal: drafting of implementing decrees for the Local Authorities Code and their harmonisation,
Financial: establishment of the High Authority for Local Finance,
Human resources: drawing up an initial social balance sheet for Tunisian municipalities.

Through Lab'Baladiya, the project will also encourage the exchange of best practice between French and Tunisian local authorities.

Strengthening the legal framework for decentralisation

As part of this first component, Expertise France is providing support to strengthen the legal framework for decentralisation.

Initially, an in-depth review of the latest version of the Local Authorities Code was carried out by three teams of French and Tunisian experts in order to define the terms of reference for the drafting of all the priority texts, decrees and laws implementing the Code.

In a second phase, and following the same Franco-Tunisian approach, fourteen decrees were drafted (on local finances, administrative organisation charts, the organisation of the administrative apparatus of the High Council of Local Authorities, etc.) in French and Arabic. This drafting work was combined with the translation into French of all the articles of the Local Authorities Code.

In a third phase, still to come, a Franco-Tunisian team will work to ensure the consistency, conformity and constitutionality of all batches of decrees.

Strengthening the financial framework for decentralisation

The aim of this component is to support the establishment of a High Authority for Local Finance (HIFL) in Tunisia and to improve the mobilisation of financial resources for municipalities.

It will include a study visit by a Tunisian delegation to France, which will enable exchanges of experience and practices for the implementation of the HIFL on the basis of the French Local Finance Committee (CFL). Exchanges with the Cour des Comptes and with French local authorities, particularly on their relationship with central government and the CFL, will also be planned.

A working seminar in Hammamet will then be held to draw up operational and functional guidelines following the study visit.

Training will also be provided for the members who will manage the HIFLM, in particular on mobilising financial resources from local authorities.

Strengthening human resources management policy in local authorities

Four pilot local authorities will be supported in drawing up their social balance sheets, starting with a stage of formalising the methodology for a social balance sheet incorporating agreed indicators tailored to the needs of both the Tunisian local authorities and the IGPAPD.

Lab'Baladiya: promoting the exchange of best practice between French and Tunisian local authorities

Alongside its partners - the National Federation of Tunisian Cities (FNVT) and the French Institute of Tunisia (IFT), Expertise France has helped to organise Lab'Baladiya (‘municipal laboratory’), which have taken the form of six training workshops organised across Tunisia in 2018 and 2019.

The aim is to encourage municipal councillors from France and Tunisia to share their experience and know-how in order to respond to the challenges identified on the ground by Tunisian councillors, based on the experience of French decentralisation. The aim is to exchange innovative solutions in various fields (environment, transport, economic development, etc.) and to encourage the emergence of local projects that could lead to a strengthening of decentralised cooperation links between France and Tunisia.