SOCIAL SAFETY NETS UNDER PRESSURE: DOES ASSISTANCE REACH THOSE WHO NEED IT MOST?

From Eligibility to Real Impact: Examining Access, Targeting and Effectiveness of Social Protection in Tunisia

ATEP MED – Arabic Digital Center for Media & Development
Prepared and Published by: Mohamed Chaieb Barhoumi
Research, Reporting and Development Analysis
Updated: September 2026

Introduction

Social protection is one of the most important instruments available to governments to protect vulnerable households from poverty, unemployment, economic shocks and social exclusion. Cash transfers, child benefits, subsidized healthcare, education assistance and income-generation programmes can help families survive periods of economic hardship and, when properly designed, create pathways toward greater resilience and economic inclusion.

But the existence of a social protection programme does not automatically mean that every person who needs assistance can access it.

The central question is therefore not simply how much money is allocated to social protection or how many households are officially registered as beneficiaries.

The more important question is:

Does assistance actually reach the people who need it most, at the right time, in an adequate form, and with a measurable impact on their lives?

This question is particularly relevant in Tunisia, where the AMEN Social programme has become the country's principal social assistance mechanism. According to the World Bank, AMEN Social provides monthly cash transfers to more than 333,000 poor households and combines financial assistance with healthcare support and other forms of social protection.

In March 2026, the World Bank approved an additional US$90 million to strengthen Tunisia's social protection system. The new financing is intended to improve the effectiveness and sustainability of the system while expanding family allowances and support for vulnerable children and persons with disabilities.

These developments demonstrate the scale and importance of the system.

They also raise a fundamental development question:

How effectively does the social protection system transform public resources into real improvements in people's lives?

1. Beyond the Number of Beneficiaries

One of the easiest ways to measure a social protection programme is to count its beneficiaries.

The number of registered households is important, but it tells only part of the story.

A programme can have hundreds of thousands of beneficiaries and still face problems related to:

exclusion of eligible households;
delays in registration;
incomplete information;
administrative barriers;
geographic inequalities;
difficulties accessing services;
insufficient awareness of available benefits;
irregular payments;
weak coordination between social services;
inadequate monitoring of outcomes.

For this reason, social protection should be evaluated not only through coverage, but also through access, adequacy, equity and impact.

The World Bank has identified the improvement of targeting and regional equity as continuing priorities for Tunisia's social protection system.

The difference is important.

Coverage asks: How many people receive assistance?

Equity asks: Are the people receiving assistance those who need it most?

Access asks: Can vulnerable people actually enter the system?

Adequacy asks: Is the support sufficient to respond to basic needs?

Impact asks: Does the intervention improve household welfare?

A serious assessment needs to examine all five dimensions.

2. Who Is Considered Vulnerable?

The first test begins with identification.

Governments need mechanisms to determine which households are poor or vulnerable. Tunisia's AMEN Social programme uses a proxy-means testing approach that considers different household characteristics associated with living standards and multidimensional poverty.

Such systems are necessary because governments have limited resources and need transparent methods to target assistance.

However, poverty is not static.

A household that was relatively stable yesterday may suddenly become vulnerable because of:

loss of employment;
illness or disability;
death of a household breadwinner;
rising household expenses;
drought or agricultural losses;
family separation;
loss of informal income;
housing problems;
a major economic shock.

This creates an important policy challenge.

Can social protection systems respond quickly enough when household circumstances change?

A targeting system that relies heavily on existing administrative information may face difficulties identifying newly vulnerable families.

This is why dynamic updating of beneficiary information is essential.

3. The Administrative Access Gap

A person can be legally eligible for assistance but still face practical barriers to receiving it.

This is what can be described as the administrative access gap.

The Ministry of Social Affairs lists several requirements for applications to the AMEN Social programme, including application documents, birth certificates and identity documents for family members, among other requirements.

Such procedures are understandable from an administrative perspective.

However, the most vulnerable households may also be the households least able to navigate complicated administrative procedures.

Some may have:

limited access to information;
difficulty travelling to administrative offices;
limited digital skills;
incomplete documentation;
difficulties understanding administrative procedures;
limited ability to challenge a decision;
insufficient knowledge of their social rights.

This creates an important research question:

Does administrative capacity influence access to social protection?

If two households have similar levels of poverty but one has better information, documentation and administrative capacity, they may not experience the social protection system in the same way.

4. Geographic Inequality

Social protection is national in scope, but access to services can vary significantly between territories.

Urban households may live closer to administrative offices, healthcare facilities, schools and transport networks.

Rural households may face longer distances and higher costs to access services.

This is particularly important in regions where poverty, unemployment and weak infrastructure overlap.

A strong assessment should therefore examine differences between:

Urban areas → peri-urban areas → rural communities → remote rural communities.

The objective is not simply to determine how many beneficiaries exist in each governorate.

The deeper question is:

Are vulnerable households receiving comparable access to social protection regardless of where they live?

This is where local development journalism can contribute important evidence.

A national programme can appear successful in national statistics while some communities remain poorly connected to the delivery system.

5. Children and Social Protection

Children are one of the most important dimensions of the social protection system.

UNICEF reported that, by October 2025, Tunisia had institutionalized a monthly child benefit of 30 Tunisian dinars for more than 420,000 vulnerable children aged 6–18. Combined with support for younger children, nearly 600,000 children aged 0–18 from vulnerable families were covered. UNICEF described this as a 443% increase in child-benefit coverage since 2020.

These figures represent a major expansion.

But coverage is only the first part of the story.

The next questions are:

Does the benefit improve children's nutrition?
Does it help families keep children in school?
Does it improve access to healthcare?
Does it reduce household financial pressure?
Does it prevent school dropout?
Does it contribute to better long-term opportunities?

Evidence cited by UNICEF indicates that child benefits supported through AMEN Social have contributed to improvements in diet diversity, school retention, access to health services and household well-being.

This demonstrates why monitoring outcomes is as important as monitoring expenditure.

6. Women and Social Protection

Women can face particular economic vulnerabilities.

Women may be responsible for unpaid care work, depend on unstable household income or face barriers to employment and productive assets.

A social transfer can provide immediate relief, but long-term social protection should also consider economic empowerment.

The question therefore becomes:

Can social protection help women move from dependency toward greater economic security?

This requires connecting social assistance with:

vocational training;
employment opportunities;
entrepreneurship;
access to finance;
market opportunities;
childcare;
transport;
digital skills;
social insurance.

The ultimate objective should not be simply to maintain households at a minimum survival level.

Where possible, social protection should help people build greater resilience and income security.

7. From Assistance to Economic Inclusion

Cash transfers can protect households from immediate hardship.

But sustainable development requires more.

A strong social protection system should ideally create connections between:

Social assistance → skills → employment → income → economic independence.

The World Bank has emphasized the importance of connecting social protection and labour policies, particularly by strengthening pathways toward employment and livelihoods.

This creates an important opportunity for Tunisia.

Some vulnerable households may require permanent income support.

Others may need temporary assistance combined with:

training;
employment services;
small-business support;
agricultural activities;
local economic opportunities;
digital work;
cooperatives;
social and solidarity economy initiatives.

The policy challenge is to distinguish between these different situations rather than treating all vulnerable households in exactly the same way.

8. Are the Benefits Adequate?

Another critical question is the adequacy of assistance.

Receiving a transfer does not necessarily mean that the household's needs are adequately covered.

The value of a benefit must be considered in relation to:

food prices;
housing costs;
transportation;
education expenses;
healthcare;
energy;
household size;
inflation;
regional differences in living costs.

A transfer that provides meaningful support to one household may have a very different effect on another.

Therefore, evaluation should consider the real purchasing power of assistance rather than simply its nominal value.

This is particularly important during periods of inflation and economic pressure.

9. From Funding to Impact

Development programmes increasingly emphasize the importance of measuring results rather than simply measuring spending.

For social protection, the chain can be represented as:

Public resources → programme → targeting → registration → transfer → household use → immediate outcome → long-term impact.

At every stage, problems can occur.

Money can be allocated without reaching the intended population.

Eligible families can remain outside the system.

Beneficiaries can receive assistance without obtaining complementary services.

And a household can receive support without escaping long-term vulnerability.

Therefore, the real measure of success should be the distance between resources invested and lives improved.

10. Accountability and the Right to Complain

An effective social protection system also requires mechanisms through which citizens can question decisions.

A household that is rejected should know:

why it was rejected;
whether it can appeal;
where it can submit a complaint;
how long the process should take;
whether its information can be reviewed;
what happens after a complaint is filed.

The World Bank has highlighted efforts to strengthen communication channels with beneficiaries, improve information systems and digitize and simplify procedures within the AMEN delivery system.

This is important because accountability is not simply an administrative principle.

It is a development instrument.

People who receive social assistance are citizens with rights, not merely recipients of charity.

11. A Field-Based Research Method

A strong investigation into social protection should combine official data with field evidence.

ATEP MED could structure the research around four levels.

Level 1 – National data

Collect:

number of beneficiaries;
number of vulnerable households;
annual expenditure;
value of transfers;
child-benefit coverage;
healthcare coverage;
geographic distribution;
evolution over time.

Level 2 – Administrative pathway

Document:

Application → assessment → decision → payment → complaint/appeal.

Level 3 – Community evidence

Interview, without publishing unnecessary personal information:

beneficiaries;
vulnerable households not receiving assistance;
social workers;
local civil society organizations;
local development actors.

Level 4 – Outcome analysis

Ask:

What changed after assistance was received?

This is the point at which journalism becomes development research.

12. The Social Protection Gap

Based on this framework, the investigation can introduce an analytical concept:

THE SOCIAL PROTECTION GAP

The gap can be represented as:

People in need

↓

People potentially eligible

↓

People who apply

↓

People accepted

↓

People who receive assistance

↓

People who receive assistance regularly

↓

People whose living conditions improve

The further we move down this chain, the more important it becomes to measure actual outcomes.

A successful social protection system should aim to reduce the gap at every stage.

Conclusion

Tunisia has made significant progress in developing a more comprehensive social protection system. The expansion of AMEN Social, child benefits and other forms of assistance demonstrates a growing institutional commitment to protecting vulnerable households. The World Bank's additional US$90 million financing approved in 2026 further underlines the strategic importance of strengthening social protection in Tunisia.

But the success of social protection cannot be measured only by the amount of money allocated or the number of people registered.

The real test is whether the system identifies vulnerable households accurately, reaches them without unnecessary barriers, provides adequate and timely support, protects children and vulnerable adults, and creates pathways toward greater resilience and economic inclusion.

The central question therefore remains:

Does assistance reach those who need it most?

Answering that question requires more than statistics.

It requires listening to communities, examining administrative processes, comparing regions, analysing public data, following the path of resources and measuring what changes in people's lives.

For development institutions, the objective should be clear:

No vulnerable household should be invisible simply because it cannot navigate the system.

And for development journalism, the responsibility is equally clear:

Do not only count beneficiaries. Follow the journey from vulnerability to assistance, and from assistance to impact.

ATEP MED Research Focus

ATEP MED – Arabic Digital Center for Media & Development
Prepared and Published by Mohamed Chaieb Barhoumi
September 2026

Arabic Digital Center for Media & Development

Saturday, September 5, 2026