Project Summary

Project General Description

The proposed intervention is the third edition of the Souk At-tanmia program in Tunisia. Souk At-tanmia has a distinctive position in the Tunisian ecosystem given its two unique features. First, it offers non-financial support to beneficiaries (training, coaching, mentoring and access to market) in addition to financial assistance (in the form of grants from the partnership and additional debt funding from 2 partner local banks). This differentiates it from most entities and programs available in Tunisia, which offer coaching, mentoring or financial support only. Second, Souk At-tanmia is a Partnership that leverages on the comparative advantages and network of different public and private national and international entities. As such the initiative allows it to deliver a strong and comprehensive support and to maximize the impact and visibility of its interventions. Notably, Souk At-tanmia is the largest mobilization of partners in Tunisia, gathering 20 international and national entities. Despite its small size, the Souk At-tanmia’s Partnership delivered very positive results in terms of jobs and support to disadvantaged groups, and raised the Bank visibility in Tunisia. A pilot edition of Souk At-tanmia was launched in July 2012 after the Boards approved the initiative and successfully implemented before it closed in December 2013. The pilot edition mobilized about USD 1.2 million1 and was open to different types of beneficiaries: NGOs, existing businesses and individual entrepreneurs. It also had a multi-sector focus. In view of the positive results achieved during the pilot edition, the steering committee of the Partnership decided to launch a second edition of Souk At-tanmia on April, 30th, 2014. Among notable changes in the second edition is the use of dedicated programs under the Partnership to support business creation and extension as the pilot edition showed that a one size fits all approach is not optimal to serve these 2 types of beneficiaries. Over USD 3 million were mobilized from several partners. The second edition supported about 100 beneficiaries by offering strengthened non-financial services compared to the pilot edition. In view of the positive results achieved during the previous editions, the steering committee of the Partnership decided to launch a third edition of Souk At-tanmia on March, 10th, 2016. Approximately USD 4 million were mobilized from several partners (excluding in-kind contributions). It is important to note that during this third edition key resources are being deployed to setup and develop an online platform that will enhance the efficiency and delivery of the program. This platform could also be used to support the scale-up and replication of the program in different countries in the North Africa region in a first step and throughout the continent in a second step.

Project Objectives

By overcoming this challenge of access to financing, coupled with comprehensive non-financial support, the Souk At tanmia Partnership will help to render a large swath of the population, especially youths and the underprivileged, autonomous. By supporting the creation of micro-smalland medium-sized enterprises (MSMEs) nationwide, it will contribute to build the momentum for inclusive growth by generating productive employment, while helping to reduce social and regional disparities. Through a third edition of the program, the Partnership will continue to i) promote a demonstration effect to address major unemployment challenges ii) consolidate the development impact of the program; iii) foster the role of the Partnership in the ecosystem as a quality label to improve access to finance.

Beneficiaries

This third edition targets a larger number of beneficiaries, about 110, compared to previous editions (respectively 61 and 100). For this third edition, Souk At-tanmia received over 4,423 applications, of which about 1,890 fully completed applications were evaluated. The selection process is about to be finalized and grant disbursement should start by Q2 2018.

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