Government of Timor-Leste

Timor-Leste’s Government and Civil Society signed a Memorandum of Understanding on Friday, March 18^th, at the Government Palace.

In this Agreement’s signing ceremony, the Prime Minister, Rui Maria de Araujo, stated that Timor-Leste’s development process continues to demand the participation of Civil Society organizations, but these need to demonstrate more quality.

There are eighty-nine (89) proposals received by the Prime Minister’s Office Civil Society Support Unit; 83 are in the selection process and 49 were approved. According to the analysis made by the evaluation team, the proposals were adopted because they had merit and were realistic.

For this reason, the Head of Government asked all Non-Governmental Organizations (NGOs) to think in terms of merit, which is an important point to ensure the sustainability of NGOs’ participation, because if there is no merit, there will be no sustainability: "Merit in the proposal and merit in the results. In my opinion, these two things guarantee the sustainability, the operation of NGOs. The important part is to produce results."

The Prime Minister also pointed out that the fact that Government financially supports NGOs or Civil Society does not mean that they should follow what he says. If there is disagreement of thoughts, ideas or opinions, they may submit it democratically to each other, but must respect the law and the Constitution.

According to the coordinator of the Civil Society Support Unit, Joaquim de Freitas, the signing of this agreement shows how the partnership between Government and Civil Society organizations plays an important role in the process of national development. The Support Unit has financial limitations and its budget is not sufficient to meet the needs of all proposals presented this year; but they will be placed as a priority for the coming year.

The representative of Civil Society, Florentino Sarmento, thanked the help given by Government: "The path is still long, but we believe that with the support we received from Government, we can develop each one of our goals, each one of our concerns, because Government still cannot act alone in all aspects of society."

The agreement’s signing ceremony was attended by representatives of Civil Society, in particular, FONGTIL, ETADEP Foundation, the Center for Popular Economic Development (in Portuguese CDEP), Prospek, HEROIS, Haberan Institute, Clibur Domin Foundation, Timor Aid, Chega! Ba Ita Association (in Portuguese ACBIT), Handicapped Association of Timor-Leste (in Portuguese ADTL), APSC-TL (Asia Pacific Support Collective – Timor-Leste), Esperansa Timor-Leste, Focupers, Colores del Amor Foundation, Ita ba Paz, JSMP (Judicial System Monitoring Program), Economic-Agricole Cooperative Movement (in Portuguese MCEA), RAEBIA (Resilient Agriculture and Economy through Biodiversity Action), Matadalan Integrated Institute, JNJ Advocasia, Parish of Our Lady of Zumalai, Santa Clara Monastery and Salesian College of Our Lady of Fatima in Fatumaca.