Emerging from over two decades of conflict and instability, in May 2002 the Democratic Republic of Timor-Leste became the 21st century’s first new sovereign state. Since then the country’s government – with assistance from the international community – has worked hard to lay the groundwork for development. In this month’s Views from the Field we hear from both the EU Ambassador to Timor-Leste, Sylvie Tabesse, and Hernâni Coelho, Timor-Leste’s Foreign Minister, as they discuss Timor-Leste’s successes and remaining challenges.
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Background Timor-Leste is a former Portuguese colony that was known as Portuguese Timor until 1975 when a revolutionary front declared independence. Within two weeks of its liberation Timor-Leste was occupied by Indonesia, and in 1976 was annexed by them. Conflict ensued for over 20 years until in 1999 a United Nations supervised referendum granted Timor-Leste its independence for a second time. During a changeover period the country was run by the United Nations Transitional Administration in East Timor, before becoming a sovereign state in 2002. In the following video, Hernâni Coelho, Timor-Leste’s Foreign Minister explains the development context in the country.
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Capacity4dev (C4D): What are the key development challenges that Timor-Leste faces?
Hernâni Coelho (HC): One of the biggest challenges that we are facing in Timor-Leste is actually when it comes to human capital. We are a very young nation that experienced more than 24 years of instability, and of course during that period we were unable to prepare our young people for the positions of responsibility that we would expect them to take in the new country we have today.
Sylvie Tabesse (ST): The challenge for them and for us is to find qualified resources to implement our programmes, which can sometimes be quite complex. This is one of the main reasons why we engaged in a budget support operation. We’ve found that this is a very powerful tool allowing us to really consolidate their system and capacitate them. It has allowed us to have a more mature partnership, and to deepen our dialogue by discussing reforms frankly and openly in an atmosphere of trust. This was really very successful.
We currently provide sector budget support to the Ministry of Finance. Through the 11th EDF [European Development Fund] we will support public finance management in general, therefore we envisage rolling budget support out to other line ministries, in order to help strengthen their institutions and therefore also their democracy.
We are also supporting an initiative from the Prime Minister called the Social Audit. Working with civil society, Social Audit monitors the quality of public service delivery and helps design policies that are better aligned to the population’s needs. So as well as working with the government on budget support operations, we also work with important institutions for democracy, oversight institutions: the parliament, the court of auditors, the anti-corruption unit, and civil society.
C4D: And on the environmental side does this also pose a challenge?
ST: Well Timor-Leste is unfortunately one of the ten most vulnerable countries in the world. This means that mitigation is very important in order to preserve their environment. The good thing is that the EU is contributing to mitigate the effects of climate change with its agro forestry programme, which is also an immense source of economic diversification. This is very much needed in Timor-Leste as they are one of the oil dependent countries. Their resources are vanishing, so it’s very important for them to diversify their economy, thus providing job opportunities for the youth, and maintaining stability.
C4D: How does the European Union work with Timor-Leste?
HC: The European Union has been present in Timor-Leste since the first days of the restoration of our independence. We cooperate in two ways: with the Union itself and with the Member States that are working with us bilaterally. At this stage most of the EU programmes come under the Cotonou agreement that we signed. So there is the 10th EDF that we already implemented with a few programmes still to be finalised, and now we’re starting the 11th EDF. We are still in the initial stages of implementing this, so some of programmes are still under formulation, but they complement local government programmes in line with our strategic development plan. This plan envisages that by 2030 Timor-Leste should graduate to an upper middle income status.
ST: In the Delegation we have two main focal sectors. The first one is public finance management and oversight and the second is rural development with a focus on agroforestry. We also have small funds available for nutrition.
Timor-Leste is a very small country with a population of 1.18 million people, and there is only one Member State, Portugal, present at the level of ambassador. The Germans and the French are also here at cooperation level. It’s part of the Delegation’s strategy to work as much as possible with our Member States and we are collaborating with them for our two main focal sectors. A substantial part of this work is delegated to the Germans and to the Camões Institute [Portugal] as these programmes are co-financed with them. So we are in contact daily.
C4D: How can the international community further support Timor-Leste’s development?
HC: We cannot complain about the contributions, the solidarity and support that we have received from the international community. After the restoration of our independence Timor-Leste started from scratch, and at that time our international friends lent us a hand in order to ensure that we got to where we are today.
But for the future, the most important thing we have to do is to work together to ensure that no one is left behind. From our perspective as a small country it is important to create an enabling environment for us to develop our private sector in order to contribute to the development of the country as a whole. No country will ever become sustainable if it relies solely on public expenditure for its development. The private sector in thus an important element in achieving future sustainable development. However, in a small country like ours there is a perceived risk associated with private sector activities in our countries. If the international community can come together to help us reduce this perceived risk for international companies and conglomerates to invest in our country, this will be a very big help for us in moving forward, and a determinant of Timor-Leste’s future success.
ST: I think our partnership here is very valuable, and shows that that the EU supports consolidation of democracies in fragile states, post-conflict countries. Timor-Leste is part of the g7+, a movement of fragile countries, where they are very vocal. They are convinced that you need peace and development, and that both are mutually reinforcing. Thus they worked together with us in the EU to develop Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) 16 on good governance. They also play a lead role in fragile-to-fragile countries cooperation, which is a model of how to better engage everybody and leave no one behind.
Although the EU is very far away, we remain a likeminded partner. As the Timor-Leste Prime Minister said about the EU: “you are far from our eyes, but close to our heart.” Through our partnership we can really help Timor-Leste show the rest of the world that yes they can make it and yes it’s possible to recover from conflict and establish democracy.
Find out more about what the EU does in Timor-Leste by visiting the EU Delegation's website.
This collaborative piece was drafted by the capacity4dev.eu Coordination Team. Teaser image copyright of the EU Delegation to Timor-Leste. It shows the Prime Minister of Timor-Leste in Brussels during the European Development Days. He is accompanied by Foreign Minister Hernâni Coelho, the Ambassador Francisco Cepeda, Ambassador Sylvie Tabesse and Desk Officer Gabriela Koehler-Raue.
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