TUNIS - Human development is on the basis of all development process and represents an excellent barometer of peoples' success and progress.
It reflects societies' success in joining economic development and balanced distribution of national wealth among various social categories and regions. From this standpoint, Tunisia has adopted a comprehensive approach to promote human resources.
This approach rests on principles of solidarity and mutual aid to serve Tunisian citizens' welfare and blossoming.
In this regard, Tunisia has made reforms and established plans and programmes to improve the living standard and quality of life of Tunisians and in cities, villages and rural areas, with the Presidential Programme "Together We Meet Challenges" as one of the major tools to materialise this objective.
This approach, which has relied on the human element as player and first beneficiary, has succeeded to achieve noteworthy results in matters of human development.
Thus, the per-capita income rose from 4,856 dinars in 2007, to 5,631 dinars in 2009, while life expectancy at birth increased from 74.2 years to 74.4 years, during the same period which was marked by the stabilisation of the unemployment rate, despite difficulties resulting from the global economic and financial crisis.
Several other positive indicators were also recorded in different areas, particularly women's empowerment and reinforcement of their participation in the development effort, in addition to the improvement of living conditions, reduction of poverty rate and reinforcement of middle class. During the next period, efforts will focus on strengthening the achievements accomplished in matters of human development, through the adoption of sector-based policies and development programmes which would help Tunisia reach by 2014, a human development indicator of 0.810, empowering the country to catch up with developed countries.
The period of the 12th development plan 2010-2014 will also be marked by improving citizens' living conditions and the per-capita income to reach 8,371 dinars by 2014, and ensuring more justice in the distribution of revenues in such a manner as to target all social categories and all regions. Deeply aware of the importance of employment and reduction of the unemployment rate in raising revenues and curbing poverty and exclusion, Tunisia has undertaken, through the 12th development plan, to speed up the pace of creating economic enterprises, particularly in high-employability sectors.
In this regard, the State banks on the creation of 415,000 new job opportunities which would cover 114% of the additional job applications, reduce the poverty rate to reach 11.6% in 2014, compared with 12.3% in 2009, enhance the regions' participation in economic circuits and reach an economic growth rate of 5.5%.
This same period will also be marked by bolstering the social welfare systems, setting up an interdependent economy, providing a job or an income source to at least one of the members of each family and increasing partnership with the associative fabric in the care for vulnerable categories in order to consolidate the foundations of an interdependent social economy.
To this end, the various development policies, particularly health and demographic policies, particularly promoting quality of life and living standing in various regions and improving the education level among women, have had a positive impact on life expectancy at birth which would reach 75.2 years in 2014.
Efforts will focus during the next five years, on bringing down mothers' mortality rate to 20 per 100,000 births and that of infant mortality to less than 10 per thousand children, and newly-born to 8.5 per thousand by the end of 2014.
The 12th Development Plan has set as an objective to reduce the overall illiteracy rate to less than 14.4%, and of those aged below 60 to less than 9% by 2014, compared with 12.6% in 2009.
Moreover, the health sector will be marked by the achievement of several projects to improve the sector's indicators, upgrade health care establishments and create a number of specialised inter-regional and regional hospital centres, in order to bring health service closer to citizens and consolidate specialty medicine in regions.
Guidelines set by the 12th development plan (2010-2014) are supported by the set of achievements accomplished by Tunisia in the education and training fields to which the country earmarks 7.5% of the GDP, making it on the top of States that invest in the promotion of human resources.
In this regards, several reforms will be made in the education, training and higher education sectors to improve their quality and favour their contribution to take up future challenges, build up the intelligence and knowledge society and help these sectors adjust to international changes and meet the requirements of economic development.
© Agence Tunis Afrique Presse 2010
