The Asia Foundation

Building on the ongoing success of the Access to Justice program in providing legal services to poor and vulnerable groups and by improving quality and access to legal aid.

Local Partners:

Educação Comunidade Matebian; Fundacão Fatu Sinai Oecusse; Judicial System Monitoring Program; LBH Covalima; LBH Liberta

Acquisition and distribution of 27,985 books and journals to 186 schools, universities, public libraries, and other institutions throughout Timor-Leste.

Mitigating the threat of violent conflict by strengthening community public relations through research, policy dialogue, and forging partnerships between police and communities.

Local Partners:

Educação Comunidade Matebian; Fundasaun Mahein; National Police of Timor-Leste; Secretary of State for Security; Suco Councils of Baucau and Dili; United Nations Police.

Regional partnership with the Department for International Development (U.K.), including 7 countries (Afghanistan, Pakistan, Nepal, Timor-Leste, Thailand, the Philippines, and Sri Lanka), that is working to improve state-society relations in conflict-affected areas throughout the region. Helping to reduce mistrust and alienation between conflict-affected communities and state authorities. Strengthening and expanding locally driven efforts to improve governance and resolve disputes. Contributing to improved understanding of aid effectiveness in conflict-affected and fragile states.

Strengthening human resources in Timor-Leste's Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MNEC) and facilitating the institutional development of MNEC through establishing a Diplomatic Training Center and providing expert technical assistance to the MNEC executive team.

Local Partner:

Ministry of Foreign Affairs Timor-Leste

Providing opportunities for development practitioners from government, NGOs, and advanced students in development studies in order to learn about development challenges and new approaches to respond to countries in fragile and conflict-affected states.

Strengthening parliament's role in national governance through increasing its digital connectivity, improving access to research, and promoting public awareness of parliamentary processes and performance through daily monitoring and reporting.

Local Partners:

Congressional Research Service; House Democracy Partnership; Judicial System Monitoring Program

Contributing to more transparent and accountable governance through supporting credible, peaceful, and fair village, municipal, and national elections and enhancing the capacity of newly-elected village councils to strengthen citizen participation in governance.

Local Partners:

Church Observatory for Peace and Social Advocacy (OIPAS); Fundacão Fatu Sinai Oecusse; Lawyers Association of Timor-Leste (AATL); National NGO Forum; National Youth Council of Timor-Leste (CNJTL); Rede Feto

Organizing workshops to provide citizen feedback to three of the ministry's directorates (procurement, tax, and customs).

Local Partners:

Ministry of Finance; Insight Consulting LTD

Promoting literacy and celebrating reading achievement across all grade schools in Aleiu District through extracurricular assistance and competition.

Local Partner:

Aleiu Resource and Training Center.

Assessing public opinion through development and deployment of an SMS polling tool, using open source software, designed for easy use by political parties, government service providers, civil society, and development partners.

Local Partners:

Catalpa; National Elections Commission (CNE); Office of the Ombudsman for Human Rights and Justice (PDHJ); Rede Ba Rai

Enhancing community representation and involvement in sectoral program plans and budgets while creating development coordination centers at the district level.

Local Partners:

Ministry of State Administration; National Planning Directorates of Health, Education, Agriculture, and Infrastructure

Strengthening legal education through the production of accessible educational textbooks to help build knowledge in Timorese universities, government institutions, and non-governmental organizations.

Local Partners:

National University of Timor-Leste; Stanford Law School

Reading contest for school children in Aileu District, Timor-Leste.

Distribution of 31,622 books and journals to 150 schools, libraries, universities, government ministries, and non-governmental organizations.

Community-oriented policing (COP) training for community leaders, and capacity building of Community Policing Councils to lead monthly problem-solving forums and implement COP initiatives in Baucau Sub-District, Baucau.

Extending legal aid services through paralegals to augment the limited number of private lawyers for mediation and litigation support.

Providing and improving legal services to vulnerable populations in underserved and isolated villages across the country.

Methodology design and training events to enable village (suco) councils to launch campaigns against domestic violence.

Support to the Parliamentary Research Center (PRC) to assist members of parliament to hold their first national conference on corruption in Timor-Leste; Secretariat support for GOPAC-TL; Participation by a member parliament at the South East Asia Parliamentarians Against Corruption conference in Manila, Philippines.

Environmental governance scoping paper with a series of village-level focus group discussions on responses to the most pressing environmental problems.

Study of the drivers of policy change within the Policia Nacional de Timor-Leste (PNTL) and the implications for the integration of community policing as an institutional practice.

Producing and disseminating monthly monitoring reports based on day-to-day observation of parliamentary plenary and committee proceedings, including attendance and voting records.

Monitoring and reporting on the state and performance of the courts and other judicial institutions; Conducting and circulating independent legislative analysis to enhance public debate on draft legislation; Disseminating reports on judicial sector development and community outreach.

Specialized legal assistance across the country for victims of gender-based violence.

A market assessment of the demand and supply for lawyers in Timor-Leste, providing guidance on current and prospective employable skills and knowledge and current options in legal education.

Survey of 450 business enterprises in Timor-Leste (clients of three directorates– procurement, domestic revenues, and customs) and their weighted ratings of satisfaction with service delivery items.

Policy advisor for the MNE’s Office of Border Development on the implementation of legislation on border pass and regulated markets.

Scholarships for legal aid lawyers completing compulsory training at the Judicial Training Centre; Cooperation with the training centre to provide short-term training for private lawyers.

Technical assistance and consultation for the Ministry of Justice to develop a law regulating government funding of legal aid; Civic education activities, with the Association of East Timorese Lawyers, on the impact of the proposed legal aid policy.

Technical assistance to monitor the performance of 226 village councils and provide technical interventions to improve the capacities of those village councils.

Environmental awareness-raising “Green Games” event in the enclave of Oecusse, with a special focus on youth and health.

Designing and implementing training for volunteer election observers and monitors to assess and monitor risks of election violence; Election violence perception survey in eight districts and election violence risk assessments in four districts.

Radio broadcasts and regular meetings to promote engagement between village (suco) council representatives and national public service providers.

Technical assistance provided by the U.S. Congressional Research Service and the Australian Parliamentary Library to strengthen the legislative research capacity of the Parliament through provision of authoritative, nonpartisan analysis.

An exchange of 12 women lawyers from Timor-Leste to Indonesia to learn about service delivery to female clients by women’s legal aid service providers in Indonesia; Facilitating discussion among women lawyers for development of a legal aid organization for women clients only; Developing a plan to establish the organization.

A partnership program to exchange skills and knowledge on curriculum and pedagogy; Developing first-ever legal texts based on Timorese laws, provided in English, Tetum, and Portuguese.

Domestic violence workshop involving community leaders and members, as well as, police officers from the Community Policing and Vulnerable Persons units.

Coordinating the NGO-State Dialogue on Decentralization--four national consultations conducted to facilitate a discussion about challenges facing decentralization, including the steps required to pass the draft municipal laws.

Identifying civic education messages to encourage citizen participation in village (suco) council activities and proposing methods to communicate these to the public through mass media.

Support to the national lawyers’ association to hold regular women lawyers network meetings; Monthly roundtable meetings of women lawyers working in the legal aid organizations supported by the program.

A 2008 survey of citizen awareness and attitudes regarding law and justice in Timor-Leste and a public discussion of the results; Field work conducted by INSIGHT Consulting.

Reading contest for school children in Aileu District, Timor-Leste.

Public consultations to assist the National Parliament on the public review of the draft Law on Community Authorities.

Distribution of 39,600 books and journals to 175 schools, libraries, universities, government ministries, and non-governmental organizations.

Assistance to the National Parliament to conduct, coordinate, and strengthen the public consultations on the draft municipal laws, through civic education events and mobilizing civil society participation.

Sports matches coached by police to raise public awareness of community-oriented policing and strengthen relations between youth and police; Conflict prevention dialogues involving youth and police sports participants.

Coordinating a civil society network of five non-profit organizations to provide civic education for the 2009 local elections; Developing voter education programs and carrying out advocacy at the national level on election-related issues.

Community-oriented policing (COP) training for community leaders, and capacity building of Community Policing Councils to lead monthly problem solving forums and implement COP initiatives in Baucau Sub-District, Baucau.

Extending legal aid services through paralegals to augment the limited number of private lawyers through reaching out to larger number of community members for mediation and litigation support.

Providing and improving legal services to vulnerable populations in underserved and isolated villages across the country.

Promoting economic sector development in three districts sharing land borders with Indonesia through policy dialogue toward improved government policies on cross border activities and trade issues.

Monitoring and reporting on the state and performance of the courts and other judicial institutions; Conducting and circulating independent legislative analysis to enhance public debate on draft legislation; Dissemination of reports on judicial sector development and community outreach.

Specialized legal assistance across the country to victims of gender-based violence.

Training and emergency grant assistance to support MSS dialogue teams' reintegration of internally displaced peoples and implementation of the National Recovery Strategy.

Provision of technical assistance to the MSATM to improve the draft laws on local governments, monitor the performance of 226 village councils in the exercise of their functions, and provide technical interventions to improve the capacities of those village councils.

Extension of the Books for Asia program through routine visit and revisit to more than 296 schools and libraries and delivery of 3,055 books and journals to 45 schools in Timor-Leste.

Technical assistance to Timor-Leste National Parliament Committee A to arrange public consultations on proposed election laws.

Improvement of knowledge and policy related to community-policing in Timor-Leste; Public discussion of results of a nation-wide survey of more than 1,500 respondents; Field work conducted by INSIGHT Consulting.

Training and mobilizing more than 1,500 election observers for the Village (Suco) Council Elections.

Dili City of Peace Workshop to support and promote emerging leaders to discuss key issues facing Timor-Leste to inform the design of a national dialogue mechanism.

Technical assistance provided by the Congressional Research Service and other related parliamentary research services to strengthen the legislative research capacity of the Parliament to provide authoritative, nonpartisan analysis; Improving systems to archive official government documents.

Technical assistance to the National Directorate responsible for Administration of Elections (STAE) to orchestrate the presentation and challenge of voter lists for the Community Council Elections.

Legal information dissemination programs targeting rural and remote communities in Timor-Leste.

The national lawyers' association to hold regular women lawyers network meetings.

Reading contest for school children in Aileu District, Timor-Leste.

Aquisition and distribution of 13,212 books and journals to 110 schools, libraries, universities, government ministries, and non-governmental organizations.

Specialized radio broadcasts arranged by the Judicial System Monitoring Program to reach new audiences, including women audiences, with limited or no education, across all districts.

Collaborative print-making between Indonesian, East Timorese, and Australian artists.

Paralegal program that provides an extension of legal aid services through paralegals to augment the limited number of private lawyers. Paralegals collect civil cases, conduct case management, and record keeping.

Coordination of a civil society network of 15 non-profit organizations to monitor 2009 local elections, develop voter education programs, and carry out advocacy at the national level on election-related issues.

Cross-border dialogue program between border communities of Indonesia and Oecussi and Covalima Districts, Timor-Leste; Promotion of enterprise development through improved market linkages.

Monitoring and reporting on the state and performance of the courts and other judicial institutions; Dissemination of reports on judicial sector development; Conducting and circulating independent legislative analysis to enhance public debate on draft legislation.

Procurement of reference materials, equipment, and furniture for the Parliament Library supported by the House Democracy Assistance Commission; Training for library staff; Technical assistance from the Library of Congress Regional Office in Jakarta, Indonesia, for the Parliament Library.

Improvement of dialogue skills and promotion of actions to support the return and reintegration of people displaced by the 2006 crisis.

Training and performance monitoring for newly elected local councils in Timor-Leste through provision of technical assistance to the Ministry of State Administration.

Extension of the Books for Asia program through routine visits to over 140 schools and libraries in Timor-Leste.

Improvement and provision of legal services to vulnerable populations in underserved and isolated villages in the Baucau, Dili, Covalima, Ouecusse District Courts jurisdictions.

Technical assistance to Timor-Leste National Parliament Committee A to arrange public consultations on proposed election laws.

Improvement of community-policing policy and practice through hosting a four member study tour of The Asia Foundation-Bangladesh Community-Oriented Policing Program.

Improvement of knowledge and policy related to community-policing in Timor-Leste; Public discussion of results of a nationwide survey of over 1,500 respondents; Field work conducted by INSIGHT Consulting.

Travel support for participation in the conference for America’s Role in Asia.

Technical assistance provided by the Congressional Research Service to strengthen the legislative research capacity of the Parliament to provide authoritative, nonpartisan analysis; Improvement of systems to archive official government documents.

2008 Law Survey: Improvement of knowledge and policy related to access to justice in Timor-Leste; Public discussion of results of a nationwide survey of 1,200 respondents; Field work conducted by INSIGHT Consulting.

Women’s Rights Advocacy Campaign through financial support to a national network of 18 women’s organizations in Timor-Leste from 13 districts to host the Third National Women’s Congress; Advocate for women’s issues and empower the influence of women in political parties.

Development of a legal information dissemination program targeting rural and remote communities in Timor-Leste.

Extension of legal protection through specialized assistance to victims of gender based violence as part of the Judicial System Monitoring Program.

Interviews of public and civic leaders on Timor-Leste's democratic development for broadcast on national and community radio.

Speech contest for school children in Aileu District.

Distribution of 6,570 books and journals to 42 schools, libraries, universities, government
ministries, and non-govennmental organizations.

Travel support for participation in the conference, “Conflicting Priorities? Security and
Democracy as Challenges to Regionalism in Southeast Asia,” at the Shorenstein Asia-Pacific
Research Center, Stanford University, USA.

Cross-border dialogue program between border communities of Oecussi District, Timor-Leste
and West Timor, Indonesia.

Operational costs.

Monitoring and reporting on the state and performance of the courts and other judicial
institutions; Dissemination of reports on judicial sector development; Operational costs.

Roundtable discussions with legal sector nongovernmental organizations; Technical assistance and workshops on financial management for legal sector nongovernmental organizations.

Operational costs for Biankara Legal Aid Institute; Fortuna Legal Aid Institute; Fukun Timor Legal Aid Institute; Fundac„o Fatu Sinai Oecussi; Maliana Legal Aid Institute; Matebian Community Education Foundation; Timor-Leste Legal Aid Institute; and Ukun Rasik An Legal Aid Institute Legal aid services.

Radio programs to provide legal information to citizens of Timor-Leste.

Procurement of reference materials, equipment, and furniture for the Parliament Library;
Training for library staff; Technical assistance from the Library of Congress Regional
Office in Jakarta, Indonesia, for the Parliament Library; Technical assistance by a resident parliamentary advisor to members of Parliament, committees, and secretariat staff in
strengthening policies and procedures in legislative analysis and debate.

Technical assistance to assist in developing government plans to join ASEAN and integrate
more fully into the Asia-Pacific region.

Cross-border dialogue program between border communities of the districts of Bobonaro and Covalima, Timor-Leste and West Timor, Indonesia.

Youth essay contest on the constitution in Dili, Timor-Leste.