Timor-Leste hosted a High-Level Dialogue on the socio-economic impact of the COVID-19 pandemic in the PALOP countries and Timor-Leste
Timor-Leste hosted, on November 11th, 2021, the High-Level Dialogue between Luísa Diogo, former Prime Minister of Mozambique, and the Minister of Finance of Timor-Leste, Rui Augusto Gomes, with the theme “State Reform or State Transformation?”, broadcasted live on Facebook.
The Dialogues began with interventions by the Minister of Finance of Timor-Leste, Rui Augusto Gomes, the Ambassador of the European Union in Timor-Leste, Andrew Jacobs and the Representative of the United Nations Development Program in Timor-Leste, Munkhtuya Altangerel.
The High-Level Dialogues sought to analyse the socioeconomic impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on economic governance and public finance management systems in the PALOP countries and Timor-Leste. How to manage scarce resources while maintaining the State's core functions and the implementation of public policies? | How should state and non-state actors play their role in the public finance management ecosystem, in a volatile, uncertain, complex and ambiguous (VICA – Portuguese acronym) world? These are the starting points for a series of 10 dialogues organized by the Pro PALOP-TL ISC in response to the socioeconomic impact of the COVID-19 pandemic in the six Program beneficiary countries, the PALOP and Timor-Leste.
In his speech, the Ambassador of the European Union in Timor-Leste stressed that “the State Reform or Transformation in a VICA world, which in Portuguese means Volatile, Uncertain, Complex and Ambiguous: we are all perfectly aware that we live in a world that of increasingly accelerated change, more difficult to predict, analyse and interpret. The challenge and responsibility of all of us, in particular of those who have the responsibility to lead, is to find out how to navigate these new times. Times of constant change, happening live and in real time. The challenge before us is to able to find, right now, common solutions towards peace and prosperity for all human beings and also for the planet, now and in the future”.
In order to address the challenges of the transformational changes that national institutions will have to make to respond the current public health crisis and the socio-economic impact of the pandemic, the Pro PALOP-TL ISC invited two high-level personalities and thinkers, with influence of global reach, Luísa Diogo, former Prime Minister of Mozambique, and Paulo Gomes, member of the Board of Directors of the African Union Special Fund against COVID-19, with more than 25 years of experience in the public and private sector.
A leadership with direction, alignment and commitment (DAC) to a volatile, uncertain, complex and ambiguous world is the axis around which the debates will take place, in which political leaders and policy decision-makers of the six countries will have the opportunity to analyse the specificities of their own contexts and outline responses and solutions to the complex challenges of changes in government programs and budgets and the modus operandi of the various national institutions. The session was also broadcasted online via Facebook, thus allowing the inclusion of all citizens.
