Celebrating SEWA

Towards Human Development through

Insutitutional Innovation in Women’s
Livelihood Security
Advancing gender equality issues in
party policies and platforms.

Ahmadabad -India, November 27-29th

2013
A Case From Tunisia
TAMSS

www.taamstn.org
Tunisian Association for Management and
Social Stability

‫اﻟﺠﻤﻌﻴﺔ اﻟﺘﻮﻧﺴﻴﺔ ﻟﻠﺘﺼﺮف و اﻟﺘﻮازن اﻻﺟﺘﻤﺎﻋﻲ‬

www.taamstn.org

facebook.com/taamstn Youtube: tamsschannel

 Identity Card of TAMSS

• Born: In Tunis Tunisia

• Nationality: Tunisian
• Launching date: 2006
• Status : Social and Economic Development
NGO
• Name: Tunisian Association for Management
and Social Stability
• Mother/Founder & President : Chéma Gargouri
 Vision and mission
• Vision:
Active citizenship and stable society .
• Mission:
Our Mission is to economically and socially include the
Tunisian citizens living in poverty and denial by offering
them opportunities to build new managerial and
technical skills, secure an income, enhance their
citizenship, and foster them to be a voice in what
happens in their communities.

TAMSS
 Our team
• A Board of Director: 4 Women
& 3 men
• 23 permanent staff: 14 women & 9 men
• 3 Consultants and trainers
• 4 volunteers !

TAMSS
 Title of the Paper:

Sustainable NGOs for Sustainable

Women’s Livelihoods

www.taamstn.org
 We work with
WHO? ALL WOMEN ….

Educated, uneducated, rural, urban, jobless,

Micro entrepreneurs, single, widowed,
married, veiled, unveiled, mainly poor but also
successful & wealthy…(?!)
 We Target :

Women who are denied :

1. Opportunities
2. Choices
3. Access to information
4. Education
5. Skills
6. Access to financial service **
 TAMSS’s goal:
underserved women’s empowerment

From
Securing sustainable access to income
and resources to meet basic needs
(Livelihood Security )
to
Strengthen women’s ability to gain control over
economic, social and political resources
 Institutional
Women Entrepreneruship
capacity building
from A to Z
/mainly women led
NGOs

Livelihood Programs and Women

Empowerment

Citizenship and Direct services for

political Participation the Communities for
of mainly women mainly women
 Institutional capacity building /mainly
women led NGOs

Build the capacity of women led,

women targeting, women founded
local NGOs which demonstrate
responsiveness and accountability
to women in their communities:
70 NGOs all over the country
 Women Entrepreneurship and
enterprise development

Women Entrepreneurship from A to Z

Women Enterprise for Sustainability Center

- Training
- Facilitate access to financing*
- Montorship *
- Information
- Orientation and guidance
 Continued (Women Entrepreneurship and Enterprise Development)

« Sector Based approach to Women livelihood »

 Cultural, Heritage and Historical Tourism: (Ex: Live Your Tour)

Make tradition, cultural heritage be an asset in increasing
productivity and reducing the vulnerability of women livelihood in
exlcuded but naturally and historically rich regions

 Women in the informal Sector : (Ex Tunisia Inclusive Labor

Initiative ) Secure a transtion from the informal to the formal
sector (mico credit and informality)
 Women Citizenship and political
Participation

Our principle after the Revolution

“The concept of democracy will only assume true and
dynamic significance when political policies and
national legislation are decided upon jointly by men and
women with equitable regard for the interests and aptitudes
of both halves of the population .“by the Inter-Parliamentary
Council, the plenary policy-making body of the Inter
Parliamentary Union, at its 154th session (Paris, 26 March 1994). (plan of Action)
 Women Citizenship and Political participation: Continued

• Work with individual women (citizenship and importance of voting)

• Work with women in political parties to build their capacities

• Work with political parties to advance gender equality issues in party

policies and platforms.

• Partner with international organizations that are specialized in training

of women in politics
 Direct services within the Communities for
mainly women

• Basic literacy skills to help them acquire knowledge

and skills
• Vocational education and training go a long way in
facilitating their economic base.
• Training in IT and foreign languages
• Networking activities
• Listening center
 Capacity
building of
institution

Sustainable
Support for
a sustainable Partnerships
betweeen the
Service
Sustainability
Livelihood?
Delivery and
different
proximity
stackeholders

Sector based
livelihood)
(innovation)
 Challenges
• Funds : Restricted, Limited in Time….
• Lack of qualified human ressources
• Lack of Collaboration : work together for more
efficiency
• Reduandancy
• Lack of credibility of many of theNGOs because of
the big # of projects with no real impact
• Women are always presented as a social case and
not as a business opportunity: lack of involvement
from the private sector
 Challenges : continued

• Lack in the NGOs’ capacities

• Absence of women led or targeting NGOs in many
communties and regions of the country
• Competition for funds and not for efficiency on the
ground
• Women do not often support women
• Women livelihood and ideology : are we the
problem or part of the solution ? The answer is in
the constitution or …
• Government and NGOs collaboration? Nice slogan
but hard in reality…
 Thank you

www.taamstn.org

Chéma Gargouri
Founder & President
cat@cat-tunisia.com