Timor-Leste Ministry of Economic and development creates a gender cabinet

Over the past ten years, achievements have been made in many sectors in Timor-Leste. Schools and hospitals both in the capital and the districts have been rebuilt and many government institutions for delivering goods and services have been put in place.

East Timor predicted to be one of the top ten fastest growing economies for 2011. That news comes as the World Bank recently predicted a 15 percent growth rate and a decline in poverty by 9 percent in the foreseeable future.

On its track to development gender equality promotion is a priority.



Following the Millennium Development Goals, the Timor-Leste target for gender equality and empowerment women is “eliminate gender disparity in primary and secondary education, preferably by 2005, and in all levels of education no later than 2015”

United Nations report is clear: “Very likely to be achieved, on track”

“At primary education proportion of girls was higher than that of boys. According to 2004 population and housing census in Timor-Leste, the net primary enrolment rate is 75% for boys and 73% for girls. But this rate was decreasing at secondary and tertiary levels. At tertiary level there were only 83 girls out of 100 boys. This reflects that gender inequality still exists.

Moreover, since 2001 the ratio of literate women to men has been quite promising, reaching approximately 96%. The percentage increased slightly to 97% in 2004, but declined sharply to 93% in 2007. Achieving 100% literacy among women by 2015 is possible if informal education is made available to all in a more ambitious manner.

The share of women in wage employment in the non agricultural sector presents a different picture, however. This indicator shows that the chance of women to involve in labour market is still very low, where male dominates. Based on the data sources women contribution in the non-agricultural sector has only increased slightly from 35% in 2001 to 36% in 2007. Moreover, women in urban areas are more likely to get employed in non-primary sectors than men. Finally, an indicator of the empowerment of women can be seen in the proportion of seats held by women in national parliament, which was 28% in 2007”

As it can be seen, achievements have been made, but a lot of work is still required.

The Constitution of the Democratic Republic of Timor-Leste supports freedom from sex-based discrimination. Equality between women and men is a fundamental right, and a necessary condition for the achievement of its objectives of growth, employment and social cohesion.

For this reason, the Government itself it committed to the principle of equality between men and women seeking to ensure the integration of a gender perspective in the development of strategic, policies, programs and legislation within the Government.

Taking into account the importance of equality between women and men the Ministry of Economy and Development has created a gender cabinet in order to mainstream a gender perspective into the design, analysis, planning implementation, budget, monitoring and evaluation of local and national policies and programs.

Ministry of Economy and Development plays an important role in promoting the development in rural areas, where the gaps between men and women are deeper.
For this reason the Gender Cabinet is in charge to support the creation of districts gender working groups, identifying key members and priority actions in order to improve coordination between districts and promote rural community participation.

Let’s push Timor-Leste for ASEAN membership

The Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) was established on 8 August 1967 in Bangkok by Indonesia, Malaysia, Philippines, Singapore and Thailand, with signing on the ASEAN Declaration or Bangkok Declaration.

Nowadays ASEAN is made by 10 countries which include Brunei Darussalam (1984), Viet Nam (1995), Lao PDR and Myanmar (1997) and Cambodia (1999).

ASEAN spans over an area of 4.46 million km2, 3% of the total land area of Earth, with a population of approximately 600 million people, 8.8% of the world population.

As set out in the ASEAN Declaration, the Association’s aims and purposes are about cooperation in the economic, social, cultural, technical, educational and other fields, and in the promotion of regional peace and stability through abiding respect for justice and the rule of law and adherence to the principles of the United Nations Charter.

It stipulated that the Association would be open for participation by all States in the Southeast Asian region subscribing to its aims, principles and purposes.

It proclaimed ASEAN as representing “the collective will of the nations of Southeast Asia to bind themselves together in friendship and cooperation and, through joint efforts and sacrifices, secure for their peoples and for posterity the blessings of peace, freedom and prosperity.”

Timor-Leste as the newest country in Southeast Asia Region is preparing itself to be the eleventh ASEAN member.

As a democratic country and sharing the values and principles set out in ASEAN Declaration, Timor-Leste will be, we hope, the eleventh ASEAN member, allowing the country, its population and entrepreneurs to make a part of an growing economic market which had a combined GDP of US$ 1.5 trillion and trade with the world around US$ 1.7 trillion, in 2010.

Recognized as a regional organization of global significance by Mr. Barack Obama, during the 2nd Summit in 2010, the ASEAN could be, for the synergy that it attracts, an important step to help make Timor-Leste truly prosperous, harmonious, stable and secure country, boosting its economic development.

Integration on ASEAN can also support Timor-Leste to spread itself as a peaceful and stable country and create tourism opportunities.

Thus, despite the global economic slowdown in 2009 and 2010, Asia Region (ASEAN members plus China, Japan and Republic of Korea) announced that tourist arrivals in 2010 remained resilient with more than 101 million arrivals, which is 14.40 per cent growth compared to 2009.

In terms of trade and economic cooperation, despite the ASEAN countries have increased significantly improvements, a lot of initiatives are being planned to further enhance the trade and economic cooperation, such as development of border markets, border activities, providing favorable conditions for trade among the members, facilitating intra-trade and enhancing the trade promotion.

With an economic growth around 12% in 2009 and preparing to approve at National Parliament a new private investment regime, Timor-Leste has the conditions not only to benefit of those activities, but also to attract entrepreneurs for its borders.

ASEAN cooperation in the agriculture sector dated back as early as 1968, with cooperation in food production and supply. In 1977, the scope of cooperation was broadened to include the greater area of agriculture and forestry as the needs have increased.

Currently, the specific areas under the ASEAN cooperation in food, agriculture and forestry includes food security, food handling, crops, livestock, fisheries, agricultural training and extension, agricultural cooperatives, forestry and joint cooperation in agriculture and forest products promotion scheme.

Being extremely dependent of food importation and having the climate conditions to development quickly its production, Timor-Leste could be greatly benefited of these programs.

Generation and transfer of technology to increase productivity and develop agribusiness, private sector involvement and investment, and capacity building and human resources development, are just some examples.

Timor-Leste has openly expressed intention to join ASEAN, and also has initiated the process within this year. A lot of formalisms must be observed, but we strongly believe that Timor-Leste will be certainly welcome as ASEAN eleventh member.

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