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A twinning project geared towards building long-term, participatory and inclusive agricultural and rural development policy-making and implementation capacity in Tunisia was launched Wednesday in Tunis.
A EUR 1 500 000 budget was earmarked for the the three-year undertaking that involves Tunisia, France and Italy. The project is carried out by the European Union (EU)-funded Programme of Support to the Association Agreement and the Transition Process (P3AT), the Ministry of Agriculture, Water Resources and Fisheries Wednesday indicated in a press release.
The twinning project seeks to beef up Tunisia's capacities in devising, implementing and monitoring agricultural development policies and programmes. It will help provide support for the implementation of ENPARD, the European Neighbourhood Programme for Agriculture and Rural Development. This pilot action programme, financed by the European bloc to the tune of 10 million euros (24.42 MTD), targets Ain Draham, northern Kebili, Kerkennah, Bargou, Ben Guerdane, Beni Khedeche and Sidi Makhlouf.
An institutional back-up will be given to better mainstream inclusive, participatory and long-term approaches into agricultural and rural policies and development programmes.
A team of roughly 50 French and Italian experts in territorial development and agricultural and rural development policies will work in concert with Tunisian counterparts as part of the exchange of experiences, analyses and training and study visits in France and Italy. A resident twinning adviser will offer assistance to the ministry through the implementation period.
Tunisian authorities said they are willing to revamp their approches to inclusive, participatory and long-term agricultural policies. The kickoff meeting was attended by Secretary of State in charge of Agricultural Production Omar Behi, Ambassador, Head of the European Union (EU) Delegation to Tunisia Patrice Bergamini, France's Ambassador to Tunisia Olivier Poivre d'Arvor and Italian Ambassador Raimondo De Cardona.
© Tunis-Afrique Presse 2016
