Global Innovation Inde

WIPO report highlights a strong talent pipeline but persistent gaps in investment, commercialisation and brain drain.

Tunisia placed 76th among 139 economies in the World Intellectual Property Organization’s Global Innovation Index (GII) 2026, unchanged from 2025. It ranked 6th among 37 lower-middle-income economies and 14th among 18 in North Africa and West Asia.

The report’s standout finding for Tunisia is its human capital. About 37.9% of higher-education graduates are in science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) — the second-highest share globally, behind Malaysia (41.1%) and ahead of Germany (35.9%), Singapore (36.0%) and Belgium (36.8%).

But Tunisia’s innovation system remains constrained by weak inputs. In GII 2025, it ranked 96th on innovation input and 58th on innovation output, suggesting relatively strong returns from limited resources. Venture capital deals fell 53.3% between 2023 and 2024. No Tunisian city or region entered WIPO’s top 100 innovation clusters; Cairo was Africa’s only entry, at 86th.

The core challenge is conversion. High STEM graduation rates are not translating fully into domestic innovation, start-ups and industrial upgrading. Youth integration into productive sectors, skills mismatches and emigration to Europe, North America and the Gulf remain structural obstacles. Analysts say Tunisia’s priority is no longer producing talent, but retaining and commercialising it.

Separately, StartupBlink’s 2026 ranking placed Tunisia 87th globally and second in North Africa after Morocco, with its start-up ecosystem growing at 36.6% annually — nearly double the regional average.

TunisianMonitorNews