NED Grant No.

2020-1091
Tunisian Association of Public Auditors
Page 1

ATTACHMENT A
PROGRAM DESCRIPTION

I. PROJECT OBJECTIVE:

 To empower civil society to advocate transparent governance practices in Tunisia’s extractive

industries.

II. PROJECT ACTIVITIES:

The phosphate and petroleum industries have been the focus of many of Tunisia’s most significant
protests and unrest in the past few years. Although Tunisia’s southern governorates are rich in natural
resources and are vital to the national economy, they remain the poorest and most marginalized areas of
Tunisia. Demands of protestors in Gafsa and Tetaouine for example, have often focused on the need to
invest revenues from the phosphate and oil industries into the local economy. As a response, Tunisia’s
2014 constitution included articles dedicated to natural resource governance. For instance, Article 13
requires greater transparency in natural resource governance and stipulates the creation of a parliamentary
committee to review public contracts, while Article 136 gives the regions where resources are extracted
the right to receive a share of the revenues. However, implementation of these articles remains stalled and
the sector still lacks transparency. The Tunisian Association of Public Auditors (ATCP) will raise
awareness about the lack of transparency and build the capacity of civil society actors to advocate good,
transparent governance of Tunisia’s natural resources and extractive industries.
ATCP is the national coordinator for the Tunisian Network for Transparency in Energy and Mining, a
network of 19 Tunisian civil society organizations (CSOs) focused on improving governance of Tunisia’s
extractive sector, especially phosphate and petroleum industries in the south. The Network is the Tunisian
affiliate of the global Publish What You Pay coalition, a global movement for accountability in extractive
industries. ATCP will carry out the activities of this program as part of the Network, and will work in
close collaboration with the regional coordinator of the Natural Resource Governance Institute (NRGI).
This year, ATCP will focus on parliamentary advocacy to encourage the adoption of legal and regulatory
frameworks for extractive industries that meet the needs and interests of citizens, such as more robust
transparency measures in the hydrocarbon code, and a stronger corporate social responsibility law for
state-owned extractive enterprises. ATCP will especially work with the parliamentary committee on
governance and budgeting, and the energy and environment committee. ATCP will start by holding a
two-day workshop for coordinators of the Network to discuss priorities for the reform of the hydrocarbon
code and to develop recommendations on transparency, governance and social commitments of extractive
industry companies. Next, the organization will hold a meeting with the newly elected energy and
environment committee to present the Network learn more about the strategy of this committee, and to
provide them with civil society input on reform of the hydrocarbon code.
Next, ATCP will hold one-day regional meetings in Gafsa, Sfax, and Tataouine, for 25 participants
including parliamentarians representing the regions and MPs sitting on committees relevant to extractive
industries reform (the meeting in Sfax will include representatives from Gabes), local government
authorities, and civil society representatives. Participants will discuss challenges and difficulties in the
extractive industries, such as corporate responsibility, problems in the phosphate transport system,
transparency and environmental problems. Because this parliament was newly elected in 2019, many new
 NED Grant No. 2020-1091
Tunisian Association of Public Auditors
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members of parliament lack knowledge of issues relating to phosphate and oil extraction. Furthermore,
MPs representing regions further from Tunis do not travel often to meet with constituents and are not
always informed about their most urgent priorities. These meetings will serve as an opportunity to ensure
that MPs are better acquainted with how civil society and citizens in southern Tunisia view extractive
industries, what their priorities are on issues such as pollution, revenue distribution, and job creation, and
how best to represent them.
As part of the Network’s continued efforts to get Tunisia to join EITI, several Tunisian NGOs from the
Network formed and convened a Multi-Stakeholder Group (MSG) to oversee the EITI process. The MSG
is composed of representatives of the government, companies, and civil society, who come together with
the goal to explore innovative ways to implement the EITI, improve the reporting process, contribute to
public understanding of extractive industries revenue, and to promote high levels of transparency and
accountability. ATCP will conduct a training for 10 Tunisian civil society representatives and elected
officials serving on MSG to enhance their capacity on how to prepare and draft audit reports, coordinate
their actions with other stakeholders, build alliances, and ensure effectiveness of their participation in the
MSG.
ATCP will also produce a policy paper assessing the corporate social responsibility law in Tunisia, which
came into force in November 2018, and focuses on the integration of social and environmental concerns
by state-owned enterprises in their activities and interactions with stakeholders. ATCP staff will conduct a
study over three months of the impact of the law, over the two years it has been in force, and will include
recommendations for how to better enforce the law or amend it. ATCP will convene a one-day seminar to
disseminate the policy paper, inviting approximately 40 participants including experts in the field of
natural resource governance, members of parliament, representatives of the Ministry of Industry, civil
society, and public auditors. ATCP will also meet with representatives of government ministries and
parliamentarians whenever possible to advocate for the adoption of its recommendations.
III. EVALUATION PLAN:
Objective: To empower civil society to advocate transparent governance practices in Tunisia’s extractive
industries.

 ATCP will monitor its program beneficiaries’ sustained engagement in demanding transparency
and accountability in the extractive industries at the regional and national level.
 ATCP will track media coverage of and government responses to the Network’s proposals and
recommendations.
 ATCP will document dialogue initiatives between various stakeholders including the Coalition
related to issues of extractive industries in Tetaouine and Gafsa, Sfax and Gabes.
 ATCP will report on its program participants’ engagement in EITI’s Multi-Stakeholder Group.