World Bank Supports Tunisia with Cash and Transparent Gestures

Author: Eileen Byrne

Publisher: The Guardian

Date Published: 29 November 2012

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Bankrolling the Tunisian Revolution

Author: Elissa Jobson

Publisher: The Guardian

Date Published: 18 May 2011

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Article Summaries

High levels of unemployment, wide economic and social disparities between coastal regions and interior regions, along with 23 years of authoritarian rule drove the Tunisian Revolution. Ben Ali’s regime is gone, but as they wait for the 260-member assembly to draft their new constitution, there are small scale peaceful protests in the capital. However, tensions are running high and those protests escalate, some ill chose words from a popular former interior minister, sparked four days of riots. The new Tunisian government can’t meet its promises due to lack of money. If the government wants to address the main issues of the rebellion, they need outside assistance. A promise to inject $1 billion into the budget by the African Development Bank (AfDB) and the World Bank. They will contribute $500 million each and the French Development Agency pledged to give 185 million euro’s and 90 million euros from the EU. The AfDB contribution is targeted to help meet the demands of the revolution and to improve access to basic social programs aims to raise the total number of families covered by social protection from 130,000 to 270,000. It will also support efforts to improve the employability of university graduates, where it has reached 47%.

            As Tunisia is a middle-income country and wouldn’t receive direct budgetary support, but since it’s the Arab world’s first successful democratic transition, it won’t fail do to monetary problems. The World Bank’s loan equals 3% of Tunisia 2012 budget. This and other loans from the Qatar, the African Development Bank, the US government, the EU, Turkey and the French Development Agency will in total cover more than 8% of Tunisia’s budget. However, they’re not out of the woods yet, unemployment is rising 30-40% in their poorest sector. The World Bank has mixed record on Tunisia, but it did show the problem areas like unemployment and special treatments of certain people. However, they ignore the rampant corruption in Ali’s government and the faulty poverty statistics.

Some values from both articles are government failure, helpfulness, and unemployment. They both talk about how the former government under Ben Ali was filled with corruption and didn’t do anything for the citizens of the country. A survey done on the poor, in which officials “rarely entered the homes of impoverished villagers in the western regions” showed that the government didn’t care for them (Byrne). Also, it mentions how much the western world poured money into the country. The total amount of money was $500 million from the “African Development Bank (AfDB) and the World Bank” and also the “French Development Agency has pledged to lend … (EURO)185m”, with the EU giving (EURO)90m (Jobson). Finally, unemployment in the country is very high, which is leading some of the citizens to leave and the government is liking that.

Guiding Questions

What should have been or should be the role of the West in the Tunisian Revolution and its aftermath?