Campus de Sciences Po Paris à Menton. Association étudiante Babel Initiative

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1 Campus de Sciences Po Paris à Menton Association étudiante Empowering Tunisian Youth in the Public Policy Arena Drivers and Barriers to Political Engagement * * * Fatima Al-Zahra Hewaidi

2 A Personal Reflection My week in Tunis with the at Sciences Po has proven to me yet again the value of conducting field research. No matter how well-informed we might think we are as we keep up with the latest news updates, or analyze scholarly publications on a specific topic for months or years at a time, genuine research will not be complete until we hear the voices of the agents who are most affected by the research question the people on the ground. I had spent the last six months researching the drivers and barriers to young people s active engagement in Tunisian public policy. I read numerous reports on the issue published by various scholars, NGOs and human rights organizations, and I made sure to approach the topic from different angles (social, economic, political, and historical) while keeping up with the news on the general situation of the country in transition. I braced myself for the week ahead, preparing interview questions and trying to adopt the mindset and attitude of a credible researcher. In many ways that meant I somehow had to detach myself emotionally from the issue in order to remain as impartial as possible with the various information I would receive upon landing there. As a young Libyan, I could relate immensely to the frustrations shared by different groups of Tunisian youth regarding the lack of political interest in their plight. For a group, a generation, to comprise an overwhelming majority of a country s population yet receive so little representation on the decision-making political platform just did not make sense in my mind. Especially since this is the generation which ousted the despotic rule of Ben Ali. But as soon as I landed in the Tunis Carthage Airport, and was generously welcomed by my host family in La Soukra, I realized that the issue was not that simple. Every day, I would wake up early in the morning to prepare myself for a long day of interviews (which sometimes took place with curious taxi drivers who were keen on providing their personal take on the topic). I was able to hear perspectives ranging from the country s highest-ranking politicians, academics, NGO project managers,

3 and ambassadors. I also made a point to conduct informal interviews on the street every so often in order to evaluate the parity between what officials say and what the public actually perceives. It was visible to me after the first day that one cannot approach an issue like youth engagement in public policy and political leadership without taking the time to observe and absorb the deeply rooted generational and cultural gaps in thinking between the younger generation and older generation. This topic is very much conceptual and psychological as much as it is economic or political. And I could not help but feel defeated when most of the politicians I talked to did not seem to have any concrete vision to address the problem (besides offering a few normative statements of sympathy), and when most of the young people that I spoke to on the streets and in universities appeared so visibly let down by politics that they had no desire to keep up with it any longer. My spirit was greatly lifted however when I had a chance to speak to two individuals a political leader and a notable student activist both of whom had an insatiable drive to address this very problem and a clear strategy on how to do just that. Finally, I could feel the passion return to my spirit as I listened to their accounts, motivations, and reservations on the topic. I realized at that point that the feeling of defeat and cynicism (or as some conveniently choose to dub it, realism) was an easy mindset to descend into considering the state of this country and broader region. But choosing that mode of thought would only aid the power-hungry forces that seek to maintain the status quo and keep the young innovative minds out of the decision-making platform. And as with all struggles that history has witnessed, only a brave minority will seek to change the ways and patterns of the status quo and demand a positive adjustment. It is up to them to determine how well they organize and how powerfully they will themselves to tread through the obstacles. On a more personal level, I realized that it is also up to me, as a thinker, as an observer, and as an agent driven by my own struggles and motivations, to decide what mode of thought I embrace. Certain people have not hesitated to dismiss me as an idealist upon learning of my research topic and motivations behind it. To that I

4 would say that idealism is a negative force only if matched by an insufficient will to enforce a concrete strategy to achieve a goal. Should that will and strategy exist, however, idealist minds become equipped with a power so mighty that they will just like they have in the past shatter any glass ceiling which the cynics have so vigilantly plastered to deter an innovation of the human condition. Formal Interview Participants 1) Sadem Jebali; Projects Manager, British Council Tunisia 2) Mongi Boughzala; Economist and Professor, University of Tunis El-Manar 3) Lotfi Bouzaine, Economist and Professor, Institut des Hautes Études à Tunis 4) Beji Caid Essebsi; Party Founder and Leader, Nidaa Tounes (main opposition party) 5) Mahmoud Ben Ramdane, Director of Social and Economic Commission, Nidaa Tounes 6) Ahmed Ounaies; former Minister of Foreign Affairs (post-revolution) 7) Wael Naouar; Secretary General, Union Générale des Étudiantes Tunisiens (UGET) 8) Mongi Godbane; Counsellor, Ministry of Education 9) Michaël Bechir Ayari; Director, International Crisis Group Tunisia 10) Members of the Law Faculty; University of Tunis El-Manar 11) Said Aidi; Executive Committee Member; Nidaa Tounes 12) Board member; Union Générale Tunisienne du Travail (Tunisian General Labour Union) 13) Rafik Abdessalam; External Relations Director and former Minister of Foreign Affairs, Ennahda Party

5 * Note: The remainder of the participants in this research project comprised of students and randomly-selected individuals during street interviews. Research Analysis Introduction Three years after spearheading a movement demanding dignified living and better economic opportunities, the youth of Tunisia are finding themselves in a limbo of uncertainty and disillusion in the shadow of unrealized aspirations. Today, young people under the age of thirty comprise over half of Tunisia s population, yet have close to no demographical representation on the political sphere. Out of an awareness that the key to Tunisia s success lies in cultivating and empowering this long-marginalized generation, this study has aimed to explore the obstacles barring young people from becoming active agents in public policy and administration. The field research portion of this project was carried out in the capital Tunis, and the interview subjects consisted of high-ranking politicians, academics, students, teachers, activists, union leaders, and randomly-selected participants from the general public. Due to a combination of structural problems and normalized social hierarchies, young people continue to face the same problems they faced under the Ben Ali regime, with the exception of the increased sense of freedom they feel today. This article identifies the key obstacles and social practices that continue to hinder the empowerment of Tunisian youth, and offers policy recommendations to address these issues vis-à-vis the insights gained from the research participants. The Role of Public Education Structures Before delving into the essence of young people s participation in political or public decision-making processes, it is crucial to discuss the structural developmental factors that negatively impact their road to empowerment. Undoubtedly, education

6 (from the primary to the university level) is a central feature of analysis in this study because it influences not only the intellectual and psychological development of young people, but also the quality of opportunities available to them upon graduation. Today in Tunisia, university graduates have the least employment prospects because the skills that they acquire in school do not match the low-skill demands of the economy. As the number of high school graduates entering universities increased starting from 1995, the Ben Ali regime failed to make adjustments to ensure that what was instructed in the classroom held relevance to what the economy required to sustain itself. 1 As a result, degree-holders are six times more likely to be unemployed than those with no formal university education. 2 Moreover, efforts to convince students and their parents to enroll in an education system of a vocational or entrepreneurial nature have been largely ineffective, which has translated into the current reality of grave misallocation. Today, there are university graduates as opposed to the graduates twenty years ago who had to undergo more selective admission processes in the Habib Bourguiba era. In simple terms, in an economy based on unskilled jobs and low-profile activities, having a diploma for most young people is worse than not having one at all. Correcting this rate of misallocation has so far been a failed endeavour as there have been no viable campaigns imploring students to change the course of their education in order to become more attractive in the job market. Keeping in mind the economic insecurity that laborers in the informal sector experience daily, and the low appeal of manual labour, most young graduates prefer to wait for a period of time until they get a job which meets their expectations and is worthy of the years of studying to acquire a degree. 3 It is clear, however, that this mindset is bound to disappoint since many transitioning graduates neither have the luxury of an economically prosperous family to support them, nor an economy that will ease their employment anxieties as it continues to spiral into the informal sector. 1 Interview, Mr. Mongi Boughzala. 2 Interview, Mr. Mahmoud Ben Ramdane. 3 Interview, Mr. Mongi Boughzala.

7 On top of these problematic realities lies a conceptual one: there is no existing blueprint for cultivating young leaders in Tunisia s educational structures. Upon inquiring whether any programs exist to encourage leadership and critical thinking among primary and secondary school students, Mr. Mongi Godbane, an advisor to the Minister of Education, passively commented that students should be able to develop leadership skills naturally in the classroom as they undergo group work. He also moved on to mention that the Ministry has not yet focused on developing sufficient extra-curricular programs for its students because it has devoted its efforts to maximize scholarly capacities. However, that, too, has been insufficient as he admitted that a culture of readership and high intellectual development is largely missing amongst today s youth, which evidently poses disastrous effects for this generation. Although student leadership efforts do exist, they are neither institutionalized in the education system nor are they entrenched in the Laws of Education Orientation and Instruction. 4 Not having a vision and strategy to develop critical thinking, communication, project management and overall leadership opportunities during the formative years in the public education structure threatens to maintain the status quo of keeping young people uninformed, unskilled, and in the background of the public policy development process. Such limited developmental opportunities, combined with flawed strategic planning in the university education structure, immensely harms this generational demographic in wide dimensions especially since that they comprise over half of the population, and practically all of the promise and potential to lead Tunisia out of its transitional post-authoritarian mode of running its affairs. The Rise of Civil Society Organizations 4 Ministère de L Education et de la Formation, Loi d orientation de l éducation et de l enseignement scolaire, 23 July 2002.

8 Local, national, and international NGOs and Civil Society Organizations (CSOs) have provided the most successful platform for youth to mobilize and cultivate their leadership capacities in Tunisia after the December 2010 uprisings. In a study seeking to provide stakeholders with up-to-date information on the extent to which youth aspirations are being met, and how development activities can better meet the needs of young people, the British Council has provided valuable insight on the boom of CSOs in Tunisia in its 2013 report, The Revolutionary Promise. 5 This knowledge in this report has been matched and confirmed unanimously by all the groups and individuals interviewed for this research project. The British Council in particular has been developing a number of initiatives over the past three years to implicate youth in public policy analysis through the following key initiatives. A) Young Arab Voices (YAV): a regional program aiming to establish a culture of debate and dialogue in Tunisia, Libya and Egypt. Having established over fifty debate clubs around Tunisia alone, YAV has sought to increase young people s skills in public debate, provide platforms for diverse youth to exchange their views, and offer targeted support for young bloggers to bridge the gap between virtual and public space. B) Young Arab Analysts Network International (YAANI): a regional youth-led network of young policy analysts who address national and regional issues with a youth perspective. The aim of this project is to create a platform to engage new generations in a unique form of progressive activism that empowers young people as leaders and promotes their ideas for change through policy analysis and social media. 5 British Council, The Revolutionary Promise: Youth Perceptions in Egypt, Libya, and Tunisia (2013) <

9 C) Khalini Nakhtar ( Let Me Choose ): a project, in partnership with the International Institute for Debate, that focuses on supporting high school students from around Tunisia by establishing a culture of communication and an opportunity to choose the path they desire to follow, beginning with their university fields of study. Through active counselling and dialogue facilitated by volunteer teachers and university students, the idea is to form an action plan to understand the academic needs of young high school students and attempt to compensate for the lack of communication and public speaking courses offered in high school. The novelty and innovation presented by such programs (and similar ones launched by other groups) allow room for CSOs to fill in the gaps neglected by the strategic planners and public decision-makers in Tunisia. For the first time, youth are finding and creating avenues for their voices to be recognized without having to ask the permission of the government or fearing its backlash. While this is an achievement worthy of acknowledgement, the logistical realities which many civil society and non-governmental groups face tend to instill a shadow upon the aforementioned sense of hope. In the short-term, these programs have been a great way for youth activists to cultivate their leadership skills and demand to make their voices heard in the public policy arena via organizations like Al-Bawsala. 6 But the unsustainable financing of most CSOs, combined with limited organizational support to increase the capacity of these groups, has rendered them quite incapable of structuring a longterm strategy for their goals. As for well-funded groups like the British Council, the merit of their programs will eventually reach a ceiling if the existing public education structures do not entrench the values of the above programs in their own institutions. In other words, there is a limit to the scope of these programs because they fail to reach the majority of youth who are eventually left behind due to the lack of opportunities to engage in these programs at their own schools. In short, the efforts on part of diverse CSOs to 6 <

10 implicate youth in public policy is a commendable step in the right direction. However, it must be matched by an even greater step from the government to acknowledge and institutionalize a space for these young voices in the public policy arena. Public Perceptions of Youth in Public Policy: A Cultural Complex The idea that young people should be active agents in politics, rather than mere voting subjects, strikes a rather sensitive nerve among different groups of Tunisian actors. All of the research participants seemed to agree that the involvement of youth in public policy is a moral imperative, considering that this has been the demographic that led the uprisings and, moreover, the demographic that is facing the worst forms of economic and developmental detriment. According most of the participants, however, this imperative is an idealistic dream to aspire towards one day, but one that the country is not ready to realize today. Especially during the Ben Ali era, youth have been excluded so heavily from the public sphere that no politically-active groups of young people, for example, existed. By the time the 1990s arrived, they were left completely disillusioned by the concept of public policy. 7 When the revolution dawned from what seemed to be nowhere, most youth went through a great awakening, but one for which they were not prepared. This has been the basic argument of all the politicians that were a part of this research project. According to Beji Caid Essebsi, founder and leader of Tunisia s main opposition party Nidaa Tounes, young people are still trying to find their place in society. They rebelled not out of adherence to a specific ideology or out of a will to lead, but out of a yearning for dignity and for jobs. 8 The eighty-seven year-old presidential candidate jokingly added that youth is a state of mind, not a state of being, and that even though the old leadership should retire, the young are not prepared to replace 7 Interview, Mr. Mongi Boughzala. 8 Interview, Mr. Beji Caid Essebsi.

11 them. Ahmed Ounaies, former politician and foreign affairs Minister just after the revolution, upon being asked why there is no urgency or political will to include young people in political decision-making, nervously responded that they are already involved and mentioned that currently anyone under the age of fifty in politics is classified (in his perception) as a young person. 9 And as for Rafik Abdelsalam, a high-ranking member of the governing Ennahda party and former Minister of Foreign Affairs for the party, he admitted that the Tunisian political system is dominated by the older generation, but did not provide any concrete course of action to address this issue, citing that there are no miracles in economics and politics. 10 Other participants in this project, ranging from academics and economists to teachers, students, and taxi drivers, vehemently made sure to express their resentment with the political system with regard to its limited outreach to youth. The members of the Law Faculty at University of Tunis El-Manar as well as a board member at the General Union of Tunisian Workers (UGTT) stressed that youth are already involved in civil society organizations and non-governmental groups and, as a result, should focus on those endeavours until the transitional situation calms down. Furthermore, one of the country s top economists, Dr. Mongi Boughzala, confessed that he is not sure how young people think anymore because they have been marginalized for so long. He asserted that any wise politician should be aware of the importance of youth, adding that he was amazed that hardly any political will has been demonstrated for this cause. 11 As for those who were interviewed informally on the streets, there was a unanimous sentiment of disappointment and disillusion with politics. The majority of law students interviewed at the University of Tunis El-Manar stated that they had no interest in politics because of the immense amount of disappointment they felt. Many also felt frustrated and trapped in the midst of the polarized struggle between 9 Interview, Mr. Ahmed Ounaies. 10 Interview, Mr. Rafik Abdessalam. 11 Interview, Mr. Boughzala.

12 Islamist-leaning actors and their more secular counterparts in government. The students felt as if they were deliberately used as pawns in a battle, and that the more important socio-economic problems had been ignored as a result. The teachers who held a strike in front of the Ministry of Education (just before the interview with the advisor to the Minister) stressed that young people indeed possess the skills and the abilities to lead, but no one is listening to them. It increasingly became clear that the problem behind young people s marginalization from public policy did not only stem from the lack of economic or educational qualifications, but also out of a clash of generations. A clash of the paternalistic, top-down ways of the older demographic, and the anti-hierarchy pro-innovation ways of the newer demographic. A bridge reconciling these generations, however, has yet to be coherently made. Promising Efforts for a Better Future Fortunately, there are hopeful groups on the ground that are relentlessly pushing to ensure that the voices of youth are represented in various forms of public administration and political decision-making platforms. The Student Union of Tunisian Students (officially known as UGET, or Union Générale des Étudiants Tunisiens) has been an active presence in the country since They played a distinct role in the uprisings, having led many marches and protests, and they continue to play a role today as they lobby for students rights in universities, as well as for their political rights in public administration. Wael Naouar, the current Secretary General of the UGET and participant in this research project, acknowledged firmly that the government does not listen to students. 12 Whether the demands concern scholarships, student housing, and political rights for example, there is no existing entrenched consultation system between students and the reigning administration. Even in the university system, student associations deeply suffer from marginalization because they are often refused space or funding for organizing events, whereas professors often receive both if they ask for it. 12 Interview, Mr. Wael Naoar..

13 On a larger scale, Naouar shed light on the fact that their political demands are acknowledged only if they protest and occupy government buildings. When reaching out to the Minister of Education or the Minister of Health, for instance, they were successfully able to receive appointments and invitations for dialogues, but only after months of pressure and, at times, days of rallies and protests in front of the official Ministry buildings. Their persistence has led to ground-breaking results, however, when the National Constituent Assembly accepted a draft paragraph focused exclusively on education, fifty percent of which had been approved and passed by the constitution in Article 38 (specifically the area focused on guaranteeing quality education and training). Article 38: Education shall be mandatory until at least the age of sixteen. The state shall guarantee the right to free public education at all stages and shall seek to provide the necessary means to achieve a high quality of education and training, as it shall work to embed youth in the Arab-Islamic identity and strengthen and promote the Arabic language and expand its usage, and openness to foreign languages and cultures, and dissemination of the culture of human rights. 13 On the other hand, what was not passed into law from the draft was UGET s proposal on ways to ensure a dignified education for students (i.e. via allocating a minimum budget for scholarships and student housing). Continuously seeking proactive ways in light of their obstacles, the country s leading student union is currently pushing the Ministry of Education to include youth representatives from UGET in a national government committee aimed at reforming the education system. As for the idea regarding engaging youth in public policy, Naouar admitted that the only solution to stop youth from being ignored by the government is to institutionalize their participation in public policy. In other words, the solution according to UGET is to constitutionally obligate political parties to have a minimum 13 Tunisia s Draft Constitution: An English Translation, Tunisia Live, 21 January <

14 quota of representatives under the age of thirty-five to become members of party lists in each political party. Slowly but surely, parties are beginning to listen and acknowledge that it is in the interest of the country s development to include youth in political decision-making. Nidaa Tounes, the country s main opposition party, has recently begun to launch a campaign to empower young people, thanks to the efforts of Said Aidi, former Minister of Employment and Professional training in the first year after the revolution, and current member of the Executive Committee of Nidaa Tounes. He expressed in his interview his strong interest in providing youth with opportunities in the democratic process through institutionalizing a platform through which their voices can be represented in the party s policy formation. 14 Dismayed by the excessively low turnout of young voters in the country s first democratic elections, Aidi launched a brand new campaign in November, 2013 in order to grant young people representation in Nidaa Tounes. Still in its initial and largely unpublished stages, Aidi s team began to gather young people from CSOs and associations in twenty-seven regions throughout Tunis. Aiming to establish ten local offices for the party itself, Aidi s goal is to have one youth representative (between the age of sixteen and thirty-five) elected in each office. The campaign is currently catering to young people from four specific categories to be represented at the national level: (1) high school students, (2) university students, (3) unemployed youth, (4) employed youth. Recognizing the diverse needs of different groups of young people, Aidi s team has been organizing events for hundreds of youth activists and representatives from around Tunis to attend training programs in the party headquarters in order to gain their perspectives on the following questions: How do the training participants imagine youth organization to materialize within Nidaa Tounes? 14 Interview, Mr. Said Aidi.

15 What do they expect from the government in generating policies concerning social, cultural, educational, and sports avenues? From these meetings, Aidi is working towards developing a concrete action plan over the next six months to determine the proactive participation of young people on a political level. This would create a base for representation through which the ultimate short-term goal would be to attract more young voters to the next election, while the long-term objective would be to pave the way for this generational demographic to lead the country into socio-economic prosperity. To achieve that, Aidi s team is working on creating a national youth committee to preside over the local and regional youth assemblies of the organization. Representatives in the regional assemblies would eventually elect an executive youth group for the national committee, and the president of the national committee would also become a member of the Executive Committee of Nidaa Tounes, working directly with the party leader. The president along with his or her two vice presidents would also be part of extended committees of the party. Another objective in Aidi s agenda is to implement a national secretariat of an independent government commission in charge of social, economic and education policies. To ensure the active engagement of youth, the secretariat will feature youthled committees that would inform the commission as it designs its programs. The idea here is to nurture communication and leadership by embedding a new consultative mechanism between not only the party and its youth politicians, but also between the party commissions and their youth consultants. Already holding vast experience in the private sector, as well as in the NGO sector in which he currently chairs an organization aiming to increase the employment capacities of young Tunisians, Aidi strongly made a case during his interview for a new, unprecedented political willingness on behalf of his party to seriously engage young people in public policy. The sincerity of this commitment, however, will only be proven by the outcome of these campaigns over the next couple of years and beyond. Surely, this is a spurting development in Tunisia that calls for optimism regarding how key

16 politicians are finally re-evaluating their stance on the nature of youth participation in politics. Conclusion Throughout this research project, I strove to analyse the drivers and barriers for young Tunisians to engage in the decision-making process of their country s affairs. From the start, it has been evident that the only option this country has to exit its transitional mode and enter into socioeconomic prosperity is through the empowerment of its most abundant resource the youth. However, due to a combination of deeply-embedded structural problems in the education system and the economy, top-down paternalistic cultural complexes that have silenced young people for decades, a brand new democratic political process still trying to define itself in the midst of polarized identities, the country s most valuable array of human capital continues to be marginalized. Despite these challenges, and despite the disappointment that has contaminated the spirit that was present in 2011, numerous young activists and their respective organizations are treading forward as they relentlessly demand a legitimate platform for their voices to be represented, for their views to be consulted, and for their needs to be granted. Fortunately, certain influential actors in the government appear to be listening and working towards actualising leadership opportunities for youth. The level to which they co-operate with this generation, a generation that has famished in the search for better opportunities, is indeed what will determine just how well Tunisia rises in the aftermath of the spring that it sparked upon the entire MENA region. Policy Recommendations The design of curricula and academic instruction should be innovated by ensuring that leadership qualities of students are strongly encouraged and actively cultivated in the classroom.

17 As a central structure for human empowerment, the public education system (up to and including the university level) needs to be re-structured so that the needs of students are consistently sought. It is imperative to develop a strategic plan of action to transform universities from deposits to value-adding institutions that keep up with the demands of the economy. Universities should encourage the pursuit of entrepreneurial endeavours and develop sustainable partnerships with firms in order to allow students to acquire work experience in their fields and increase their sense of employability. The government should generate scholarship programs for young bright minds to receive an education from top-ranking universities around the globe and return to work in Tunisia upon-completion. Specialized youth committees ought to be created and attached to each government ministry, in which they would be consulted and engaged in decision-making on an active basis. The government must develop a merit-based culture of youth training and engagement in the political sphere. This could materialize through the development of internship programs, cohesive training programs for young professionals, and youth-targeted public policy seminars to raise political awareness levels. There should be a minimum number of seats reserved for individuals under the age of thirty-five to serve in the executive committees of each political party. The governing party needs to ease the tension between different ideological parties in order to avoid the polarization of the country s population and focus its transition on reforming the economy and education structures.