ROME - First lady Leila Ben Ali, chairwoman of the Arab Women's Organisation (AWO), said : "In Tunisia, women's rights have acquired a constitutional force since Tunisia has guaranteed women's right to work, safeguarded their dignity and promoted their equality to men in terms of employment, wages, investments and economic autonomy ".
In her address on the Tunisian experience in matters of women's access to knowledge to fight against hunger ", as part of the works of the 2nd Summit of Non-aligned Countries' First Ladies held, on Sunday in Rome, on "food security and women's access to resources ", Mrs. Ben Ali expressed satisfaction at the fact that Tunisian girls represent 51% in academic scientific and agricultural specialties and also at the rise in the number of girls registered in vocational training and continuing training in the agricultural sector who represent now 20% of the total number of students.
She noted on the other hand that "in rural areas, women take advantage of the results of agricultural research, women accounting for 48% of the total staff of researchers in the fields of large-scale farming, biotechnology, water, animal production and oceanographic sciences and technology ".
The First Lady went on saying that ''in general, Tunisian women benefit from integrated programmes for social care and welfare, within a proportion that reached 62% in 2008, stressing that 53% of households benefiting from the interventions of the national programme for aid to needy families are supported by women and that the national social security fund provides more than 150.000 grants for low-income women ".
She reminded as well that "women receive one third of the microcredits allocated by development-oriented associations and will benefit from 35% of the interventions of the Tunisian solidarity bank for the launching of productive projects before the end of 2011".
"Tunisia, Mrs Ben Ali added , devotes 20% of its annual budget to the dissemination of education and knwoledge.
The rate of schooling for six-year-old children stands at 99% for boys and girls.
Girls account for 58% of pupils in secondary education and 60% of students ".
She also said that ''over the past couple of decades and despite the fluctuating global economic situation and its limited natural resources, Tunisia has managed to preserve steady growth rates."
The first lady highlighted the comprehensive social policy adopted in Tunisia aimed at promoting human beings in all fields and for which more than 60% of the state budget is allocated.
This policy, she said, has favoured a reduction in the poverty rate to 3,8% from 12% in the 1980s and the expansion of the middle class to encompass more than 80% of the population.
This same policy has enabled Tunisia to rank today as the best country in the world as regards the evolution of the human development index since 2000 and one of the nations that enjoy quality of life, she concluded.
© Agence Tunis Afrique Presse 2009
