From 88 Concerts to a National Program in Every Governorate: The Tunisia88 Story
In 2014, 88 concerts in 88 cities launched what became Tunisia's first national student music program. A decade later, 596 clubs run in every public high school.
The number 88 is not arbitrary. It appears in the name, in the founding season's 88 concerts, in the founding partner 88International. The number anchors the program to its beginning: a summer of music designed to show what was possible, not to raise money, not to produce alumni, but to prove a point.
The founding question
The question Tunisia88 was built to answer was a practical one: can a structured, student-led music program operate in every public high school in Tunisia, reaching every governorate, sustaining itself over years? That question required an experiment. The 88 concerts were the experiment.
Action et Développement Solidaire, the Tunisian NGO that co-founded the program, had been working in civil society development and youth programs for years. 88International brought a model of music-centered youth development with a track record in other contexts. Together, they structured the founding season to prove that Tunisian youth would respond.
They did. The concerts drew audiences. The schools that hosted them were engaged. The musicians who performed showed that the talent was there, in every region, not only in the capital.
The three phases, one by one
Phase I established the principle: 76 clubs in a national network, with the EIB Institute and IFA as international partners, the Ministry of National Education as an institutional anchor. The goal was not to grow fast. The goal was to establish a model that worked.
Phase II expanded to all remaining public high schools. 511 schools over several years. The alumni structure had to scale in parallel: every new club needed a coordinator, a connection to the national network, a link into the training system. The alumni squads grew as the club count grew.
Phase III moved the question from growth to permanence. 596 clubs is a number that can go backward. Clubs close when leadership fails, when schools stop cooperating, when funding dries up. Phase III is designed to prevent that: robust training, active supervision, funding that does not depend on a single partner.
Under presidential patronage
Tunisia88 operates under the High Patronage of the President of the Republic of Tunisia. That status reflects what the program has become in the decade since its founding: not a project, not an NGO initiative, but a national program embedded in Tunisia's public education landscape.
What has not changed
The convictions are the same ones written into the program from the beginning: that music cultivates respect for differences, and that music can be a window on the world. The program got bigger. The clubs got stronger. The training got more structured. The choirs got more ambitious. But the reason for doing it has not changed in a decade, and that consistency is its own kind of evidence.
