Republic of Tunisia الجمهورية التونسية Washington, March 14 th 2016 LAND GOVERNANCE IN TUNISIA Mohamed Salah ARFAOUI, Minister of Equipment, Housing and Spatial Planning 1

2 Tunisia has a 3000 years history of civilizations from Carthage to modern Tunisia passing by Romans.

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5 The main Tunisian economic and social indicators are as follows:  The agricultural sector accounts for 11.6% of the GDP, industry 25.7%, and services 62.8%.  Tourism accounted for 7% of GDP  More than 98% of the children of age 6 go to school.  76% of the families own at least one house. Main Economic and Social Indicators

THE TUNISIAN REVOLUTION 6 Unemployment, corruption and lack of political freedom lead to the January 14 th, 2011 Tunisian Revolution. Since then, the country's political elite managed, against the odds, to settle its differences through dialogue and compromise:  The new constitution was adopted with a broad majority  Successful organization of the parliamentary and presidential elections.  Won in an atmosphere of mixed feelings of pride and anxiety the 2015 Nobel Prize of Peace

7 Unfortunately, The new born democracy faced many challenges:  An ongoing global economic crisis and limited support from the international community.  Security concerns because of the situation in Libya.  Many terrorist attacks with a huge negative impact on touristic activities.  The most important and most recent attack on Ben Guerdane led to the loss of citizens and members of military and security forces but has demonstrated for a high degree of citizenship of all Tunisians and readiness of Police and Military forces to interfere. Despite all the above, Tunisian Government succeed to achieve a positive growth rate of 0.8 % in the last quarter of 2015 and is willing to reach 5% by 2020.

CHALLENGES 8  Implementation of the Strategic Development Plan  Economic reforms  Investment Code  Public Private Partenership  Consolidate the budget ressouces  Social programs:  An overall review of the social policies:  Review of Social Security legal framework  Good governance of social security funds  Instauration of an Integrated system of Social Protection, Protection of women and children  Instauration of a National Council of Social Dialogue  Implimentation of a challenging program of social housing

REFORMS RELATED TO LAND PLANNING AND MANAGEMENT 9 In order to accelarate the implementation of its programs of infrastructure development and maintenance, environmental protection and ressource management, emergency services and social service programs, and aware of the urgent need to improve the means and ways of Land Planning and Management relying on sustainable development approach, the Tunisian Goverment started:

REFORMS RELATED TO LAND PLANNING AND MANAGEMENT 10 I. An overall review of the legal framework of land planning and management : 1. Land use for agriculture 2. State-owned land use and management 3. Co-owned land 4. The Code of Urbanisation and Land Planning in order to: Simplify procedures, save time and money Improve accessibility of land for major public and private projects II. I MPLEMENTATION OF M ODERN T OOLS FOR G OOD L AND P LANNING AND M ANAGEMENT 1. A Digital Strategic Plan for land infrastructure 2. Creation of a digital land record 3. Creation of a Land information system

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First steps of land management in Tunisia 12  Land being the most important pillar for any country’s economic development, Tunisia started Land Registration since  In1964, Tunisian Goverment instaured a free obligatory legal cadastre.  The Tunisian Conserving land institution is considered the first in Africa, it holds the Tunisian land register in a digital way. We can now count 1.3 million land titles.

13 Current status:  7.3 million hectares of agricultural land are registered which represents 85 %.  80% of the recorded data are on hard copies, only 30% is scanned and saved on digital archives.  Only 20% of the data are digital. Challenges:  Many involved stakeholders  Insufficient and isolated land Data  Incomplete and duplicated information system  Unreliable survey and digitalization equipments  Limited capacity of Human Ressources  Low productivity

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NEEDS 15 Believing that a Good Governance of Land is the key for:  Sustainable development  Successful planning and time saving  Property Valorisation  Reliable fiscality  Environment protection  Social equity and peace.

Vision/objectives 16 The Tunisian Goverment is willing to establish a reliable Land Information System For Multi purposes and multi users in order to achieve the following objectives: 1. Land Information System 2. Land System Renovation 3. Value Providing and Capacity Building

Action plan 17 The Tunisian Land Information and Administrative System (TLIS) Implementation Plan consists of six projects: 1. In-depth Design and Design Process Planning, 2. Construction of Integrated Cadastral Database, 3. Development of a Land Administration and Management System, 4. Establishment of Land Information Strategic Center for TLIS, 5. Reform of Land Administration System, 6. Human Resources and Capacity Building.

Total Cost 18 Based on an analysis of the current status of land planning and management system and willing to achieve the fixed objectives, a total amount of about 40 Million US Dollars has to be allocated to the project during a period of 5 years ( ).

TLIS (Tunisian Land Information System)

Thanks for your attention Tunis City