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Can Tunisia’s Economy Survive the Terror Attacks?

A Leader of the Nobel Prize ‘Quartet’ Weighs a Peril to Tunisia’s Social Peace

Date: Tuesday, November 3, 2015 / Time: 9:30am - 10:45am 

Center: Middle East North Africa Center

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As Tunisia has democratized since its 2011 Jasmine Revolution, its frail economy remains a danger to social peace, with unemployment even higher than when the country’s mass protests began in late 2010. Terrorist attacks this year killed more than 50 foreigners, undercutting tourism, the country’s third-largest industry. On November 3, Houcine Abassi, Tunisia’s most prominent labor leader, discussed these economic troubles and their implications for the country’s evolution. Abassi heads the Tunisian General Labor Union, part of the National Dialogue Quartet, which in October was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize.

20151103-Houcine-Abassi-Tunisias-Economy-event.jpg
Houcine Abassi

The weakest link in Tunisia’s recent progress may well be the economy. Unemployment, by official figures, has stayed near 15 percent since the 2011 revolution. Youth unemployment is dangerously high—almost 40 percent nationally, and 50 percent or greater in the south and among university graduates. Houcine Abassi, the general secretary of the Tunisian General Labor Union (UGTT), is not only a close analyst of Tunisia’s economy, but key voice, within the National Dialogue Quartet, in the mediation of Tunisia’s political struggles since 2013.

What should be the priorities for growing Tunisia's economy? What policies should the Tunisian government adopt to improve employment, especially for youth? And how can the United States and the international community help Tunisia make difficult reforms and recover economically?

Abassi discussed Tunisia’s situation with U.S. scholars in a forum co-hosted by the Project on Middle East Democracy (POMED), the AFL-CIO Solidarity Center and the United States Institute of Peace.

Speakers

Houcine Abassi
Secretary General, Tunisian General Labor Union (UGTT)

Brad Cunningham
Economist, Millennium Challenge Corporation
Research Fellow, Center for International Development, Harvard University

Amy Hawthorne
Deputy Director for Research, Project on Middle East Democracy (POMED)

Ambassador William Taylor, Moderator
Executive Vice President, United States Institute of Peace

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