Farm worker Maroua Ber-Regueb traveled 500 kilometers from Medenine to the capital Tunis this December to deliver a message. At the headquarters of Tunisia’s main national union, the Tunisian General Labor Union (UGTT), she did not simply recount the well-worn narrative of women’s hardships and indignities in the agricultural sector—something she has grown tired of repeating. Instead, she read a manifesto she had written and shared on social media calling for the implementation of “the decree” [Al-marsūm]. Her colleagues— jubilant and exasperated—joined her in a unified chant: “Enforcing the decree is a duty!”
The decree in question is Decree No. 4 of 2024, which establishes a social protection program for women working in the agricultural sector, a group that includes over 521,000 individuals—seasonal workers, unpaid family ‘helpers’, and permanent employees—according to 2017 data from the Tunisian Forum for Economic and Social Rights (FTDES). The decree, published in the official gazette on October 2024, was met with joy and relief by women who have long endured exploitative conditions, including salaries far below the legal minimum for agricultural work, harsh working conditions, and gender-based violence.
“At the CNAM [National Health Insurance Fund], I am sent back. I don’t have a [treatment] card. If I fall from an olive tree and die, no one moves a muscle,” Ber-Regueb said at the Tunisian Forum for Economic and Social Rights (FTDES) fifth Congress of Social Movements, held at the UGTT headquarters in Tunis, December 1, 2024.
To date, women working in the agricultural sector have had little to no labor protections to shield them from the hazards they face daily. Among these hazards, their perilous—and often deadly—transportation conditions have become a focal point of national outrage and local civil society organizing. Despite the public outcry following every deadly road accident, there have been few attempts at governmental intervention. As such, Decree No. 4 has been welcomed as a potential disruptor to the continued neglect. Far from being a gift that was bestowed upon women working in the sector, the decree represents the culmination of years of mobilizing efforts from the workers alongside a persistent civil society push to force the state to confront and address their exploitation.
What’s in the Decree?
Decree Number 4 (October 22, 2024) introduces a Social Protection Program for Women Working in the Agricultural Sector (henceforth referred to as the Program). The decree is the latest in a series of legislative measures aimed at improving conditions for women in Tunisia, the most recent of which include Law 58 (2016) on the elimination of violence against women, Law 51 (2019) regulating transportation for agricultural workers, and order 420 (2024), which established a minimum guaranteed wage for the agricultural sector.
The program has two main components: “economic inclusion” and social security coverage. The economic inclusion part sets parameters for initiatives designed to promote an “entrepreneurship culture,” “strengthen women’s roles as economic agents, enhance their families’ living standards, and secure their access to decent work” (Article 2). The social security part of the decree extends critical benefits such as health insurance, old-age pensions, disability allowances, and coverage for occupational hazards—needed since most workers in the sector are hired on an ad hoc basis without work contracts that extend such benefits. Together, these dual prongs aim to achieve the comprehensive “social and economic inclusion” of a historically marginalized group.
The decree also establishes a specialized fund as the financing mechanism for the program. As outlined in Article 13 of the 2025 Finance Law, the fund will be financed through a combination of sources, including an annual allocation from the state budget, a percentage of traffic fine revenues, insurance premiums, and deductions from technical inspection certificates issued by the Technical Transport Agency. The implementation of the program involves coordination among the Ministries of Agriculture, Social Affairs, Health, and Finance, along with other government agencies.
Social Coverage for Previously Untargeted Group
In a 2023 study conducted by the FTDES about the condition of women working in the agricultural sector, 92 percent of respondents reported not having any form of social security.[i]
The decree aims to address this caveat with its new social security program, which will target two categories of women in accordance with Article 3 of the Labor Code. The first are self-employed workers including, but not limited to, unpaid family workers. The second are workers hired by one or more employer, on a seasonal, regular, or intermittent basis, for more than half the month. The program excludes workers already covered by a legal system providing similar protections (Article 17).
The coverage will be managed by the National Social Security Fund (CNSS). Most workers in Tunisia pay into this system from their own wages, but with women working in the agricultural sector, the state will cover their contributions for the first three years. Self-employed workers will have to enrol within one month of their coverage starting, while employers will be responsible for enrolling their hired workers and covering their contributions, which the state also subsidizes for the first three years (Articles 19–23).
Economic Inclusion
The ‘economic inclusion’ component of the decree is set to be managed by the National Agency for Employment and Independent Work (ANETI). ANETI will oversee individual and collective initiatives by women working in the agricultural sector, assisting them in preparing project files and financing requests, helping them choose financing mechanisms suitable to their chosen activity, as well as organizing training sessions in ‘entrepreneurship’ and ‘innovative project design.’ (Article 5).
ANETI will cover all costs of these training programs, including an as-yet undetermined ‘monthly allowance’ (Article 6) to the beneficiaries meant to cover the duration of the training. The decree clarifies that this allowance cannot be combined with existing assistance and direct cash transfers from the AMAN social program—a program that the decree clarifies will still be available to qualifying women agricultural workers.
A notable feature of the decree is the allocation of a portion of the decree’s specialized fund to finance the “creation of small agricultural enterprises” within the framework of “small” family-run agricultural operations (Article 8). Funding for the latter—defined as ‘institutions relying exclusively on family labor’—will specifically target women who are landowners, legal administrators of agricultural land, or directly engaged in independent agricultural activities However, the text also indicates that a future decree will outline other potential beneficiaries as well.
A National Database of Beneficiaries
To get these workers the new benefits, the program will rely on a not-yet established database of potential beneficiaries. This ‘National Registry’ (Article 13) will include beneficiaries’ demographic health, educational, social, and economic data alongside the kinds of services to be received under the program. The Ministry of Social Affairs will carry out the work of creating the database through regional and intergovernmental committees working within each of the ministry’s regional offices. Those committees will also study the feasibility of future “economic inclusion” projects.
Developing a database of this scale will require a coordinated national mapping effort, a task not elaborated upon in the decree. The decree does, however, emphasize the importance of improving data management practices and “fortifying the protection of personal data” (Article 14). It is conceivable that some aspects of this initiative may rely on self-reporting, as access to certain benefits requires inclusion in the official registry and possession of a special identification card (Article 36).
Another Attempt at Tackling Transportation
The decree also tackles transportation, a critical issue due to the significant occupational hazards associated with commuting to and from farms. For many women workers, transportation to work means being overcrowded into the back of old pickup trucks, prone to accidents and particularly deadly in the event of one. With the new decree, a “portion” of transportation costs will be covered by the special social protection fund, with governors granted discretionary authority to determine subsidy amounts. A future decree is expected to outline regulations of transportation vehicles. It is worth noting, though, that Law 51 (2019) previously attempted to regulate agricultural transportation but has largely failed due to the absence of a regulating body on the ground with the power to enforce.
With the new decree, women being transported will be entitled to compensation from CNAM in the event of an accident during work commutes, according to Article 38.
The decree states that its full implementation requires several additional decrees to outline the specific mechanisms for steering, funding, and delineating the scope of its various components. A complex system such as this one will require significant preparatory work, including the creation of a registry to account for over half a million potential beneficiaries, based on conservative estimates. The Social Security Program for women working in the agricultural sector is undoubtedly a welcome development, though the project’s complexity and ambition may itself be an obstacle.
Implementation Imperative
Concerns that the decree might remain little more than ink on paper are already galvanizing women working in the agricultural sector and civil society actors in support of their cause. Protesters organized a march to the regional delegation headquarters in Jbeniana (Sfax governorate) on Friday, January 17, 2025. Women from the governorates of Kairouan and Sidi Bouzid also joined the demonstration.
According to a January 15 communiqué issued by the FTDES ahead of the protest, the action aimed to remind authorities of their commitments enshrined in the decree and to press for its swift implementation. Embedded in these demands is a resounding expression of outrage over the ongoing tragedies caused by dangerous transport conditions, which continue to injure and kill. Civil society groups including the FTDES, Sallima: Association de Soutien aux Personnes Défavorisées, media organization Inhiyez, Million Rural Women and the Landless (La Via Campesina’s representation in Tunisia) and the local UGTT chapter in Jbeniana all lent political and logistical support to the protest.
At the protest—livestreamed on Facebook by Inhiyez, protestors shouted slogans that touched on their work and life conditions, state complicity in their impoverishment, and their rights to access benefits enshrined in the decree. These slogans included:
“Implement the decree, let our lives see light”
[Tabaq tabaq al-marsūm, khalli ḥayetna tchouf el-nūr];
“I want to live; they won’t let me in my country”
[Nhebb n’āish, fīblādī makhālūnīsh];
“We are tired of slogans, we want decisions”
[Fādīnā min al-shi‘ārāt, aḥnā nḥibbū qarārāt]
“You starved us, you impoverished us, to the cemetery, you took us”
[Jāwaʿtūna, faʾqartūna, lil jabbāna hazzītūna]
“Too many martyrs, enough with the sacrifices”
[Barsha barsha shahīdāt, yezīnī min el-taḏḥiyāt]
Claims were also directed at specific Ministries, particularly the Ministry of Health, which, according to one protester, fails to regulate the pesticides that many women are forced to handle daily, often without proper gear. Addressing the gathering were several representatives from the UGTT and its subsidiaries, including the General Federation of Agriculture, the local UGTT chapter in Jbeniana, the UGTT chapter in Sfax, and the local syndicate of women working in the agricultural sector whose speeches accentuated the indispensable role of the workers in achieving Tunisia’s food sovereignty and implored authorities to urgently address the exploitative and hazardous conditions under which workers labor. Speeches also highlighted important ‘gaps’ in the decree—particularly definitions concerning target groups—and questioned the sluggish pace of plans toward implementation.
As transportation accidents continue unabated—FTDES has already documented two incidents in Sidi Bouzid since the onset of 2025—and with months still stretching ahead before the (optimistically projected) implementation of the decree’s various provisions, it seems likely that similar protests will continue. One protestor on the 17th shouted that the protest was “neither the start, nor the end” of such movements.
*****
This article was funded solely by readers like you via Patreon at https://www.patreon.com/meshkal. If you read Meshkal’s reporting, please consider making a donation to keep the project going.
[i] Attar, Hayet. 2023. “العمالة الزراعية النسائية وسياسات تأبيد الهشاشة أي سبيل للإنقاذ ورد الاعتبار؟ – FTDES.” Tunis: FTDES. https://ftdes.net/ar/la-main-doeuvre-agricole/.
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License.