Conference to present the study conducted by Professor Sana Ben Achour under the theme “Social evictions”

This conference, under the theme “Social evictions“, comes in the margins of the celebration of the United Nations Day (#UNDay) every October 24^th marking the anniversary of the entry into force of the Charter of the United Nations, the celebration of World Cities Day every October 31, and within the framework of the Project funded by “Strengthening social protection systems and economic relief for vulnerable and marginalized segments of the population in response to COVID-19“, funded by the Multi-Partner Trust Fund (MPTF).

The conference is in line with the context of the New Urban Agenda, adopted at the United Nations Conference on Housing and Sustainable Urban Development (Habitat III), in Quito, Ecuador, on October 20, 2016, the Sustainable Development Goal 11 (SDG11) to “ensure that cities and human settlements are inclusive, safe resilient and sustainable” of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development, and “Urban October”, a campaign devised by the United Nations Human Settlements Programme (UN-Habitat) to highlight the global challenges of urbanization and to encourage the international community to implement the New Urban Agenda.

Urbanization can bring about new forms of social inclusion, by promoting equality, access to basic services and new opportunities. Yet urban development rarely taps into this potential. Inequality and exclusion are prevalent in most cities, often at higher rates than the national average, at the expense of sustainable development. For example, a World Bank study shows that Tunisia ranks 2nd in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) region in terms of economic inclusion of women (58.75 out of 100 points). Nevertheless, according to the 10-year study, Tunisian women enjoy only half the rights of men (58%), preventing them from accessing employment, business creation and economic decision-making.

According to the study conducted by Pr. Sana Ben Achour, the crisis of COVID- 19, has only revealed already existing inequalities related to gender, skin color, health status, sexual orientation, age, or the social situation of people and corroborates the relentless observation of the Secretary General of the United Nations, António Gomez. Guterres that “We are not equal in the face of the crisis” as evidenced by the “evictions and social evictions”, which are the cause of people becoming “homeless”, poor, isolated, and homeless. Nearly 3,220,000 people, or 27.5% of Tunisians, are in a situation of very severe or severe vulnerability.

In response to the Covid-19 crisis, UN-Habitat Tunisia Office has been supporting the Tunisian Government since March 2020 to map the needs of the homeless, to combat forced/social evictions, to review the housing sector strategy in light of the pandemic, to assess the needs for health and basic services in the slums, to develop a mobile application for the poorest to provide information, support and services to the most vulnerable, and to provide advice on public transport after the containment period. The UN-Habitat Tunisia office also provided a psychological assessment of the conditions of the homeless in order to make the centers functional and help them meet international human rights standards.