October 2025 © Fondation Hirondelle
Since 2020, Fondation Hirondelle has been implementing the media component of the PACT programme (Participation Active des Citoyennes et Citoyens Tunisiens), in consortium with the Danish organisation NIRAS.
This project aims to expand civic space and foster dialogue between authorities and citizens—particularly the most vulnerable—to enable genuine co-construction of public action in the High Steppes region (governorates of Gafsa, Kairouan, Kasserine, Kef, Sidi Bouzid and Siliana).
Phase 2 of the project began in May 2023. Fondation Hirondelle continues its commitment by supporting local media, key actors in good governance and sustainable development at the local level.
Annual Budget
233’437 CHF
Sources of funding
- Switzerland (Mandate via NIRAS)
- Communication partnership contracts
Key figures for 2025
16 partner media outlets
42 media professionals trained
6 governorates
5’500 users on social networks (2024)
2 broadcast languages
33 hours of media production
Context
Tunisia is currently going through a phase of political and institutional reconfiguration. Fifteen years after the revolution, the media landscape is evolving within a context of power recentralization and a redefinition of democratic balances. In this increasingly restrictive environment for the practice of journalism, media professionals face multiple challenges: legal pressures, the economic fragilization of media outlets, and the growing spread of disinformation, particularly on digital platforms. In this context, strengthening journalists’ skills, ethics, and resilience remains essential to ensure a credible, pluralistic information space that serves the public interest.
Opening up the public space and fostering dialogue
In 2025, Fondation Hirondelle continued its commitment by supporting 16 partner media outlets through a mechanism combining training, editorial coaching, and technical assistance.
In total, 42 journalists were trained, including 13 citizen journalists, helping to broaden media participation and strengthen the local anchoring of information. The training programmes incorporated new areas addressing emerging needs in the sector: diction, artificial intelligence applied to journalism, press ethics in a sensitive context, strategic communication, as well as in-house training dedicated to producing debate programmes and providing technical assistance.
In 2025, 148 media contents—123 video reports and 25 radio debates—were produced, totaling 33 hours of broadcasting on FM and online. Focused on local governance and inclusion, they contributed to public debate, including 6 reports broadcast in sign language to ensure more inclusive access to information.
The journalistic content was disseminated by the network’s media outlets, on their airwaves and online platforms, as well as on the project’s Facebook page.
The sustainability of the actions of civil society actors and media at the local level is one of the essential conditions for the emergence of democratic, inclusive, and accountable local governance. In this perspective, Fondation Hirondelle, alongside NIRAS, continues to support citizen initiatives as well as those led by civil society, municipalities, and local authorities in the six concerned governorates.
At the same time, the Fondation is expanding its activities into three new governorates, notably to support ethical coverage of human mobility, thereby strengthening social cohesion. The capacity-building programme targets communities to enhance their skills and enable them to better communicate on issues that concern them. It also targets media and journalists, notably through training in mobile journalism, investigative reporting, and the responsible coverage of these sensitive issues.
Digital presence is strengthened through the development and production of video formats.
Priorities
- Promoting participatory democratic local governance
- Supporting the role of media and civil society as actors of development at the local level
Activities
- Capacity building of communities and network media
- Production of multimedia content addressing local issues
Our impact
Journalistic coverage by local media of development projects led by citizens, associations, municipalities, and local authorities has helped structure and enrich public dialogue at the territorial level. In a constrained political and media context, this approach has strengthened practices of transparency, accountability, and responsibility within local PACT projects, while facilitating citizens’ access to reliable, contextualized information that is useful for understanding local governance issues.
Testimonial
« The training sessions we have benefited from since September 2024 have been of paramount importance. They have strengthened our skills as journalists and enabled us to make our voices better heard, while also amplifying those of residents, who are often marginalized. ».
Citizen journalist in Siliana
Previous project in Tunisia
From 2011 to 2016, the national Tunisian Radio benefited from a program of Fondation Hirondelle expertise, advice, training, and technical support to help reform it into a genuine public service media and bring its regional stations closer to the population, as part of democratic transition in Tunisia after the revolution of December 2010 / January 2011.
Click here to see our previous project in Tunisia