On 21 May, ILS LEDA presented the semi-annual report of activities carried out in the framework of the CROLET project.
The project, leaded by WeWorld and implemented by both Tunisian and Italian organisations, intends to reduce emigration, by offering greater job opportunities in the territories of Sidi Bouzid e Kebili governorates (Tunisia). It offers a model of local development based on public-private participatory governance, aimed at enhancing endogenous value chains and ensuring competitive, inclusive and sustainable development.
The specific objectives are:
- Creating job opportunities for young people, through:
- the development and implementation of shared strategies relating to competitive, inclusive and sustainable territorial supply chains formulated through the RESCO method of ILS LEDA;
- the strengthening of the participating companies of the aforementioned chains and the creation of new innovative companies;
- the creation of self-sustainable institutional mechanisms to provide integrated financial and non-financial services to the local economy; - Strengthen the capacity of the local administrations by improving the public services of Sidi Bouzid and Kebili, with particular attention to the protection of unaccompanied migrant minors in transit and Tunisian children at risk of illegal migration.
In the first six months ILS LEDA was mainly involved in the following project activities:
- Establishment of 4 working groups related to 4 economic value chains for the identification of current or potential economic resources.
ILSLEDA worked for the identification of territorial value chains to be prioritized and for identification of territorial actors to be involved.The value chains proposed for the governorate of Kebili are: dates, camel/dromedary farming, tourism, while for the governorate of Sidi Bouzid are: olives, sheep farming (Berber lamb of Sidi Bouzid). On the basis of these proposals, the project partners will define 4 sectors to be prioritised, 2 for the governorate of Kebili and two for the governorate of Sidi Bouzid.
In order to identify the actors of each value chain to be involved, ILS LEDA has developed a specific tool to facilitate the field experts in the identification of local partners. - Awareness raising actions, business check-ups, and technical and financial assistance to small and medium-sized enterprises related to the identified value chains, with the aim of stabilizing or creating new jobs.
ILS LEDA developed a specific tool which is a check-up questionnaire in order to:
- Identify the status of the main manufacturing and processing enterprises involved in the prioritized value chains;
- Identify their demand for services;
3. Creation of 2 ESIST (Local Development Agencies) with the function of strengthening non-financial services (technical assistance, training, marketing, administration, marketing) and creating a sustainable coordination mechanism that strengthens financial services
ILSLEDA developed a specific tool in order to analyses the status of services offered to the value chains. A questionnaire will be submitted to the main services provider in order to collect data and needed information about the services provided such as: specialised technical assistance; training for agriculture ; training in business management; support for business start-up; technological innovation; commercialisation and marketing; financial services; legal services; information services; green economy; networking; social services (care and assistance); health security services (protection against Covid 19).
After several meetings with project partners, the prioritised value chains for the governorate of Kebili were dates and greenhouse products powered by geothermal energy. The value chains of olives and vegetables were prioritised for the governorate of Sidi Bouzi.
