Study on Civil Society Organizations in Tunisia January 2013 Study on Civil Society Organizations in Tunisia Study on Civil Society Organizations in Tunisia Table of contents INTRODUCTION .......................................................................................................................................... 5 1. CIVIL SOCIETY ORGANIZATION IN TUNISIA ............................................................................................ 7 1.1 HISTORICAL BACKGROUND AND CURRENT CONTEXT .................................................................................................. 7 1.2 OUTLINE OF A TYPOLOGY OF CIVIL SOCIETY ORGANIZATION IN TUNISIA ....................................................................... 11 1.3 THE POLITICAL CONTEXT AND THE RELATIONS BETWEEN CIVIL SOCIETY AND THE GOVERNMENT ....................................... 15 1.3.1 Legal and institutional mechanisms ......................................................................................................... 15 1.3.2 Analysis of the Government’s Views ........................................................................................................ 18 1.4 REVIEW OF PREVIOUS STUDIES ............................................................................................................................. 21 1.4.1 The EMHRN study .................................................................................................................................... 21 1.4.2 The UNDP study ....................................................................................................................................... 23 1.4.3 The study of the European Union ............................................................................................................. 24 1.4.4 The ADB study .......................................................................................................................................... 27 2. CSOS’ CAPACITIES IN TUNISIA.............................................................................................................. 29 2.1 METHODOLOGY ................................................................................................................................................ 29 2.1.1 Capacity index .......................................................................................................................................... 30 2.1.2 Data Collection and Information .............................................................................................................. 30 2.1.3 Data Analysis Tools .................................................................................................................................. 33 2.2 GENERAL CHARACTERISTICS OF THE ASSOCIATIONS UNDER STUDY ................................................................................ 33 2.2.1 Regional Distribution and areas of activity .............................................................................................. 33 2.2.2 Categorization and areas of activity ........................................................................................................ 35 2.2.3 Activité associative ................................................................................................................................... 36 2.3 CSO’S CAPACITY INDEX ...................................................................................................................................... 39 2.3.1 Calculation methodology ......................................................................................................................... 39 2.3.2 Capacity Analysis ..................................................................................................................................... 42 2.3.3 Governance .............................................................................................................................................. 44 2.3.4 Human resources ..................................................................................................................................... 45 2.3.5 Financial resources ................................................................................................................................... 47 2.3.6 Relational performance ........................................................................................................................... 48 2.3.7 Operational performance......................................................................................................................... 49 2.3.8 Some concluding remarks on CSOs’ lack of capacity ................................................................................ 51 3. CSO’S CAPACITY BUILDING: NEEDS IDENTIFICATION ........................................................................... 53 3.1 THE NEEDS INDEX .............................................................................................................................................. 53 3.2 NEEDS ANALYSIS ............................................................................................................................................... 54 3.3 NEEDS PRIORIZATION ......................................................................................................................................... 57 4. DONORS’ INITIATIVES .......................................................................................................................... 59 4.1 THE INTERNATIONAL SUPPORT TO TUNISIAN CIVIL SOCIETY ......................................................................................... 59 4.2 THE FINANCING OF TUNISIAN CSOS’ CAPACITY BUILDING .......................................................................................... 61 5. CONCLUSIONS AND RECOMMANDATIONS .......................................................................................... 63 5.1 STRENGTHS AND WEAKNESSES OF TUNISIAN CSOS .................................................................................................. 63 5.2 PRIORITY AREAS ................................................................................................................................................ 65 5.3 INCREASED EFFICIENCY OF EXISTING INSTRUMENTS ................................................................................................... 65 APPENDIX ................................................................................................................................................. 67 2 Study on Civil Society Organizations in Tunisia List of Tables and Graphs Table 1: Creation of associations by region from January 2011 to May 3, 2012...........................................................................................13 Table 2: EMHRN Suggested categorization of CSOs working in the field of human rights...........................................................................14 Table 3: Tunisian Civil Society: Positive and Negative Aspects …………………………………………………………………………………….25 Table 4: The Tunisian Civil Society Environment: Problems and opportunities ..........................................................................................25 Table 5: Estimated number of active young associations working in the field of human rights (July 2012) ...................................………..30 Table 6: Breakdown of associations by category ……………………………………………………………………………………………………….34 Table 7: Audience targeted by the activities of associations ………………………………………………………………………………………….35 Table 8: Breakdown of associations by date of creation ……………………………………………………………………………………………….35 Table 9: Dynamism of the associations …………………………………………………………………………………………………………………..36 Table 10: Breakdown of associations by availability of premises …………………………………………………………………………………….36 Table 11: Governance: Dimensions and criteria …………………………………………………………………………………………………………38 Table 12: Human Resources: Dimensions and criteria …………………………………………………………………………………………………39 Table 13: Human Resources: Dimensions and criteria …………………………………………………………………………………………………39 Table 14: Relational Performance: Dimensions and criteria ……………………………………………………………………………………………40 Table 15: Operational performance: Dimensions and criteria ………………………………………………………………………………………….40 Table 16: Capacity Index: The dimensions of governance …………………………………………………………………………………………….44 Table 17: Capacity Index: The dimensions of human resources ……………………………………………………………………………………..45 Table 18: Dynamism of the relationships within the association ……………………………………………………………………………………..46 Table 19: Capacity Index: the dimensions of financial resources …………………………………………………………………………………….47. Table 20: Capacity Index: The dimensions of relational performance ……………………………………………………………………………….48 Table 21: Capacity Index: The dimensions of operational performance …………………………………………………………………………….49 Table 22: Needs indicator: Needs areas and dimensions ……………………………………………………………………………………………..52 Table 23: Needs Index by area and region ……………………………………………………………………………………………………………….55 Table 24: Needs index by activity ………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………….56 Table 25: Needs breakdown by priority level ……………………………………………………………………………………………………………..58 Table 26: Planned budgets in support of civil society in Tunisia …………………………………………………………………………………….60 Graph 1: Yearly evolution of the creation of new CSOs in Tunisia …………………………………………………………………………………….7 Graph 2: Evolution of the number of CSOs in Tunisia (1980-2012) …………………………………………………………………………………….7