TUNESS Chart of the Week (TCW), Friday Dec 14, 2012
The two plotted measures of poverty ((a) the impact of poverty, calculated as the % of the population below the poverty line and, (b) the scope of poverty measuring the gap between actual expenditures of poor population and the poverty threshold)* provide yet another candid explanation of the last popular uprising that started in Tunisia in December 2010.
The Midwest region and the inland parts of the country continue today to suffer from a deep structural dysfunctional in the distribution of national wealth. This situation has caused over the last 60 years a profound marginalization of the population of those regions who have massively fallen below the threshold of poverty. With indices pointing to the escalation of poverty in Midwest region compared to other the coastal regions (despite a slight improvement over the last decade), it’s becoming more urgent today than ever before for the local authorities to adopt a comprehensive and strategic approach in tackling this problem of regional disparities in Tunisia. The social stability and the long run development of the country remain ultimately contingent on the ability of the will of the political establishment to ensure a fair and equal distribution of the national resources among the local population.
* Please refer to the full report for further details on how the indices were calculated.
(Chart prepared by TUNESS Research Team) Data source:Report of the Tunisian Institute of Statistics, Nov., 2012.