Resource information
Timor-Leste has achieved enormous
progress in rehabilitating its economy, reconstructing its
infrastructure, reintegrating its refugees and building the
key elements of a sustainable political process in an
environment of internal peace. It now faces many challenges
of nation-building and of overcoming the deprivation
affecting the lives of the poor. This report written in two
volumes lays out the challenge of poverty reduction in
Timor-Leste. It is based on the first
nationally-representative household survey collected during
August to December 2001. The report's objectives are
modest: to set a baseline for the new country on the extent,
nature and dimensions of poverty; and to assist the decision
making of the newly elected government and its efforts in
formulating, implementing and monitoring its Poverty
Reduction Strategy. The overall objective was not to lay out
the elements of poverty strategy but rather to present
evidence on the basis of which the Timorese can define and
refine their own poverty reduction strategy. The key
challenge lies now in formulating a poverty monitoring plan
that includes both quantitative and participatory elements,
and lays out the institutional arrangement for data analysis
and reporting to ensure that the collected data inform
policy making and program design.
