By Matt Crook
DILI, Jul 7 2011 (IPS)

Tackling unemployment has been one of the main stumbling blocks in the statebuilding process in Timor-Leste, a half-island nation of about 1.1 million people.

Nowhere is the first Millennium Development Goal (MDG) target of achieving decent employment for men, women and young people more crucial than for a young, post-conflict nation like Timor-Leste, which has a population heavily weighted towards its youth. Forty-five percent of its people are aged 15 years and below, according to the Population Reference Bureau.

By Matt Crook
DILI, Jul 6 2011 (IPS)

Timor-Leste is a young nation in every sense. Nine years after achieving formal independence in 2002, ending 24 years of savage occupation by the Indonesian army, half of its population of 1.1 million is under the age of 18.

Many of its children lost friends and relatives during the Indonesian era and its bloody aftermath in 1999, one that saw the near-total destruction of the country’s infrastructure at the hands of Indonesian soldiers and local militia groups….

By Matt Crook
DILI, Sep 22 2009 (IPS)

For more than seven years, the men and women of East Timor have been working to rebuild their nation after a destructive 24-year occupation by the Indonesian army.

The country of more than one million people – which became an independent nation in May 2002 – put back the infrastructure damaged by the Indonesian army and its militias when they left in 1999. It has also been strengthening its social structure – including by getting women more involved in politics in this patriarchal society.

East Timor now has female representation of almost 30 percent in the national parliament.

The Office of the Secretary of State for the Promotion of Equality (SEPI) was created after the 2007 elections to promote greater awareness of gender issues and build on the work of its predecessor, the Office of the Advisor for the Promotion of Equality. Under Prime Minister Xanana Gusmao’s cabinet, SEPI tackles gender mainstreaming through government ministries, secretariats and legislation. SEPI also supports gender issues in politics and legislation.

The Organic Law of SEPI, approved in 2008, gave SEPI a wider mandate for operations, prioritising key sectors in which to promote gender awareness. The United Nations Development Fund for Women (UNIFEM) supports SEPI in its work, including in educating people about gender-based violence.

Idelta Rodrigues, a former member of parliament, is with the Conselho Nacional da Reconstrução de Timor, or the National Congress for the Reconstruction of Timor, party.

It was not until the 35-year-old Rodrigues witnessed the violence that broke out 2006 that she decided to get into politics to support women’s rights. That year saw the displacement of more than 100,000 people and fighting in the streets of the capital Dili between the army, police, gangs and martial arts groups.

IPS: What was it like when you first got into politics?

IDELTA RODRIGUES: To decide to get involved in politics was not easy because of the situation in East Timor. When I decided to participate in politics, it was a commitment from myself after seeing the difficulties that women face in East Timor, particularly violence against women, trafficking and discrimination.

The commitment came from myself because of the crisis, because of the many problems and because of many political issues that affect women’s situations in the house, the family and the community.

To become a leader in a post-conflict situation is not easy because of the situation and also because the mentality of the people as a young nation is different when compared to another nation, as they have had more time to give opportunities to the young generation.

Actually, my whole family was unhappy at first because they felt I was too young and the situation at the time was very bad. After the impact of the crisis of 2006, I decided I would like to change something for this country. There was fighting and killing everywhere, and as a woman I said, ‘No, I would like to do something positive for this nation,’ so I feel my contribution is important to make a difference.

IPS: Why did you want to be a secretary of state?

IR: Establishing the Secretary of State for the Promotion of Equality was a crucial commitment for the government of East Timor. It recognises the need to advance women’s rights and gender equality in the promotion of peace and development. The office of SEPI is responsible for policies related to the promotion of gender equality.

As part of the young generation, I would like to contribute to my country as there is a need for women’s participation. . . . Now you see that even though we have just started, we have made a lot of progress in women’s participation in politics. We have almost 30 percent representation in the parliament.

It means that the rights of women are important issues in this nation and that women are not only there to complement the structure. The quality of the women is very important. We need strong women who have the capacity to lead. We need people with good voices.

IPS: East Timorese women played an active and crucial role throughout the struggle for the independence, but years of conflict had a negative impact on the livelihoods and well-being of everyone in the country. What are the main challenges ahead for SEPI?

IR: We just finalised the strategy plan for 2010 to 2015. The main priority now is to build the capacity of my staff. A number of civil servants are being recruited to reinforce SEPI’s capacity to respond to the various needs in line with the mandate of my office.

We would have to advocate for rights-based and gender-responsive policies and legislation in government. We have raised (issues) about how to implement policy on gender mainstreaming in line with the ministries of justice, education, health and agriculture – these are the four ministries that we have prioritised now. At the same time, we also need to raise the level of gender awareness among stakeholders and the general public at the national and local levels.

IPS: Are East Timor’s female parliamentarians making their voices heard on gender-responsive policies and legislation?

IR: Getting the draft law against domestic violence passed this year is what we are focused on right now. SEPI led the process of preparing the domestic violence law that was presented to the Council of Ministers in August and has been approved in principle, but it has yet to be debated in the parliament. It’s an important law to prevent domestic violence in East Timor and it will provide a framework for a national strategy on gender-based violence.

Even though we feel we have strong voices, we know the mentality of Timorese people because we are a patriarchal society and we need to develop step by step. But I know the women parliamentarians are very strong. There is progress. It’s easy enough for us to lobby with other women, but sometimes to lobby men is very difficult.

IPS: How would you rate the progress that SEPI has made so far?

IR: I feel that some progress is ongoing. SEPI has regular meetings with the women parliamentarians, so we have good collaboration to discuss any difficulties we are having and how we can work together to promote women’s rights.

SEPI also meets regularly with Fernanda Borges, the president of Commission A (a parliamentary body that works on human rights and justice issues), so we have good collaboration because we have meetings where we can raise any issues about difficulties we have in our office and ways we can work together to promote women’s rights. I’m happy because I feel that now I can work, I can realise my dream. This is what I want to do.

Right now, we collaborate with UNIFEM and women’s organisations to go to every district to raise public awareness about how to prepare women as leaders in the forthcoming suco elections (for community leaders on Oct. 9). The big issue is how women will participate in the election process. It’s not only about participation by going out to vote, but getting women elected as leaders.

(*This article was produced by IPS Asia-Pacific under a series on gender and development, with the support of UNIFEM East and South-east Asia Regional Office.)

Excerpt:

Like many women in East Timor, 34-year-old Mariquita Soares joined the Revolutionary Front for an Independent East Timor (FRETILIN) party during the nation’s 24-year resistance struggle against Indonesian occupation from 1975 to 1999.

Today, she is proud not only of her involvement in the fight for independence, but of her participation in the campaign to get women in East Timor more involved in politics and decision-making as it moves from a traditional structure to one that is more modern and pluralistic.

“Based on our culture, women would normally just stay in the house and so they didn’t have motivation to get involved in politics,” she said.

The occupation of East Timor, first Portugal and then by Indonesia, was “characterised by oppression”, according to the report ‘Participation of Women in Politics and Decision Making in East Timor, published through the Integrated Programme for Women in Politics and Decision Making (IPWPDM) of the United Nations Development Fund for Women (UNIFEM).

UNIFEM set up an office in East Timor in 2000, two years before the country became independent, to provide financial and technical assistance to programmes and strategies that foster women’s empowerment and gender equality, particularly in political participation and decision making.

“When I was in high school, I was interested in politics and then I saw what happened to my family. In 1979, we went to the mountains. Two of my brothers were killed by Indonesians and my father was put in prison. I joined FRETILIN because it was involved in the struggle for independence,” added Soares.

Soares hopes to make it into parliament one day. “Now I am learning more about politics and maybe at the next election, if I have an opportunity, I would be ready to become a minister or member of parliament,” she said.

Soares is part of a collective of women’s wings of political parties called Haforsa Feto Politika Haburas Demokrasia no Unidade (HFPHDU), founded in September 2008 with 45 female politicians from 14 political parties.

The group is supported by UNIFEM and headed by Josefa Kai-bete, also from FRETILIN.

“There was no unity among the women’s wings so we set up this group to help us unite all the women from different political parties,” she said.

“We have done activities such as attending training on transformative leadership and public speaking. We also have a programme that every three months we have a dialogue with women parliamentarians,” she added.

UNIFEM continues to support members of parliament (MPs) with training in transformative leadership – leadership based on the principles of inclusion, consultation and participation — so they can respond to gender issues when engaging with their constituencies.

Kai-bete, 46, says that the vast majority of women in East Timor have an affiliation with one of the political parties. The work of groups such as hers is to empower these women to become involved in political decisions.

“We want to be involved in decision-making because it’s not just men who can be leaders, but women also,” she said.

An increasing number of young women, who usually follow their families’ party affiliation, are showing an interest in politics, added Kai-bete. East Timor is traditionally a patriarchal society and women have not always had the confidence to speak up, she said.

What differentiates East Timor from its neighbouring countries in South-east Asia is that the national parliament is made up of 29.2% women – the highest in the region.

In 2000, East Timor’s First National Women’s Congress saw the setting up of women’s network Rede Feto, which went on to lobby for a quota of 30 percent of seats in the national parliament for women.

The Electoral Law in East Timor, enacted December 2006, states that for every four candidates a political party fields, at least one must be a woman. As a result, 19 of 65 members of parliament are female and women hold three ministerial posts: justice, finance and social solidarity.

But although women are better represented in parliament, leader of the National Unity Party Fernanda Borges says there is still some way to go before their voices are truly heard.

“We still haven’t found many career politicians who will fight for the same issues year in year out to get policy implemented for the benefit of the people. Until we get to that stage, we have women in parliament, but we haven’t really got women participating,” she said.

“The ones in parliament because of the quota system, we have to show the population that we are worth it. If we don’t, they will ask what the point of having all these women there is. The country is not yet convinced that this is what they need,” she added.

Borges says it takes time for women to come into politics and learn about the workings of democracy.

“Those are things you learn through confidence and through having other responsibilities prior to coming here. Women who have never had any responsibilities and then all of sudden end up in parliament – they would find it hard to assert themselves,” she said.

The Grupo das Mulheres Parlamentares de Timor-Leste (GMPTL) was formed to overcome this challenge. A women’s caucus, the GMPTL is a mechanism for organising women to defend their rights in a way that future parliamentarians can learn from.

As well as being a leading member of the Social Democrat Party and the vice-president of East Timor’s national parliament, Maria Paixao is the president of the GMPTL. Paixao became involved in politics in 1975 when she joined FRETILIN.

GMPTL raises awareness of issues that impact on gender and strengthens women’s roles in parliament, including building their capacity to analyse legislation and state budgets with an awareness of gender considerations.

The second generation of the GMPTL was formed in October 2007 through a resolution passed by parliament “to promote women’s equality of gender and reduce all forms of discrimination between men and women for all East Timor”, said Paixao.

“Now the parliamentarians need more training because many of the women, they just came from the field or from their families, so we need capacity for them to work on our mission,” she added.

“We have carried out training on gender responsive budgeting (GRB) and team building and also some more training about how to make laws and on decision making. This is also our role and we need this training to give the women the capacity to start work,” she said

UNIFEM instigated East Timor’s first GRB initiative with the Ministry of Finance and Planning to bolster the capabilities of key ministry staff, MPs and women’s organizations to analyse state budgets from a gender perspective.

This in turn put the focus on poor and excluded women, the impact of which is felt on the national and local level.

Also supporting the cause is the Gender Resource Centre (GRC), which was established by parliament through the GMPTL in October last year as a three-year joint initiative supported by UNIFEM and the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP).

“The main goal of the GRC is to provide support to the women and men parliamentarians, especially in pursuing gender equality and promoting gender mainstreaming,” said Lumena Freitas, UNDP’s senior manager for the GRC.

Endah Augustiana, UNDP’s general adviser to the national parliament, said, “The constitution guarantees that men and women have equal rights and so we have to promote gender equality in legislative work and the overseeing of the parliament, as well as in terms of democratic representation.”

The centre facilitates consultations with MPs on various issues, such as legislation on abortion in the recently promulgated penal code.

“We conducted consultations with doctors for women MPs and some men MPs so doctors could provide them with information about abortion before it was debated in the plenary,” said Augustiana.

Although women’s political participation in East Timor has improved in the years since independence, it is a work in progress.

MP Fernanda Borges said, “I think the issue is sometimes not the numbers, but the effectiveness. To be effective, we need to build people’s capacity. The level of exposure in the country is a little low for women because of the (Indonesian) invasion and because we were closed off from other countries and never really lived democracy.”

(*This feature was produced by IPS Asia-Pacific as part its series on gender and development, with the support of UNIFEM East and South-east Asia Regional Office.)