Social protection is the only guarantee of farmers’ resilience to shocks, fishermen and the most vulnerable populations

A signing ceremony for a new project between FAO and the Ministry of Social Affairs sealed a first direct collaboration for a project which will contribute to the priorities of the Tunisian government for better coherence of agricultural policies and social protection of farmers and farmers as well as fishermen .

Malek Ezehi, Minister of Social Affairs, stressed the importance of thinking today about new communication policies in order to facilitate and increase the support of populations who work in the agricultural sectors, including fishermen with an emphasis on women in rural areas. “Extracting these populations, especially the most vulnerable, and facilitating their accession is a priority” he underlined, insisting on the need for a participatory approach, where all the institutions concerned with social protection are called upon to work together in order to to meet the challenges of low adherence today among these professional categories to social security coverage.

For his part and in the same direction, Mohamed Amrani, Current Affairs Officer at the FAO in Tunisia, welcomed this first collaboration with the ministry and mentioned the importance of no longer leaving the social security policy independent but of integrate with other social policies for greater efficiency. He specified that farmers and fishermen, who represent a large population working in the agricultural sectors, and who are mostly outside of social security mechanisms, risk not resisting and persisting in various shocks such as climate change and others.

This technical cooperation project, with a budget of USD 254,000 and which runs until 2025, plans to consolidate the participatory approach with several relevant governmental and non-governmental stakeholders including the Ministry of Agriculture, Water Resources and of maritime fishing, the Ministry of Employment and Vocational Training, the Ministry of Family, Women, Children and the Elderly, the National Social Security Fund (CNSS), the National Social Security Fund health insurance, the Tunisian Union of Agriculture and Fisheries (UTAP), the Agricultural Extension and Training Agency (AVFA), Agricultural Development Groups (GDA) and Mutual Agricultural Service Societies ( SMSA).

Consultations are planned ahead of the implementation of the project with certain direct beneficiaries in order to support and assist these populations in joining social protection systems and as underlined by the Minister, with this project it is possible to work to strengthen existing mechanisms but above all work for better membership, effective contributions and a change in the lives of these farmers and fishermen.

This is a translation of the news published in French here.