Member Spotlight: USAID-TADAEEM Equips 151 Municipalities to Combat COVID-19

January 19, 2021 | By Deloitte

Since the COVID-19 pandemic arrived in Tunisia, municipalities have been on the front lines facing an unprecedented challenge to protect local communities. The United States Government, through its United States Agency for International Development (USAID), provided $1.5 million (approximately 4.5 million dinars) to support municipalities’ efforts in ensuring the continued provision of public services and essential amenities during COVID-19.

In May, 2020, USAID’s TADAEEM project worked with the Ministry of Local Affairs to identify municipal needs for combating COVID-19, resulting in a list of sanitation equipment items needed in 151 municipalities located in 18 governorates.  

TADAEEM was able to distribute 86,000 equipment items, which included waste collection gear, motorized sprayers and disinfection supplies, as well as over and 1.5 million liters of chemical disinfectants, in the 151 municipalities in a period of three months. The equipment enabled 8,000 front line sanitation municipal workers to stem the spread of COVID-19, serving and protecting over half the population in Tunisia.

While distributing cleaning and disinfecting equipment to El Kram Municipality, the U.S. Ambassador to Tunisia, Donald Blome, along with the Minister of Local Affairs and the Governor of Tunis, reaffirmed their bilateral commitment and cooperation to combat COVID-19.

This support is part of an emergency program launched by the Ministry of Local Affairs to provide critical supplies to all 350 Tunisian municipalities, spearheading an impressive donor coordination effort with the U.S. and five other donors - France, Germany, Switzerland, the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) and the European Union (EU).

* USAID's TADAEEM project  works with Government of Tunisia officials and other partners - especially at the local and regional levels - to help in developing more effective ways to provide public services, ensuring that essential amenities are provided in an inclusive, efficient and accountable manner.

USAID’s Tunisia Accountability, Decentralization, and Effective Municipalities (TADAEEM) project is implemented by Deloitte Consulting LLP. USAID TADAEEM worked with the Government of Tunisia to equip 151 municipalities to combat COVID-19, reaching over half the population in Tunisia. The project works with municipalities and the central government to support the Government of Tunisia to improve citizen engagement and participation, enhance municipal communication and outreach, build capacity of the municipal councils and executives, improve delivery of core municipal services (public lighting, roads, solid waste and parks) and enhance core administrative functions performance.