Found this in an article on combatting terrorism. The gist of the article was that reducing poverty is one part of a fight in Tunisia that was successful. My question: is poverty in Tunisia as low as this report says it is now? The article was published in late 2001.
“The National Solidarity Fund was set up to help them. Companies and individual Tunisians were encouraged to contribute to the fund in a show of solidarity for their fellow citizens. The response was overwhelming. Hundreds of projects were set up in deprived areas and in 12 years, the poverty level of 30% was whittled down to only 5%. Over the next few years, poverty will be eradicated throughout Tunisia.”
Well, my understanding is that Tunisian economy is healthier than that of any non-Gulf ( i.e. oil-rich ) Arab state at the moment ( and arguably is potentially more stable than those in the long run, as Tunisia isn’t quite as single-resource dependent ). And that includes all of its neighbors in North Africa, including Algeria and Libya, which do benefit from substantial oil and natural gas revenues.
But it is also worth noting that Tunisia, while it has been liberalizing slowly ( but fairly steadily ), has long had a reputation for keeping a pretty tight lid on serious internal opposition. Tunisia’s government maintains an iron control over the media ( at least formerly one of tightest in the world ), formally bans religious-based parties ( i.e. Islamists - who are kept on a very short leash ) and is not shy about cracking down ( albeit more quietly than some ) in general, something easier accomplished in such a small country. So it is likely the synergy of solid(ish) economy and a strong central government that has kept things quiet ( and Tunisia also has fewer internal political faultlines than any of its neighbors, the benefit of being a smallish, rather homogenous unit ).
Tunisia is a relative bright spot in the Arab world today. Relative, of course, being the key word.