GAMMARTH - Interim Prime Minister Béji Caïd Essebsi stressed the need to revise the social model that had established imbalance in regional development and was among the major reasons behind the outbreak of revolution in Tunisia.
Presiding, on Wednesday morning, over the opening works of the international conference on "Social Justice and Fight against Exclusion at the Advent of Democratic Transition," the PM insisted on the need to join efforts of all the concerned sides to build up a social development model that would wipe out joblessness, poverty, exclusion and disparities between regions and reinforce welfare, in such a way as to achieve social justice and thus guarantee success of the democratic transition process in the country.
Youth, who started the Revolution of Freedom and Dignity with neither ideological, intellectual belonging nor any outside influence, he explained, mainly live in the most disadvantaged and the least lucky inland regions, adding that 80% of the development resources had been poured, under the ancien regime, in the coastal and tourist areas, at the detriment of the inland regions which only received 20% of the development budget.
The Tunisian Revolution, he further specified, came to show the divide between promises and reality, stressing, in this connection, the need to establish dialogue between the interim government and all the active forces to revise the different dimensions of the Tunisian social model, devise a road map that sets the social development priorities and defines a clear action plan in the service of the underprivileged classes' development, across all regions of the country.
The efforts exerted in matters of consecration of the principle of social justice, he said, have been crowned by a set of practical measures, notably regarding the reinforcement of the permanent assistance, regularisation of the working sites and sub-contracting workers' situation, enforcement of wage increases, making access to micro-credits easier and organising recruitment tests in the public sector.
He also reminded, in this connection, that Tunisia had received more than one million refugees fleeing sisterly Libya, which, he explained, did influence the social situation in Tunisia.
He underscored the vitalisation of additional training mechanisms and the creation of projects to absorb unemployment during the five coming years at a total cost of 125 million dollars.
For his part, Mr. Charles Dan, International Labour Organisation (ILO) Regional Director for Africa, said that development of human resources should top the development agenda, in consecration of the fundamental rights of the individual, such as the rights to health, education and labour, as part of justice and equality for all categories, regions and generations.
The two-day international conference is organised by the Social Affairs Ministry in association with ILO, with the support of the World Bank (WB), the U.N. International Children Emergency Fund (UNICEF), the European Union (EU) and France's National Statistics and Economic Studies Institute.
Several papers will be presented, during the conference, notably on approaches to exclusion and social integration in light of Arab and international experiences, the State's role throughout the democratic transition in fight against exclusion and development inequalities and the consecration of the principle of social justice.
© Tunis-Afrique Presse 2011
