13941. Can Tunisia Shake Off “Business as Usual” Following Covid-19?
- Author:
- Salma Houerbi
- Publication Date:
- 05-2020
- Content Type:
- Working Paper
- Institution:
- Arab Reform Initiative (ARI)
- Abstract:
- The consequences of Covid-19 on Tunisia’s already fragile economy are bound to exacerbate existing social tensions. The government has rolled out a series of socio-economic measures to support individual entrepreneurs and businesses to maintain jobs and incomes across all sectors. This paper argues that the government’s support to the private sector represents a golden opportunity to rectify longstanding problems in state-business relations and institute a culture of corporate accountability. But to do so, the government should place the Covid-19 response within a broader effort to address the persistent and systemic challenges the country faces from corruption to rent-seeking to vulnerable workers’ conditions.
- Topic:
- Public Health, Humanitarian Crisis, Pandemic, and COVID-19
- Political Geography:
- Africa and Tunisia