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Wholesale rethink of post-Arab Spring aid is long overdue

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On the day of the Paris terror attacks US Secretary of State John Kerry visited Tunisia, five years after the Arab Spring erupted and months after Tunisia’s own Isis assaults on prominent tourist sites. Kerry pledged additional security and economic support as the US Congress considers a package doubling it to $135bn next year, and hailed the country’s political transition that earned those in charge the Nobel Peace Prize.

However, one in three members of the Nidaa Tounes party in Tunisia’s ruling coalition resigned before Kerry’s arrival to protest continued corruption and economic stagnation, and development initiatives were largely confined to another sovereign bond guarantee and backing for IMF, World Bank and other assistance programmes in place for several years with mixed results. Although Washington is willing to underwrite commercial debt, it could go much further in promoting local financial market development, in particular in partnership with private sector banks and fund managers who have been absent, as a wholesale rethink of post-Arab Spring aid for Tunisia and its neighbours is long overdue.

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