Women Make Up Over Half of Tunisia's Agricultural Workforce, But Face Precarious Working Conditions and Economic Autonomy Challenges
On April 28, a national conference was held at the INAT auditorium under the theme "Economic Autonomy of Rural Women: Recent Dynamics and Public Policy Support." The conference marked the culmination of a year's work by the SAVOIR-ECO project. Nicolas Fayes, researcher and project coordinator, presented the findings and recommendations on RTCI.
Nicolas Fayes painted a contrasting picture. On the one hand, he highlighted a remarkable progress: women's agricultural development groups (GDA) have grown from a single unit in 2011 to 252 today, with over 7,000 members nationwide. These structures, which produce handicrafts, couscous, and aromatic and medicinal plants, have become a standard component of rural development projects. On the other hand, he pointed to a darker reality: approximately 100,000 female agricultural workers labor daily in the fields under difficult conditions, without a contract, exposed to transportation and safety risks on farms. He emphasized that this situation remains largely invisible to consumers and public decision-makers.
Regarding obstacles, the RTCI guest identified commercialization as the main hurdle for GDA women. Members of these groups possess their productive skills, but lack stable market outlets: aside from a few occasional fairs organized by the Ministry of Agriculture, they have no established sales spaces or distribution channels. Additionally, they face gaps in packaging, certification, and quality processes, as well as limited access to financing. From a legal standpoint, Nicolas Fayes highlighted a major structural obstacle: the current associative status of GDA prevents them from issuing invoices, making large-scale commercialization or export particularly challenging.
Regarding female agricultural workers, he deemed it essential to create an official status, mentionable on their ID cards, which would grant specific rights to the National Social Security Fund (CNSS), with a retirement system adapted to the seasonal and discontinuous nature of their activity.
In the face of these challenges, the intervener proposed several concrete solutions. For commercialization, he recommended leveraging social media and e-commerce – an approach already tested in Algeria, but which Tunisian public policies have yet to support, including simple actions like creating Facebook pages or disseminating promotional content on WhatsApp. From a legal standpoint, he advocated for a status granting GDA women full economic personality, similar to Moroccan women's cooperatives. In Tunisia, the SMSA model exists, but its management remains complex; Nicolas Fayes called for designing a more flexible, tailored legal framework.
For the transportation of female workers, he suggested applying a specific cahier des charges, coupled with subsidies allowing transporters to update their vehicles.
The researcher emphasized the participatory approach adopted by the consortium behind the project, comprising APEDDUB, INAT, INRAT, and CIRAD. Rather than formulating proposals alone, researchers involved women from rural areas of Siliana and Béja, regional agricultural development commissions, and numerous NGOs in the diagnostic and solution-finding process. Colleagues from Morocco and Algeria provided valuable comparative insights. Nicolas Fayes stressed that the women concerned actively contributed to both the diagnosis and the identification of concrete solutions.
The entire set of recommendations has been formalized in policy briefs (notes de politique publique) written in French and Arabic with the Ministry of Agriculture's stakeholders. Videos for public dissemination have been produced in parallel. These two tools will be made available online soon, aiming to fuel public debate and bridge the gap between research and decision-makers.
