“Decent work is the fundamental right of every rural woman” is the most important goal of the National Women’s Day campaign

Women in rural Tunisia make up 32% of the total population and 70% of the country’s agricultural workforce.

Despite this, women receive about 50% less income than men and have very limited access to social security. Most women are day laborers or seasonal workers working on agricultural land and large farms, working for a variety of employers. Therefore, women working in the agricultural sector in Tunisia today need great attention and improvement in terms of wages, safety and even those related to climate change.

In this context, during July and August 2024, an awareness-raising campaign was organized through workshops organized by UN Women, aimed at the economic empowerment of women and their employers in rural areas of Janduba and Kairouan states, in partnership with the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO), the World Food Programme, the International Fund for Agricultural Development (FIDA) and the United Nations Women, within the framework of the Joint Program to Accelerate the Economic Empowerment of Rural Women.
The workshops aimed to educate women workers in the agricultural sector on the principles of decent work, empower them economically and provide practical recommendations based on their life realities.
The workshops are designed in a participatory manner to enhance interaction between participants and employers, while combining discussions, practical exercises and case studies to encourage the exchange of experiences and joint capacity building.
This approach was taken to ensure effective participation of women in the workshops and to make a real contribution to them by providing practical tools and strengthening their capacity to apply decent work principles in their own contexts.
The recommendations include strategies to improve market access, encourage gender equality, enhance vocational skills, promote access to financial services and reduce the burden on households.

In addition, specific measures to address the impacts of climate change, improve transport infrastructure and strengthen natural resource governance were agreed as fundamental principles to support the empowerment of rural women. It reflects the voices of workshop participants and a variety of women in rural areas and is the result of in-depth discussions during meetings with them.

The campaign video aims to reach as many people as possible not only through digital platforms but also through traditional media to stimulate collective consciousness and thus reach a wider audience.

The campaign is an important step towards improving the working and living conditions of rural women in Tunisia’s agricultural sector, which requires implementation of the recommendations with the support of the Government, civil society organizations and the private sector.