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NATIONAL CENTER FOR POLICY ANALYSIS
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| Tunisian Women and Economy on the Rise |
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The birth rate in Tunisia dropped from 7.2 in the 1960s to 2.08 in 2000. Experts say the decline was due to a campaign to lower the birth rates and advocate birth control that began in the 1950s. Consequently, Tunisia is being hailed as a model for other countries that want to close the wealth gap with western nations.
- Tunisia spends the equivalent of 18 percent of its gross domestic product of $21 billion on social programs, especially family planning and the expansion of women's rights, either through legislation or special projects.
- Each year, $10 million is spent to teach citizens about family planning and dispense birth control.
- To inform the one-third of Tunisians that live in rural areas, the government relies partly on mobile teams -- a nurse, a social worker, a midwife and a driver -- to dispense reproductive health services.
Tunisian society has changed drastically as a result of these social efforts:
- If births had continued at their 1950s rate, the population today would be 15 million instead of 10 million.
- With fewer children to raise, women have become a large part of the work force and also attend local universities at a higher rate than men.
- The construction of primary schools stopped a decade ago as the average number of students in a class dropped from 38 in 1985 to 28 in 2000; in some schools, first grade has been eliminated because there aren't enough new students.
However, the drop in the birth rate also led to a population bulge; nearly two-thirds of the population today is of working age, 15 to 59 years old. The World Bank puts the unemployment rate at 16 percent. But a rise in foreign investment led to a 5 percent annual growth rate over the past 6 years.
Source: Gautam Naik, "Tunisia Wins Population Battle, And Others See a Policy Model," Wall Street Journal, August 8, 2003.
For WSJ text
http://online.wsj.com/article/0,,SB106028926761045100-search,00.html
For more on Population
http://www.ncpa.org/iss/int/
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