Dynamic governance of the first wave of Covid-19 in Tunisia: An interoperability analysis

Abstract

This study proposes an interoperability index of the measures taken by the Tunisian government during the first wave of the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic. In the first part, we present the process of decision making as a revised and adjusted process in continuous upgrading, based on the dynamic governance process in times of crisis. In the second part, we estimate an index that records the strictness of government policies in each subperiod and the degree of interoperability between the Tunisian pandemic responses against COVID-19 using subperiod instantiations. Our empirical findings show that the pandemic management strategy in Tunisia during the first wave was adjusted by incorporating new pandemic policies and changing the stringency levels over time. After estimating the interoperability index, we found that the measures taken early in a subperiod interact directly with the next successive subperiod in the decision process, but they interact indirectly with other successive subperiods.