Protecting Tunisia’s most vulnerable children and supporting their families
How the child benefits and child protection services support children and families in Tunisia
“When my dad passed away, it really affected me and my brother and sisters’ state of mind. It was better when my parents were here. Now I have to fill the role of mother and father to my siblings.”
In the desert city of Tozeur in southern Tunisia, a cool breeze blows through the palm trees and fruit bushes of the oasis which surrounds the home of Zakia Jmou’i and her grandchildren. Inside the home, Zakia moves quietly between rooms surrounding an airy, sun-soaked courtyard. In one of the bedrooms where the grandchildren sleep, Mayssa, 18, sits on a bed, talking about the difficulties she faced since her father died and her mother’s departure.
“When my dad passed away, it really affected me and my brother and sisters’ state of mind. It was better when my parents were here. Now I have to fill the role of mother and father to my siblings,” she said, referring to her younger sisters, Eslem, 12, Lamis, 13, and her brother, Omar, 23.
To help children like Mayssa and her siblings, and the thousands of other Tunisian children in vulnerable socioeconomic situations, UNICEF Tunisia is stepping up with support.
With funding from the Governments of Germany and the United States, UNICEF started supporting the Government of Tunisia in providing a cash transfer accompanied by a package of social services to the most vulnerable families. It includes the support to the Ministry of Social Affairs to expand the child benefit of 30 TND per month, which it had previously provided to approximately 129,000 children aged 0-5 years old, to children aged 6-18 years old living in poor and vulnerable families. This is part of the AMEN Social programme of the Ministry, enhancing community resilience and supporting caregivers to meet their children’s health, nutrition and education needs so they can develop their full potential.
In 2022, 114,000 children aged 6-18 years old from poor households received 6 months of the child benefit support, and children with disabilities were entitled to a specific allowance. In total, the child benefit support will reach approximately 420,000 children aged 6-18 years old in 2023.
“The money from the Ministry of Social Affairs has solved a lot of problems for us, to be honest. Sometimes we use it for food, sometimes for clothes.”
With an 8.8 per cent contraction of real gross domestic product (GDP) in 2020 and unemployment rates reaching 17.8 per cent by the end of the first quarter of 2021, the Tunisian economy has been deeply impacted by the COVID-19 crisis (World Bank 2021). Child poverty has increased from 19 per cent before the pandemic to 26 per cent in 2021 (INS), equating to almost one million children living below the national poverty line.
Fortunately, despite the tough circumstances, Mayssa and her sisters are beneficiaries of the Monthly Child Benefit programme.
And Mayssa has dreams to open a business in order to earn money, be independent, and support her family.
“I left school so that I could cover the expenses for my siblings. They’re still young, and they want to study. So, I stopped my studies with the idea of opening a business and earning some money that I could use to help my siblings”,
Mayssa said.
She added, “My passion is hairstyling. So, I want to open a hair salon. This project could support me as I grow up. And it could help support my siblings as they finish school.”
Mayssa’s grandmother, Zakia Jmou’i, 69, has been the main caregiver for Mayssa and her siblings since their father died and their mother’s departure. And Zakia has been the one receiving the Monthly Child Benefit.
“Each month I receive a support of 200 dinars. And I also received an additional 50 dinars for each child at the beginning of the school year, to help them get back into their studies after the summer break."
While sitting on a bench next to Zakia in her courtyard, Amel Ettonbari, a social worker with the Ministry of Social Affairs, who followed closely their case since 2015, reflected about how cash transfers play an important role in addressing the vulnerabilities of the children and family but it also needs to be accompanied by other social services like child protection services.
“We, the social workers, conduct a social need assessment and we send it to the local Child Protection delegation. Then the child protection delegate targets families for support. Our focus is on families without support—in which the father has died, the mother is divorced, or the father has left for example. All of the support is coordinated through the Ministry of Family, Women, Children, and Seniors, in partnership with the Ministry of Social Affairs, along with local civil society in Tozeur.”
Amel added that the package of services offers other benefits to children like those in Zakia’s family, like access to a restaurant where they can eat daily for free after school, school supplies like backpacks and stationery for back-to-school and even summer trips to the sea.
Fahmi Rabhi, the Child Protection Delegate in Tozeur, noted that is the combination of cash plus the social services which the programme provides, that makes the difference in the lives of children and their families, “Kids benefit from services at the children’s center in Tozeur. They also enjoy back-to-school assistance through things like clothing and school supplies. The goal of all this support is to relieve pressure on the family during the back-to-school season.”
Amel also works with another family, in a home further down the dirt road in a concrete-built home nestled among the palm fronds.
In this home, Noura Habib, also a recipient of the Cash+ social services programme including the Monthly Child Benefit for her children, takes care of her six children.
“My husband passed in December 2020,” Noura said. “He was a daily worker, traveling around the provinces of Gafsa and Kasserine helping to load and unload goods for sale. My husband worked hard and helped us so much.”
Noura noted that each month she receives 250 dinars in government assistance for families in need. On top of that, she receives a 60-dinar benefit for the holy month of Ramadan, and a 60-dinar benefit for the end-of-Ramadan Eid holiday. Finally, in the fall, when her children go back to school, each of her kids receives 50 dinars from the Ministry of Social Affairs and a supplementary 50 dinars from UNICEF to help them cover the costs of school supplies.
“I used to feel I was suffocating,” trying to cover the daily living costs for her children, Noura said. “But with this monthly benefit, I feel so relieved mentally and emotionally. Thank God.”
Noura’s daughter, Saba, 16, is an athlete and aspiring runner.
“I want to do great things in sports—to leave my mark. But I need an organization to support me. I need help.”
Without an improvement in her daily circumstances, it’s very hard for Saba to focus on activities like her passion, running. Luckily, however, UNICEF’s support has helped to open the door to Saba’s ambitions.
“When we get help from organizations like UNICEF,” Saba said with a grin, “I get really happy, because finally I feel that there’s someone out there supporting me. I feel there’s goodness in people’s hearts, and there’s hope.”
Beate Richter, Director of the Tunisia office of KfW, the German Development Bank, one of the social protection programme’s major funders, said, “blanket subsidies are governmental mechanisms to compensate for elevated costs. However, these policies are generally very costly and do not target the poorest section of the population efficiently. Cash transfers are a much better choice, especially in countries with the administrative capacity of Tunisia, able to target households in need. Every beneficiary family of cash transfers can make its own priority choices for expenditure with the money received. This is a very important step in establishing a social security network while empowering poor households to meet their needs. Indirectly, these kinds of cash transfers help keep consumption expenses from falling drastically and in this way support the local economy.”
Youmna Fakhfakh, Health and Environment Advisor with the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) Tunisia, another social protection programme funder, said that USAID chose to support this initiative because, “The joint efforts of USAID and UNICEF [on previous COVID-19 work] showcased our ability to work together, adapt quickly, and make a significant impact on the lives of those affected by the crisis. Building on the success of the COVID-19 collaboration, USAID recognizes the immense potential of partnering with UNICEF once again, this time to enhance child protection efforts.”
