Several financing agreements worth a total of €54.5 million have just been signed between Tunisia and the French Development Agency (AFD), on the occasion of a visit to Tunis by Philippe Orliange, AFD’s Executive Director for Geographies.
These new partnerships continue the agency’s support for Tunisia’s priorities, focusing on the economic empowerment of vulnerable populations, securing access to drinking water, and strengthening professional training for Tunisian youth.
Among the signed agreements is one aimed at securing access to drinking water in major urban centers. Specifically, funding will be used to build new water treatment plants (in Kalaa Kébira and Béjaoua), reservoirs, and additional pipelines to increase network capacity and reliability.
Nearly 6 million Tunisians, about half the population, will directly benefit from these investments, addressing strategic challenges such as optimizing water surplus in the north, supporting growing urban demand, and preserving groundwater in interior regions.
Another agreement provides a €5 million budgetary support to promote economic inclusion for the most vulnerable households. This funding supports the Economic Empowerment Program for low-income and disabled individuals, led by Tunisia’s Ministry of Social Affairs.
Created in 2022, the program aids vulnerable entrepreneurs with grants and personalized support for income-generating activities. AFD’s support will double the program’s capacity, prioritizing regions most affected by poverty and mobility challenges, thereby enhancing economic inclusion and social resilience.
Addressing youth unemployment
The third financing aims to strengthen Tunisia’s vocational training sector and promote youth professional mobility. This €7 million project (co-financed with €5 million from AFD and €2 million from the French Ministry of Europe and Foreign Affairs) directly addresses youth unemployment, which affects 37.7% of Tunisians aged 15–24. It forms part of Franco-Tunisian cooperation on migration and skills development.
The project will modernize two pilot training centers, the Sectoral Tooling Center in Sousse and the General Mechanics Sectoral Center in Grombalia, turning them into centers of excellence.
Through all these new agreements, AFD emphasizes its commitment to supporting the Tunisian government’s priorities. Whether for economic inclusion, water access, or youth employment, each funding initiative targets key national challenges with practical solutions.
“These financings only make sense through their effective implementation, as it is the results on the ground that reflect our shared ambition: meeting essential needs, preparing for the future, and building sustainable development,” said Philippe Orliange, reaffirming AFD’s role as a trusted partner attentive to Tunisia’s needs.
For his part, Tunisia’s Minister of Economy and Planning, Samir Abdelhafidh, highlighted that “all the agreements signed today demonstrate the scale and diversity of cooperation with France, and particularly with AFD, noting that they align perfectly with Tunisia’s economic and social development priorities.”
