MDG One in Timor-Leste

 

Goal One: Eradicate Extreme Poverty and hunger

Target 1: Halve, between 1990 and 2015, the proportion of people whose income is less than $1 a day

Scorecard for Timor-Leste: Target missed

Target 2: Halve, between 1990 and 2015, the proportion of people who suffer from hunger

Scorecard for Timor-Leste: Target missed

After six years of instability and conflict and economic stagnation, Timor-Leste has digressed significantly in most of the Millennium Development Goals, including Goal 1. The 2007 Timor-Leste Survey of Living Standards (TLSLS), conducted by the Directorate of National Statistics, shows how the poverty situation has evolved since 2001. Based on the new poverty line, which is nationally determined at $0.88 per person per day (or $26.68 per capita per month) at average national prices of December 2007, the incidence of poverty has increased significantly to approximately 50% from 36% in 2001. This is an increase of 14 percentage points. The increase in urban poverty was larger (from 25% to 45%) than the increase in rural poverty (from 40% to 52%). By region, poverty also increased significantly both in the Centre and the West. The East is the least poor (with a headcount index of 26.5%), while in the Centre the incidence of poverty increased from 41% to 58% and in the West the increase was from 37% to 55%, between 2001 and 2007.

In the presence of a stagnant economy, combined with availability of food and incidence of morbidity in the child population, the consequences of the 2006 and the increase in consumption poverty, there has been a significant deterioration in the nutritional status of the children under-5 years of age. The TLSLS indicates that the increase in the prevalence of wasting almost doubled, from 12.4% in 2003 to 24.5% in 2007. Similarly, stunting has increased from 49.4% in 2003 to 54% in 2007. This development is particularly worrisome and calls for more targeted programs to improve child health indicators if the country were to have a healthy young population. Growth of the brain and the body mass are formed most optimally during when children are under the age of 5.

The Fourth Constitutional Government has launched a series of measures to alleviate hardships in the country and, in particular, to mitigate the impact of global rising prices. One fundamental policy in reducing hardships and income inequality has been in the form of cash transfers (through “Bolsa Mãe”, pensions, rice subsidy, etc) that may have had a significant impact, particularly for the rural poor population. Such transfers, originating from the Government, increased expenditures of the targeted groups. In the face of high inflation, especially in food prices, the Government has proposed the establishing of an Economic Stabilization Fund (ESF) of $240 million in the 2008 budget to finance social safety nets to insulate the people from higher prices and thereby a rise in poverty. The introduction of the ESF in the 2008 Budget dampened the impact of imported inflation on key imported consumables, such as rice.

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