Timor-Leste

Sustainable economic development

• Australia has helped 35,500 farming families to increase agricultural productivity by using improved crop varieties, with demonstrated yield increases of between 20 and 80%.
• Since 2010, our rural road works programs have engaged 32,500 workers (28% of whom were women and 44% youths), resulting in an average earning of US$281 per person. This provided cash for housing, starting a business, school needs and food.
• Since 2008, microfinance institutions supported by AusAID have provided loans and other financial services to 5500 new clients, almost all of these women.
• These rural development results also contribute to health and education outcomes. For example Australian support is improving nutrition by increasing crop production, improving access to schools and clinics through improvements to rural roads.

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Saving lives

• In 2011, 500,000 vulnerable children were immunised against measles with our help.
• Australian assistance has helped to improve community health through support for 442 monthly mobile health clinics that deliver health services to villages, resulting in better community nutrition and higher child immunisation rates.
• Australia supported 39,000 people to attend sexual reproductive health education sessions, with 18,200 people also receiving clinical services and 8000 people taking up safer family planning methods.
• More than 77,000 people have been provided with access to safe water, and 67,000 people with access to improved sanitation facilities since 2008.
• Through the training of 54 of Timor-Leste’s midwives and the provision of training in surgery and anaesthesia, we are supporting Timorese women to deliver healthy babies.
• We have helped to improve quality of life for over 4,800 people by restoring their eyesight through cataract surgery.
• We have strengthened human resources in the health sector by providing over 119 overseas scholarships to Timorese in medicine and health administration.
• We have helped to improve the quality of health facilities through the building of community health posts and procurement of medical equipment, including emergency obstetric equipment for 32 new maternal health clinics.

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Promoting opportunities for all

• We have contributed to the enrolment of nearly 35,000 additional children into primary schools across Timor-Leste, an increase of 17% from 2007 to 2011.
• Australia supported the Government of Timor-Leste to build or repair about 2100 classrooms since 2008. These classrooms are allowing more children to go to school and learn in better and safer conditions.
• Our assistance has provided 94,500 books in Tetum to every primary school in the country (75 books per school) to improve reading skills.
• Australia has delivered nearly 1.4 million school materials to primary schools across Timor-Leste. These materials include student and teacher resources such as worksheets, magazines and books and are helping students to learn better.
• We created short-term jobs in road building for over 110,000 people, mostly youths, providing them with important livelihood assistance and helping to maintain around 3500 kilometres of roads since 2008.
• Australian assistance has supported around 8000 people, most of them young men and women, to participate in skills development programs to help them get jobs.

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Effective governance

• Supported the Ministry of Finance to improve its systems for government spending so that over 90% of Timor-Leste’s budget was spent in 2010, compared with only 49% in 2006–07.
• Helped to address the impacts of domestic violence by providing safe houses and legal assistance for affected women and their children.
• With assistance from Australia the Government of Timor-Leste is developing a national program to provide grants to every village. By 2013 this will enable communities across Timor-Leste to build their own infrastructure such as roads, schools and irrigation systems.
• Australia helped establish the Civil Service Commission (CSC) which is placing controls around the expansion of Timor-Leste’s civil service and addressing poor performance in the public sector. In 2010 the CSC suspended the salaries of over 363 officers who had abandoned their employment.
• Australian support also helped establish Timor-Leste’s Anti-Corruption Commission which is working to ensure that Timor-Leste’s national wealth is spent in the interests of the Timorese people.
• The police and courts are now using a shared case management system that makes it easier to track the progress of cases. This should lead to faster resolution of cases.

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Official Development Assistance to Timor-Leste

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a. Excludes global and regional expenditure
b. AusAID budget estimated outcome, as released in Budget Paper No.2, May 2011 and OGD expenditure, AusAID OGD Survey, June 2011
c. Budget estimate as released in Budget Paper No.2, May 2011

The graph above shows the Australian Official Development Assistance to Timor-Leste, including AusAID funding and funding by Other Government Departments (OGD).

The exact values are as follows:

• 2002-03: AusAID $40,132,813, OGD $16,081,318
• 2003-04: AusAID $33,645,407, OGD $11,190,841
• 2004-05: AusAID $31,676,071, OGD $33,321,255
• 2005-06: AusAID $34,263,031, OGD $9,794,589
• 2006-07: AusAID $51,001,822, OGD $50,974,255
• 2007-08: AusAID $67,570,347, OGD $22,465,174
• 2008-09: AusAID $69,304,523, OGD $26,118,596
• 2009-10: AusAID $88,493,809, OGD $38,444,965
• 2010-11: AusAID $87,820,347, OGD $25,766,608
• 2011-12: AusAID $73,808,986, OGD $30,406,199
• 2012-13: AusAID $84,302,913, OGD $32,399,640

Australian ODA to Timor-Leste by strategic goal, 2009-10 to 2012-13 (%)

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The graph above shows Australian Official Development Assistance to Timor-Leste by strategic goal.

The exact values are as follows (&):

• 2012-13
  Saving lives: 18
  Promoting opportunities for all: 14
  Sustainable economic development: 12
  Effective governance: 45
  Humanitarian and disaster response: 3
  Cross cutting: 8
• 2011-12
  Saving lives: 19
  Promoting opportunities for all: 11
  Sustainable economic development: 19
  Effective governance: 42
  Humanitarian and disaster response: 7
  Cross cutting: 2
• 2010-11
  Saving lives: 24
  Promoting opportunities for all: 17
  Sustainable economic development: 8
  Effective governance: 40
  Humanitarian and disaster response: 9
  Cross cutting: 2
• 2009-10
  Saving lives: 22
  Promoting opportunities for all: 9
  Sustainable economic development: 6
  Effective governance: 43
  Humanitarian and disaster response: 9
  Cross cutting: 10

Other ODA in Whole of Government 2010-11 to 2011-12

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a. Excludes global and regional expenditure
b. OGD expenditure, AusAID OGD Survey, June 2011

The graph above shows the Australian Official Development Assistance to Timor-Leste by Other Government Departments.

The exact values are as follows:

• States and territories
  2010-11: $440,700. 2011-12: $792,900.
• Infrastructure and Transport
  2010-11: $40,100. 2011-12: $9,500.
• Industry, Innovation, Science, Research and Tertiary Education
  2010-11: $65,300. 2011-12: $564,800.
• Immigration and Citizenship
  2010-11: $505,600. 2011-12: None.
• Education, Employment and Workplace Relations
  2010-11: $34,000. 2011-12: $3,400.
• Attorney-Generals - Australian Federal Police
  2010-11: $23,839,500. 2011-12: $28,072,900.
• Attorney-Generals - Customs and Border Protection
  2010-11: None. 2011-12: $24,100.
• Attorney-Generals - Total
  2010-11: $23,839,500. 2011-12: $28,771,000.
• Agriculture, Fisheries and Forestry
  2010-11: $65,000. 2011-12: $33,400.
• Australian Centre for International Agricultural Research
  2010-11: $776,500. 2011-12: $905,200.

Research overview

Research funded by AusAID specifically targets Timor-Leste’s development challenges. Some highlights of this AusAID-funded research are listed below.

Violence Against Women in Melanesia and East Timor: Building on Global and Regional Promising Approaches

Violence Against Women in Melanesia and East Timor: Building on Global and Regional Promising Approaches

AusAID undertook a study to assess the effectiveness of methods currently used to address violence against women and girls in five of Australia’s neighbouring countries: Fiji, Papua New Guinea, Solomon Islands, Vanuatu and Timor-Leste.

More than 700 individuals and representatives of government, non-government organisations (NGOs) and international organisations were involved, together with experts determined to push for change in each country.

The result is a package of reports that outlines the perspectives and hopes of a broad spectrum of Melanesian and Timorese society. They also consider approaches used locally and internationally to recommend a framework for action to address violence against women in the region. The framework is based on three strategies:

• Increasing women’s access to justice
• Increasing women’s access to support services
• Prevention of violence.
  

Health seeking behaviour in East Timor

East Timor health care seeking behaviour study

Low rates of use of public health services present a major challenge to improving population health in East Timor. The 2009 Health Care Seeking Behaviour Study was designed to improve understanding of the underlying causes of low use, particularly in rural areas, and to provide an evidence base for future health policy, planning and programs.

This study provided new and detailed information about health care practices in all 13 districts of East Timor. It provided insights into decision-making and action in rural communities, including around choice of provider or services. The study also gathered rich qualitative data in relation to three key scenarios: a child with diarrhoea, a difficult birth, and birth spacing. The study also recorded user and provider perspectives.

Disability and rural water, sanitation and hygiene in Timor-Leste

Disability and rural water, sanitation and hygiene in Timor-Leste

This 2010 study investigated the experiences of people with disabilities in rural Timor-Leste regarding access to water and sanitation facilities. The research summarised existing disability data, documented personal stories, and examined ways of enabling stakeholders to reflect on the needs, and inclusion, of people with disabilities.

Data on disability in Timor-Leste was fairly scant at the time of the study, but disability was seen to influence access to education and employment, relationships, transport and basic activities of daily living – bathing, toileting, cooking, eating, dressing, washing clothes and cleaning.

Recommendations covered the promotion of inclusive programs, the importance of education about disability, the necessity for consultation and partnership, the priority of access for all, and understanding about disability hygiene and the importance of access to water for women.

Timor-Leste – Water and Sanitation Sector Financial Management Analysis

Water and Sanitation Sector Financial Management Analysis

Through the Bee, Saneamentu no Igene Komunidade (BESIK) program, Australia provides funding to the Government of Timor-Leste’s budget allocations to water supply, sanitation and personal hygiene, including in rural areas.

This paper presents findings of an initial analysis of the impacts of public financial management (PFM) systems on the delivery of water and sanitation services to rural areas in Timor-Leste.

The paper identifies PFM-related bottlenecks at three levels: Government-wide; inter-agency; and within the Ministry of Infrastructure and Ministry of Health. It considers action to address bottlenecks.

Where is Timor-Leste?

Demographic and development statistics for Timor-Leste