Dili, 11/10/2021 – With the generous support from the Government of Japan, through the COVID-19 Resilient Election in Timor-Leste (CORE-TL) Project, the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) and the United Nations Entity for Gender Equality and the Empowerment of Women (UN Women) launched the USD 100,000 partnership to enhance women’s participation and representation in elections in Timor-Leste.

The UNDP-UN Women’s partnership kick-starts with a virtual signing event on 11 October 2021, and runs until the 28 February 2022. This partnership aims to promote equal and inclusive participation in the forthcoming elections at national, municipality and suco levels. UNDP and UN Women will collaborate to promote equal rights of women and men in political participation via social media and local media channels and promote gender equality norms and transformative attitude towards equal participation in the elections.

 “Women's representation and participation in politics is a fundamental prerequisite for gender equality and democratic governance. Timor-Leste still faces challenges that limit women to advance meaningful participation of them in politics, as well as their representation in roles as leaders. Additionally, the COVID-19 pandemic has been, and continues to be, an indisputable global crisis, with evident socio-economic consequences and public health risks, especially for women. Hence the pursuit of COVID-resilient elections in Timor-Leste is even more critical not only to assure public safety during critical democratic processes, but also to strengthen the voice of women and marginalised groups in decision-making positions in the time of recovery” said Ms. Munkhtuya Altangerel, UNDP Resident Representative.

UN Women will roll out a leadership training programme in Dili and other municipalities to strengthen leadership, communication, networking building and advocacy for current and aspiring leaders from diverse backgrounds including women with disabilities. The training seeks to enhance the participants’ capacity and knowledge to advance gender equality and women’s empowerment and strengthen the use of gender-responsive and transformative leadership principles and practices.

Enhancing women’s participation and representation in public decision-making contributes to amplifying voices of women, centre staging women’s need and aspirations and improving gender-responsiveness of governance structures. Promoting women’s participation and representation in politics at both national and sub-national levels is central to UN’s mandate. The Head of Office of UN Women Timor-Leste, Ms. Nishtha Satyam, stated in her remarks, “Timor-Leste has made some great strides in promoting women’s participation in politics at national level in recent years. In 2020, 38% of the seats in the National Parliament were held by women which are above the regional average (19%) and global average (26%). As we celebrate these achievements, we must also acknowledge women’s under-representation at other decision-making positions, nationwide. At the suco level, only 21 women (4%) were elected as Suco Chief in 2016. The deeply ingrained gender biases, lack of family and community support, limited access to political network and limited opportunities to develop and sharpen their skills has often held women behind. UN Women is committed to filling some of these gaps to enable more meaningful participation and representation for women in the upcoming elections in Timor-Leste.