Tunisia's journey towards establishing a National AI Strategy began in 2018 when the Minister of Higher Education, in partnership with the National Agency for the Promotion of Scientific Research (ANPR), produced a five-year AI development plan for Tunisia (2016-2020). Following this, the Ministry of Industry led the development of a new 5-year AI roadmap with aims to raise awareness of AI challenges and possibilities, strengthen the AI ecosystem, implement pilot projects, and adopt a national AI action plan for 2021-2025.
In February 2022, the Ministries of Communication Technologies, Energy and Mines, Economics & Planning, and Higher Education & Scientific Research, signed a memorandum to define the general orientations of the national artificial intelligence strategy. As a member of the African Union, Tunisia is also committed to aligning its efforts with the Union's vision for a continental digital transformation strategy and AI strategy.
The Tunisian government does not have a systematic public participation process for developing AI policies. However, since September 2021, The Future Society (TFS) and GIZ Digital Transformation Center Tunisia have supported a multi-stakeholder process to develop Tunisia's National AI Strategy with various government ministries.
Tunisia has made efforts to improve public participation in governance more broadly. The country launched an online platform for citizen participation, E-Istichara, in January 2022, although it faced some criticism regarding inclusivity and privacy. The OECD has offered guidance and technical assistance to support the Tunisian government in improving public participation and creating citizen charters for public projects in three municipalities.
In the UN e-Government Survey of 2022, Tunisia ranked 88th out of 193 countries in e-participation and among the top 5 African countries in terms of the e-Government development index.
Tunisia's data protection framework is based on the Organic Act No. 2004-63 on the Protection of Personal Data. However, this law is only partly proclaimed and lacks some modern data protection provisions. A draft bill inspired by the EU's GDPR was expected to be introduced in 2022 but has not yet materialised.
Tunisia ratified the Council of Europe Convention 108 in 2017 but has not yet ratified the modernized Convention 108+. The country signed the African Union (AU) Convention on Cyber Security (Malabo Convention) in 2019 but has not ratified it yet.
AI Projects and Innovation
Tunisia has launched several AI projects in the public sector, including:
1. Fraud detection for electricity in the STEG network
2. Voice transcription for parliamentary deliberations
3. Image recognition to identify mask-wearing in public spaces
4. Industry chatbot for citizen and company information
5. Chatbot 3ziza for COVID-19 related questions
6. COVID-19 screening using X-rays
The country has also established programmes like Smart Tunisia to support AI startups and promote entrepreneurship in the digital sector.
Tunisia is currently the only country in Africa without a biometric database. However, in January 2022, the Ministry of Interior announced plans to resubmit a biometric ID bill, making it compulsory for all citizens over 18. This has raised concerns about privacy and data protection.
There are also concerns about the use of facial recognition and surveillance technologies in public spaces, particularly in the context of COVID-19 lockdown enforcement, such as the use of PGuard robots equipped with cameras.
Tunisia is classified as "partly free" by Freedom House, with a score of 64/100 in 2022. The country has endorsed the UNESCO Recommendation on AI Ethics and participates in regional AI initiatives. However, Tunisia has not endorsed the OECD AI Principles.
Regarding Lethal Autonomous Weapons, Tunisia is not part of the 30 states of the Africa Group that have called for a ban. However, Tunisia supports the negotiation of a legally-binding instrument on autonomous weapons systems and has participated in international discussions on this topic.
This country report is our interpretation and summary of the "CAIDP Artificial Intelligence & Democratic Values Index 2023". The full report can be found here - https://www.caidp.org/reports/aidv-2023/