Insufficient Funding, Unimplemented Strategies, and Superficial ESG Commitment: Tunisia's Ecological Transition
The first panel of the Forum on Sustainable Development Initiatives, held on April 16, 2026, under the theme "Smart Tunisia 2030: Governing for a Successful Transition," presented a candid assessment of Tunisia's ecological transition. At the center of the debate was the structuring role that financial institutions must play.
Moving Beyond a Passive Posture
Nazir Lajdel, Central Director of Innovation and Customer Experience at Banque Zitouna, emphasized the need to move beyond a passive posture, waiting for initiatives and filtering them. According to him, reducing a bank's role to that of a simple financier means "missing out on 80% of the real opportunity." Within the current regulatory framework, he estimates that it is already possible to implement 90% of operational initiatives related to the environment and energy optimization – provided that an active posture is adopted. This expanded role can be broken down into three axes:
- Strategic: Orienting, framing, and structuring investment flows by integrating ESG criteria from the decision-making phase.
- Systemic: Encouraging the regulator to adapt its framework to the realities of green finance, as the economic cycles of renewable energy projects do not match the classic cycles of a standard investment.
- Internal: Innovating in financial products and leveraging data to better guide investment flows.
Strategies Without Execution
Tahar Ben Lakhdar stated, "In Tunisia, we must stop making strategies and start implementing them," highlighting the historically low execution efficiency. Nazir Lajdel concurred, acknowledging that the difficulty lies not in designing plans but in their operational translation: "Linking theory and ambition on one side, and the field on the other, is complicated." A similar observation was made in the corporate sector. A study by the CMF, cited by the executive director of Managers magazine, found that while three-quarters of the 20 largest listed companies consider ESG criteria important, only 20% have used an independent auditor to validate their approach. "We are in the discourse, not in the mechanism of proof," Mechri summarized, adding, "Without a green taxonomy, ESG practices will remain the preserve of large companies, leaving SMEs on the sidelines."
Water Resources: A Major Point of Tension
Water resources constitute another major point of tension. Tunisia is below the water stress threshold, with less than 360 liters of water available per inhabitant per year. Aouatef Messai, Director General of the Environment and Quality of Life, recalled that 300 million cubic meters of treated wastewater could be reused in agriculture and other sectors, freeing up noble water for other uses. However, a revised water code, pending since 2009, has yet to be adopted. On the agricultural side, the APIA, represented by its Director General Inji Doggui, is counting on subsidies of up to 50% to encourage smart irrigation, organic farming, and soil conservation work. The stated goal is to increase the share of agricultural investment by young people from 11% to 20% by 2030.
