Government Launches New Economic Growth Initiatives at Donor Meeting
At Timor-Leste's annual Development Partner's Conference last week Prime Minister Mari Alkatiri announced his government’s commitment to making the fight against poverty a national cause and outlined the strategy for poverty reduction through economic growth. Participants included delegates from 23 countries, 5 multilateral institutions, and 13 UN agencies, as well as invited observers from the National Parliament, the judiciary, the ombudsman's office, NGOs, the private sector, and religious organizations. The government will propose an increased budget of about $230 million for the next fiscal year to fund new infrastructure for schools, health centers, roads, sanitation, electricity, and water. The infrastructure projects are targeted to generate jobs and development outside the capital city and achieve a stable economic growth rate of 7% by 2010. The government used the occasion to launch the initial results and tables of the country's first-ever census, conducted in 2004, and highlighted the challenge of Timor-Leste’s rapid population growth to job creation and poverty reduction. USAID has been a significant partner in Timor-Leste's development since 1999. (April 11, 2006)

170 NGOs Set Strategy for Improved Cooperation
USAID partner BELUN ("friend" in Tetum) hosted a two-day national dialogue for national and international NGOs last week. The sessions were led by President Kay Rala Xanana Gusmao and attended by representatives of 170 national and international organizations working in Timor-Leste. The participants discussed ways to improve their cooperation and developed action points for the future. The event was supported by UNDP and the NGO Forum of Timor-Leste. (April 11, 2006)

Newly Literate Women Set Sights on Income Expansion
More than 60 women who excelled in a recent USAID-funded literacy training course are now learning more advanced skills, including basic business management, bookkeeping, and proposal writing, to build the foundations of entrepreneurship. The new classes will help the women in three rural districts start and expand businesses and participate more fully in the civic and economic life of their communities. USAID supports a range of literacy and numeracy projects in Timor-Leste, where the literacy rate in some areas is less than 50%. (April 11, 2006)

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