Check against delivery

Donors’ Meeting on East Timor

Canberra, June 14- 15, 2001

Statement of the United Nations Development Coordinator for East Timor,

Mr. Finn Reske-Nielsen

East Timor today is a very different place from eighteen months ago. Each morning on the way to work I pass children going to school and East Timorese police, instead of UN civilian police, directing traffic. These may seem like small observations, but they indicate that the Transitional Administration is already tackling the enormous challenge of rebuilding the public administration to the point where it is able to deliver some of the basic services to the people. Donors, UN Agencies, the Bretton Woods Institutions, NGO’s and UNTAET have all contributed to this revitalization of the public sector.

As you are aware, UNDP, UNOPS, UNV, UNIFEM, UNFPA, WFP, UNHCR, WHO, UNICEF and FAO all have representation in East Timor. In addition, IOM, the International Organization for Migration, is a valued member of the UN Agency country management team. I am also happy to add that we are working closely with our Bretton Woods partners, especially in the areas of health, education and the ongoing poverty assessment.

In the period immediately after the violence of 1999, the UN Agencies were amongst the first development organizations to arrive in country. In the area of education, for example, UN Agencies provided basic teaching and learning materials and provided incentives to all primary school teachers, which was crucial in getting more than 170,000 children into primary school by the end of the teaching year in June 2000. In addition, the Agencies continue to provide support for policy development, curriculum development and teacher education. In the health sector, the Agencies are directly involved in supporting health planning through the seconding of Agency experts to UNTAET. There have also been numerous training courses for senior health officials, midwives, nurses, therapists and pharmacists; funding for consultant nutritionists; and direct support for immunization services. Of course, a lot more work needs to be done to meet sectoral needs. The Agencies and ETTA have identified environmental, reproductive and mental health, laboratory development, epidemiology, health policy development, and provision of essential drugs as priority needs.

UN Agency support for capacity development is expanding. Currently we are supporting the constitutional development, civic education and the electoral process. The latter will see a cadre of 234 East Timorese develop the skills and experience needed to organize elections in the future. This kind of lasting intervention is at the core of the work of all the Agencies in East Timor.

However, as Emilia Pires clearly highlighted, capacity development in ETTA is a long-term task. The plan prepared by the NPDA, with the support of UN Agencies, has a ten- year time frame, which reflects the fact that there can be no quick development fix. And it’s worth bearing in mind that the plan focuses on cross-cutting public service management issues and that sectoral capacity development may take even longer. Building capacity in the new government to deliver the full range of basic services will also require commitment and patience from government, donors and other development partners. The UN Agencies are fully committed to supporting the government to achieve its development goals through capacity building, now, during the successor period and many years into independence. Indeed, we expect the role of UN Agencies to increase as UNTAET and eventually the successor UN mission phase out from East Timor.

We strongly support the notion that there is a need for the new government to consider establishing a capacity development unit tasked with managing and coordinating capacity development. Without such a coordination mechanism there is a danger that capacity development interventions may be ad hoc and counterproductive. As an example, civil servants should be fulfilling their government functions in country rather than attending lengthy overseas training courses.

As is pointed out in the report on capacity development for governance and public sector management, the capacity development needs of government will change over time. In the short term, there are some critical areas that will require immediate and ongoing support: the cabinet secretariat; management training for senior civil servants; delivery of basic services such as water and electricity; building basic administrative capabilities like filing, letter writing, telephone skills, etc. Support to all these areas will be crucial for empowering government in carrying out its functions. In the medium and long term, more complexity and depth can be added to these activities. Of course, capacity development at the national level must be matched by development at the local level. In this regard, we believe that local governance requirements must be addressed by the Constituent Assembly or soon after independence. Increased local capacity relating to needs assessment, planning and priority setting will help to ensure that the government delivers basic services to all who need them. In this area, we are already assisting the Oecussi District and the National Planning and Development Agency in developing an integrated district development plan.

There are three issues that I would like to draw particular attention to. Firstly, there must be a focus on the restoration and delivery of basic social services to ensure stability and support the most vulnerable in society, in particular women and children. To support this, there is a need for sectoral and cross-sectoral policy development and planning, human resource management and institution building, all of which fall under the umbrella of capacity development. In regards to planning, and as was pointed out in the background paper for this meeting, there should be a growth and poverty reduction plan. The UN Agencies are prepared to play their traditional role in supporting the development of such plans at the sectoral and government-wide levels, in close collaboration with other partners.

Secondly, the fact that there are three main languages spoken in East Timor is a development issue. The costs involved in language training and, in the interim, interpretation and translation services in government will depend on the extent to which official languages are understood by public servants and the people at large. For example, in the education sector the costs involved in introducing a new language include the direct costs of teacher training and textbooks as well as the less obvious costs resulting from the addition of a new curriculum at a time when the sector is facing its greatest challenges in human resources development and child learning.

Thirdly, there are too few women in influential positions both inside and outside government. Given that all civil servants have been recently appointed, only a limited number of senior level positions are likely to become vacant in the short and medium terms through the normal process of attrition. We are, therefore, in danger of inadvertently creating a long-term gender imbalance in government. In this regard, UN Agencies are continuing to empower women to assume leadership positions in accordance with the principles of the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women (CEDAW).

The exact focus and nature of future UN Agency support to East Timor will be outlined in a strategic framework to be developed through consultations with ETTA and with the new government. In support of this process, this year’s UN Development Assistance Framework (UNDAF) will further define the thrust of UN Agency programmes.

Within this framework, the UN Agencies will further expand their support to East Timor, particularly in the areas of planning as well as policy formulation and implementation through capacity development. In this regard, the agencies also look forward to contributing significantly to the anticipated successor mission to UNTAET, not least in the identification and fielding of required technical personnel.

It is our hope that the comprehensive capacity development plan presented this afternoon, coupled with the soon to be developed sectoral plans, will promote cooperation and coordination between government and all development partners to form the basis for effective development cooperation for the benefit of the people of East Timor.

Thank you