German Council on Foreign Relations No. 2 January 2020 – first published in REPORT December 2018 Edited Volume Tunisia’s Fragile Democracy Decentralization, Institution-Building and the Development of Marginalized Regions – Policy Briefs from the Region and Europe Edited by Dina Fakoussa and Laura Lale Kabis-Kechrid 2 No. 2 | January 2020 – first published in December 2018 Tunisia’s Fragile Democracy REPORT The following papers were written by participants of the workshop “Promotion of Think Tank Work on the Development of Marginalized Regions and Institution-Building in Tunisia,” organized by the German Council on Foreign Relations’ Middle East and North Africa Program in the summer and fall of 2018 in cooperation with the Friedrich-Ebert-Stiftung in Tunis. The workshop is part of the program’s project on the promotion of think tank work in the Middle East and North Africa, which aims to strengthen the scientific and technical capacities of civil society actors in the region and the EU who are engaged in research and policy analysis and advice. It is realized with the support of the German Federal Foreign Office and the Institute for Foreign Cultural Relations (ifa e.V.). The content of the papers does not reflect the opinion of the DGAP. Responsibility for the information and views expressed herein lies entirely with the authors. The editorial closing date was October 28, 2018. Authors: Aniseh Bassiri Tabrizi, Mohamed Lamine Bel Haj Amor, Arwa Ben Ahmed, Elhem Ben Aicha, Ahmed Ben Nejma, Laroussi Bettaieb, Zied Boussen, Giulia Cimini, Rim Dhaouadi, Jihene Ferchichi, Darius Görgen, Oumaima Jegham, Tahar Kechrid, Maha Kouas, Anne Martin, and Ragnar Weilandt Edited by Dina Fakoussa and Laura Lale Kabis-Kechrid No. 2 | January 2020 – first published in December 2018 3 REPORT Tunisia’s Fragile Democracy THE AUTHORS Aniseh Bassiri Tabrizi is a research fellow at the Royal United Services Institute (RUSI) and a visiting fellow at the Department of War Studies, at King’s College London. Her research is concerned with security in the Middle East. She com- pleted her PhD at the Department of War Studies at King’s College London, focus- ing on the diplomatic initiative of France, Germany, and the UK (E3) on the Iranian nuclear issue. Mohamed Lamine Bel Haj Amor is the head of the inspection of the Municipality of Tunis and mission leader at the Mayor’s office of Tunis since August 2015. From 2005 to 2015, he worked as a controller of public expenditures at the Presidency of the Government. He has broad experience as a consultant and trainer in the fields of public finance, public procurement, decentralization, and local gover- nance. Arwa Ben works as a counter-terrorism project officer at the British Embassy in in Tunis, Tunisia. At the time of the workshop, she worked at the United States Institute of Peace (USIP) as part of the Security Sector Reform Project team. She is a member of the International Student Young Pugwash (ISYP) and a PhD stu- dent, researching illicit trade and arms transfers in the MENA region. Elhem Ben Aicha is an animal husbandry engineer at the National Institute of Zoosanitary Vigilance in Tunis, Tunisia, where she works on topics related to ani- mal health economics and cost benefit analysis. She is also a PhD student at the National Agronomy Institute in Tunis. Ahmed Ben Nejma has been working with different NGOs on a variety of national and international causes since 2009. He is a national trainer in the Participatory Budgeting Process, training and supporting local municipality members and local NGOs in nineteen Tunisian municipalities to implement Participatory Budgeting. Laroussi Bettaieb serves as head of the Knowledge Management Center at Skills to Success (StS), a local development organization based in Tataouine, Tunisia. StS aims to develop tangible solutions to socio-economic challenges facing southern Tunisia. Zied Boussen is the head of Pandora Consulting – a Tunisian research and train- ing center specialized in governance, public policies, and human rights. He is also a research fellow at the Arab Reform Initiative in in Tunis, Tunisia. At the time of the workshop, he worked as a researcher for Pandora Consulting. He holds an MA in International Law, with a focus on post-conflict state building and reconstruc- tion from the University of Aix-Marseille, France. Giulia Cimini is a post-doctoral researcher at the University of Bologna, Italy, with a research grant from the Gerda Henkel Foundation. At the time of the work- shop, she worked as a teaching assistant in Politics at the Università L’Orientale of Naples, where she defended her PhD with a dissertation entitled “The chang- ing nature and role of political parties in post-2011 Tunisia and Morocco.” Her research focuses on political parties’ evolution, contentious politics, and security reforms in North Africa, as well as on European foreign policy and democracy assistance in the Southern Mediterranean. 4 No. 2 | January 2020 – first published in December 2018 Tunisia’s Fragile Democracy REPORT Rim Dhaouadi is a Tunis-based lawyer and researcher in international law and security studies. She has over six years of experience in the non-profit sector in Tunisia and abroad, working with international organizations such as Democracy Reporting International (DRI) and the Geneva Center for Democratic Governance of Armed Forces (DCAF). She holds an LL.M. degree in International Law from the Faculty of Law and Political Science of Aix-en-Provence, France. Jihene Ferchichi is a legal consultant at the Houerbi Law Firm in Tunisia. She is also active with civil society associations in Tunisia with a main focus on devel- oping policies related to civil, economic, and political rights. Darius Görgen is an MSc student of Physical Geography at the University of Mar- burg, Germany. At the time of the workshop, he also worked as an external con- sultant for the Deutsche Gesellschaft für Internationale Zusammenarbeit (GIZ) on intersectoral approaches to water resource management. Oumaima Jegham is an advocacy officer at Oxfam in Tunisia. At the time of the workshop, whe was a project analyst within the budget observatory “Marsad Bud- get” team at the Tunisian NGO Al Bawsala. In her role as an analyst, she worked on analyzing, simplifying, and visualizing budgetary data to reach as many people as possible and raise awareness about public finance issues in Tunisia. She has also conducted research and advocacy activities, most notably on the current reform of the budgetary process, and on inclusive growth and tax reform matters. Tahar Kechrid is a project officer with the German Energy Agency (dena). At the time of the workshop, he was an MA candidate at the Hertie School of Gover- nance in Berlin, where he studied International Affairs with a focus on security and sustainability. In addition, he worked as a student assistant with dena. He previously worked with Search for Common Ground (SFCG) in Tunisia, where he worked directly with civil society organizations and youth councils throughout the governorates of Tunisia. Maha Kouas is an architect, urban planner, and PhD student in Urban Sociology at the University of Tunis, Tunisia, and in Urban Planning at the École Polytech- nique de Bruxelles – ULB in Belgium. Her research focuses on the development of metropolitan areas and the increase of their socio-spatial inequalities. Anne Martin was studying on the Master’s programm in Middle Eastern Poli- tics and Economics at the Philipps University of Marburg, Germany, at the time of the workshop, where she focused on social movements, contentious politics, and social inequalities in the Maghreb. In 2017/2018, she worked at the Deut- sche Gesellschaft für Internationale Zusammenarbeit (GIZ) on a project to pro- mote city-to-city cooperation between municipalities from Germany, Algeria, Morocco, and Tunisia. Ragnar Weilandt is a post-doctoral researcher at the Katholieke Universiteit Leuven and an adjunct professor at Vesalius College Brussels, Belgium. At the time of the workshop, he was a PhD fellow at the University of Warwick and the Université libre de Bruxelles. His doctoral research focused on EU democracy promotion in Tunisia, and his broader research agenda includes the impact of Brexit on the EU, the EU’s external action towards its Southern Neighbourhood, as well as the state of civil society and democracy across the Arab world. No. 2 | January 2020 – first published in December 2018 5 REPORT Tunisia’s Fragile Democracy THE EDITORS Dina Fakoussa has been head of the German Council on Foreign Relations’ (DGAP) Middle East and North Africa Program, formerly the EU-Middle East Forum, since March 2011. She previously worked as a program and project manager on issues regarding democratization, human rights, civil conflict resolution, and strength- ening civil society in the Arab region. Laura Lale Kabis-Kechrid has been a program officer in the Middle East and North Africa program since 2015. In addition to her work on Turkish domestic and foreign policies, she is involved in projects focusing on developments in North Africa and Jordan. Table of content INTRODUCTION 7 by Laura Lale Kabis-Kechrid Chapter I: Decentralization and State-Citizen Relations LOCAL GOVERNANCE IN TUNISIA – A HOLISTIC 13 DECENTRALIZATION STRATEGY by Mohamed Lamine Bel Haj Amor WHEN WILL LOCAL TAXATION REFORM IN TUNISIA 16 COMMENCE? by Zied Boussen THE LACK OF EFFECTIVE PARTICIPATION IN THE 23 TUNISIAN DECENTRALIZATION AND DEMOCRATIZATION PROCESS by Ahmed Ben Nejma EFFECTIVE YOUTH