USAID/OTI East Timor Field Report
May 2000
Country Situation
Although Dili's economy continues to normalize,
unemployment nationwide remains a major concern. The situation over
the next three months should improve as infrastucture is rebuilt,
donors such as the World Bank disburse larger amounts of money
across the country, rice is harvested, and coffee farmers sell their
crop. A lack of local transport continues to slow the movement of
goods and people, but as roads are repaired and more money
circulates in the economy more transport will be available. The
Indonesian rupiah remains the currency of choice for most people.
The shift from the rupiah to the U.S. dollar is impeded by the wide
disparity between exchange rates in East Timor and Indonesia and the
lack of small U.S. bills and coins. The import of small bills and
coins should ease difficulties related to this currency shift.
Dili has been less tense for the past month and there has been no
repeat of the violence that broke out on April 30. Demonstrations
continue, however, at the United Nations Transitional Administration
in East Timor (UNTAET) headquarters building, the most recent by
public transport operators protesting fuel price increases. It
appears that some demonstrations stem largely from a lack of access
to public information and a population ill-informed about decisions
that are shaping the future of East Timor. Although independent
media outlets are taking hold and the radio sector is expanding
outside of Dili, information dissemination remains a problem that
needs to be addressed.
Attempting to further engage Timorese leaders in management
issues and counter criticism that local people are not consulted in
the running of the country, UNTAET announced a co-governance plan
that will bring more Timorese into the transitional government.
Although still in the conceptual phase, the plan aims to appoint
Timorese into key decision-making positions and expand the
membership of the National Consultative Council to include
representatives from human rights NGOs, labor organizations, women's
groups, student and youth organizations, and village chiefs. It
appears that the UNTAET policy announcement is being well received
by Timorese leaders, and once details are fine-tuned in early July,
the plan will be implemented.
OTI Highlights
A. Narrative Summary
During May, the Transitional Employment Project (TEP) remained
the focus of OTI's operation, and programmatic work continued
to revolve around labor-intensive activities such as drain clearing,
road maintenance, city clean-up, central marketplace rehabilitation,
and school re-roofing. Work is being carried out in all thirteen
districts, and by the end of May over 20,000 people had been
employed through the program. Through constant travel, OTI staff
monitor TEP implementation and work with UN partners to ensure
quality management of individual work projects. Feedback from the
field suggests that UNTAET administrators and project beneficiaries
remain very enthusiastic about the TEP initiative.
Although TEP was due to close June 30, by early May it was
apparent that other employment creation initiatives (mainly related
to planned infrastructure repairs) would not be ready to absorb idle
labor once TEP was phased out. As a result, the OTI/East Timor
program team has decided to maintain the initiative through the end
of August. Due to budgetary constraints and the need to ensure a
gradual phase down of the program, new grant allocations to the
districts have been reduced from previous levels and district
administrations have been asked to use the additional two months to
carefully manage phase out activities.
Despite the emphasis on employment, OTI/East Timor is reviewing
other activities and starting to focus on needed programmatic
interventions outside the employment sector. Media support and
development, along with the need for better, more widely distributed
public information, has emerged more clearly as a critical
transition issue. As a result, OTI/East Timor is extending its
already substantial support to the media and information sector. In
May, OTI provided funding to Internews to run journalist and media
management courses through October. OTI also provided start-up
funding to an independent print consortium that will serve the
printing needs of media groups and local NGOs that are involved in
disseminating public information.
B. Grants Activity Summary
Since October 1999, OTI/East Timor has approved 95 in-kind grants
totaling $5,517,821.
Grants by Sector: 50 Employment Grants -- $3,607,121
17 Civil Society Grants -- $661,725
21 Community Development Grants -- $529,475
6 Media Grants -- $719,000
C. Coordination
OTI works closely with UNTAET and other UN agencies, multilateral
and bilateral donors (primarily AusAid, the World Bank, the Canadian
aid agency CIDA, Japan's JICA, and the British donor agency
DFID), and local and international NGOs.
TEP is coordinated with UNTAET's Department of Social
Services and there is regular communication with its offices around
the country. OTI/East Timor staff travel to each district outside of
Dili approximately once every two weeks.
D. Implementation Issues
Despite attempts to do more procurement from Indonesia,
constraints in Indonesia and East Timor are making this difficult.
For the time being the OTI operation in Dili will continue to rely
on more efficient (but also more costly) purchasing out of Darwin,
Australia. At the same time, the program will buy locally whenever
possible, both to avoid involvement in shipping arrangements and to
encourage businesses that continue to start up in Dili.
E. Other Key Concerns
There remains a need to support reintegration/reconciliation
programs. One approach is to support an IOM initiative that focuses
on community development in areas heavily impacted by population
movements and returnees from West Timor. Also, OTI/East Timor is
looking for opportunities to engage church-based groups involved in
reconciliation activities, both formal and informal.
NEXT STEPS/IMMEDIATE PRIORITIES
Through the end of August, TEP will remain the single largest
OTI/East Timor intervention but program focus will shift to the
phase out of the initiative. During June, OTI staff will review the
office's programmatic strategy with the aim of focusing more
on media, public information issues, and broad-based local civil
society groups that are working outside of Dili and surrounding
districts.
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