Transforming institutions and individuals: The role of leadership

Tunisia's political leadership improved the status of women through decades of persistent public pronouncements, changes in the laws, and concrete actions. These policies have continued and been consistently applied even after a change in government in the late 1980s. Adding female outreach at ODESYPANO fit in with these efforts, but it entailed risks that needed to be addressed up front. The director emphasized changing local traditions by strengthening women's position in the context of lifting up the entire family.

Tunisia has made major progress in transforming a master-servant relationship into a partnership between husbands and wives-even in poor, remote villages. Thanks to consistent efforts by Tunisian leaders over a long period, women enjoy equal rights in almost every respect under the law except inheritance. When the women in the Tunisian mountain village were asked to reflect on what change had the most important impact on their lives in the past 10-20 years, they responded that it was "the way the men's behavior toward us has changed . . . they are nicer to us-less demanding, more appreciative. Now they call us by name, and we have the right to refuse our husbands."

It is difficult for economic analysis to capture all the benefits of bringing remote communities into the mainstream. The costs can be high and easy to calculate, but the benefits are more difficult to capture. It is possible to have some idea of the costs of not undertaking investments that include minorities and remote groups in the development process. Drug cartels in Colombia, the Shining Path movement in Peru, rebellion in Mindanao in the Philippines and in Chiapas in Mexico-all are partly attributable to the discontent and poverty of disenfranchised communities in remote areas. Unless ways are found to meaningfully bring these groups into the mainstream, they sow the seeds of later conflict.