The Way Forward after the Revolution: Decent Work for Women in Egypt and Tunisia
The project “Decent Work for Women” has been financed by Finland for more than 10 years and in 2023, the project concentrated on climate change as a model project of the ILO in North Africa.
25 March 2024
The project enhanced the partnership with EBRD in Tunisia, consolidated institutional mechanisms related to just transition and consolidated the law number 37 which protects the domestic workers in the Tunisian labour market. Project has previously developed a manual for women entrepreneurs in Tunisia with the CNFCE (Tunisian chamber of commerce for women). The third phase of the project continues until December 2024.
In this regard, the project “Decent Work for Women (Phase III)” in Tunisia has done measurable advancements. In 2023 with the Ministry of Agriculture of Tunisia, the project organized a training workshop on “Gender and Climate Change” for 28 female leaders from Tunisian administration in different regions. In addition, a chapter on “Gender and Climate Change” was developed and added to the Ministry of Agriculture’s procedure manual supporting rural women in Tunisia. Additionally, 25 women farmers received financial education training in collaboration with Ministry of Agriculture and the Central Bank of Tunisia.
Participants at the high-level workshop on the law 37 with the direction of ILO Algiers.
One of the highlights during 2023 was the work done to promote the law number 37 which was passed in the Tunisian parliament in 2021. In 21st of February 2023, the domestic workers contract model was signed between the Minister of Social Affairs and the Minister of Employment of Tunisia. The main idea is that domestic workers rights are better protected and thus, the year 2023 marked important discussions to support the implementation process of this law. Project succeeded to invite high-level tripartite constituents and continued to underline the importance of the discussion related to implement the law on the 21st of February.
Concerning all the three countries (Morocco, Egypt and Tunisia) the highlight in terms of activities was the design of a first regional training on the Role of the Unions in the Just Green Transition and Gender Equality. This training, first of its kind was organized by the ILO Training Centre in Turin in December 2022. The curriculum aims to train Trade Unionists in the three countries on advocacy for the green transition, keeping in mind the effect of climate change on women. In 2022, the training was conducted for Trade Unionists in Egypt targeting 27 trade unionists (11 females and 16 males). In Tunisia, the training targeted 23 people from trade unions (14 females and 9 males) and in Morocco, 29 trade union representants (16 women and 13 men).
These trainings are part of a comprehensive programme and will be followed by an online phase then in-house training in Turin. There, the top performers from the training will take part in a Training of Trainers (ToT) to make sure they have the required capacity to train their Unions members on their own, maximizing such results. In 2024, the project continues to work with the themes of just transition by helping governmental actors in developing gender glossary and further emphasizing the importance of green transition and climate change.
Participants of the workshop for Tunisian Chamber of Commerce of Women in February 2024
Highlights of the work in Tunisia
In Tunisia, the phenomenon of climate change has become timely. It is estimated that in the coming years, the sea levels rise to levels causing severe impact on tourism which is basically the main source of income in Tunisia. For example, the islands of Kerkennah and Djerba and the coastal area of Bizerte may experience severe losses in the industry, which has already been severely impacted by the Covid-19 pandemic. However, ILO needs to support the government efforts to develop mechanisms in a fight against climate change.In this regard, the project “Decent Work for Women (Phase III)” in Tunisia has done measurable advancements. In 2023 with the Ministry of Agriculture of Tunisia, the project organized a training workshop on “Gender and Climate Change” for 28 female leaders from Tunisian administration in different regions. In addition, a chapter on “Gender and Climate Change” was developed and added to the Ministry of Agriculture’s procedure manual supporting rural women in Tunisia. Additionally, 25 women farmers received financial education training in collaboration with Ministry of Agriculture and the Central Bank of Tunisia.
Participants at the high-level workshop on the law 37 with the direction of ILO Algiers.
One of the highlights during 2023 was the work done to promote the law number 37 which was passed in the Tunisian parliament in 2021. In 21st of February 2023, the domestic workers contract model was signed between the Minister of Social Affairs and the Minister of Employment of Tunisia. The main idea is that domestic workers rights are better protected and thus, the year 2023 marked important discussions to support the implementation process of this law. Project succeeded to invite high-level tripartite constituents and continued to underline the importance of the discussion related to implement the law on the 21st of February.
Concerning all the three countries (Morocco, Egypt and Tunisia) the highlight in terms of activities was the design of a first regional training on the Role of the Unions in the Just Green Transition and Gender Equality. This training, first of its kind was organized by the ILO Training Centre in Turin in December 2022. The curriculum aims to train Trade Unionists in the three countries on advocacy for the green transition, keeping in mind the effect of climate change on women. In 2022, the training was conducted for Trade Unionists in Egypt targeting 27 trade unionists (11 females and 16 males). In Tunisia, the training targeted 23 people from trade unions (14 females and 9 males) and in Morocco, 29 trade union representants (16 women and 13 men).
These trainings are part of a comprehensive programme and will be followed by an online phase then in-house training in Turin. There, the top performers from the training will take part in a Training of Trainers (ToT) to make sure they have the required capacity to train their Unions members on their own, maximizing such results. In 2024, the project continues to work with the themes of just transition by helping governmental actors in developing gender glossary and further emphasizing the importance of green transition and climate change.
2024 and beyond
To start the year, the project organized a session for eight women leaders of the CNFCE in February. The session covered well the conceptual framework for climate change, green economy, green jobs and the intersection between climate change and the link between climate change and employment in Tunisia. During the session, the participants took note of ILO’s main principles of just transition (« Principes directeurs de l’OIT pour une transition juste vers des économies et des sociétés écologiquement durables pour tous ») by covering the aspect for enterprises to assure just transition towards green jobs.Participants of the workshop for Tunisian Chamber of Commerce of Women in February 2024