The Director General of Management and Mobilization of External Resources, António Freitas, representing the Ministry of Finance, together with the United Nations Development Program (UNDP) Resident Representative in Timor-Leste, Tuya Altagerel and the Asian Development Bank (ADB) Coordinator in Timor-Leste, Sunil Mitra, launched today, May 22nd, 2021, an emergency employment initiative called “Hamutuk Serví Komunidade”.
This initiative is a response to the flood recovery works that will provide immediate work opportunities to over five thousand (5,000) people in 50 identified villages, in order to stimulate the local economy. This initiative seeks, in collaboration with local communities, to clean up rubbish, drainage ditches, gutters and drains with stagnant water to prevent the spread of dengue fever. At the same time, it will seek to repair other basic infrastructure needed in the villages of the Dili municipality that were affected by the flooding.
The implementation of the initiative “Hamutuk Serví Komunidade” will start in 7 pilot villages, and the launch will be done in the village 03 Anin-Fuik, Aitarak Laran, Suco Campo Alor, Administrative Post Dom Aleixo, Municipality of Dili.
In his speech, the Director General, António Freitas, said that “this initiative will give immediate work opportunities to 5,000 people, thus helping them to support their families and community. This small action is a means of recovery for us to help the populations that were most affected by the floods”.
The representative of the Ministry of Finance expressed, on behalf of the Government, his appreciation to ADB, UNDP, the Government of Japan and the Government of South Korea, for their generous support and solidarity with the people of Timor-Leste in times of crisis and for their permanent availability to collaborate for the development and recovery of the community’s activities.
The launch of this initiative was attended by the Vice-Minister of State Administration, Lino de Jesus Torrezão, the Secretary of State for Professional Training and Employment, Alarico do Rosário, the Ambassador of Japan, Kinefuchi Masami, the Ambassador of the Republic of South Korea, Kim Jeong Ho, the UN Resident Coordinator, Roy Trivedy and representatives of WFP, ILO and UNV.
On April 16th, 2021, the Minister of Finance, Rui Gomes and the ADB Resident Coordinator, Sunil Mitra, signed a US$ 1 million grant agreement to support the “Flood Response and Recovery Support” program, created in response to the damage caused by the tropical cyclone Seroja, namely floods and landslides in the Timor-Leste’ capital and other municipalities.
Funded by the Asia Pacific Disaster Response Fund through the ADB, this fund will support the efforts of the Government of Timor-Leste to improve lifesaving services such as damage assessment, coordination of crisis response services, disaster recovery, provision of relief to communities and rehabilitation of basic community infrastructure.
Between March 29th and April 4th, Timor-Leste felt the effects of tropical cyclone Seroja, namely heavy rains and wind, which caused damage to houses, crops, wetlands and other important basic infrastructure, including power lines and communication roads in 8 municipalities of Timor-Leste. According to the UN report, by April 19th, a total of 33,835 households had been affected by the floods and 44 deaths were confirmed. More than 1,700 people are still in 13 evacuation centres in Dili municipality. After the declaration of a state of calamity on April 8th , the Government continues to lead the response to the effects of the floods. So far, the Secretariat of State for Civil Protection has provided food and basic needs to 12,197 affected households in the 12 municipalities and also in the RAEOA.