Austerity Debate Workshop in Tunisia
As part of the upcoming campaign against austerity in the MENA region, Arab Watch Coalition (AWC) held its first strategic discussion in Tunisia on January 26, 2022. #End_Austerity_Tunisia is targeting the current austerity policies and measures in the country.
Shereen Talaat, AWC Co-Director, facilitated the workshop that brought together AWC members and local partners from the Tunisian civil society , along with Emma burgisser from Christian Aid representing the #EndAusterity global campaign that AWC is active on. Emma gave an overview of the application of the austerity policies in the during the time of COVID-19 pandemic worldwide, and the call of 500 organizations on IMF to stop promoting austerity.
Amine Bouzaiene from Al Bawsala, a Tunisian CSO, addressed the current Tunisian political context in which the negotiations with the IMF is conducted, and “Yezi Ma Rhantouna” the campaign Al Bawsala launched against austerity.
The debate focused on the structural difficulties in the public sector and the public enterprises, also the lack of transparency, accountability and bad governance. Also touched the base on the definition of austerity on a global level and its reflection on local level, one of the Important issues that raised during the meeting was about the alternatives of those austerity measures which became a plan to addressed through the next level of this local campaign.
The workshop concluded with the recommendation for the strategic planning workshop scheduled for February 2022, to launch the Austerity campaign in Tunisia afterwards.
