Social Expenditure Monitor Manual for Tunisia

This manual serves as a detailed reference on the methodology for constructing the Social Expenditure Monitor (SEM) indicators for Tunisia. The SEM indicators are defined based on ESCWA’s Social Expenditure Monitor for Arab States (ESCWA, 2019) and have been tailored to the Tunisian context. The manual is designed to guide users in developing the SEM indicators based on programs and subprograms and their respective codes in Tunisia. The methodology (codes) used to generate these indicators is derived from the Tunisian Budget Law, from different line ministries (annex I). Additionally, this manual serves as a bridge between the Tunisian budget lines and the IMF 2014 Classification of the Functions of Government (COFOG) codes, following the SEM mapping methodology.

Throughout this manual, the Tunisian public ministries/entities contributing to the seven dimensions of the SEM are identified along with their corresponding programs and subprograms. Each program consists of several subprograms, and within each subprogram, there is a set of items. In some cases, an entire subprogram maps directly to one indicator (i.e., all the items within the subprogram map to the indicator). In other cases, the items within a subprogram map to different indicators. Therefore, this manual provides a detailed mapping of these programs and subprograms, along with a summary of the items mapped to the SEM indicators. The details of the items are available in an Excel file which can be provided upon request. This manual also identifies the main SEM beneficiary categories corresponding to each expenditure. It is important to note that in some instances, the same subprogram will appear twice in the mapping table for a single indicator. This occurs because different line items within the same subprogram may target different beneficiary categories.