Attachments
OVERALL PROGRESS
Cruz Vermelha de Timor-Leste (Timor-Leste Red Cross) has been delivering its programmes and services in relation to its evolving socio-political, economic, climate or environmental context. The changing contextual issues also affect how Timor-Leste Red Cross works with the community and stakeholders across the country, bringing both positive improvements and challenges to the National Society.
Timor-Leste Red Cross, as a humanitarian organization that has an auxiliary role to the public authorities in Timor-Leste, has adjusted its plan to be aligned with government priorities in both community development and humanitarian actions, at local and national levels. Timor-Leste has recently conducted two cycles of Presidential elections - José Manuel Ramos-Horta won by 64 per cent in the May 2022 elections and in the following parliamentary election in May 2023, a new government was elected. This new governance is committed to prioritize its work with the international community to continue supporting the country’s efforts to become more resilient to multiple shocks and to help deliver the National Strategic Development Plan, that focuses on developing the country’s human capital. This is aligned with Timor-Leste Red Cross’s 2023 plan for 2023, which is supported by the IFRC and wider Federation network.
In the context of climate and environment, El-Nino-related extreme weather events have become more frequent and more intense over the past 20 years according to preliminary research, including a study of data from Indonesia’s East Nusa Tenggara Province. The rainfall pattern in Timor-Leste is strongly characterized by the impact of the Australian Monsoon. During the Australian Summer Monsoon (December to April), most of Timor-Leste experiences wet conditions. Meanwhile the dry season usually lasts for several months, from May to November. Due to global warming, Timor-Leste is experiencing a shift to an even hotter climate, with hot days and nights becoming the norm.
Heat waves and hot spells are predicted to increase dramatically in the next 20 years and beyond. While people in Timor-Leste are used to its tropical climate, the drastic increase in days with temperatures above 35°C and tropical nights will require adaptive efforts. To overcome those conditions, Timor-Leste Red Cross has mobilized its volunteers to support communities during hazardous climate conditions and worked to address challenges in providing timely and effective programming in this area.
To address climate and environmental issues, the National Society’s Integrated Community Based Risk Reduction (ICBRR) programme, has succeeded in bringing changes for the communities. Timor-Leste Red Cross has provided disaster risk reduction (DRR) related activities and water, sanitation, and hygiene (WASH) facilities in four target villages in the Ainaro and Manufahi Municipality. The communities can now access clean and safe water through constructed water points and have access to public latrines to stop the practice of open defecation. These facilities have been constructed and maintained by the community committees and volunteers in each village to ensure their ongoing ownership. This good practice has inspired other villages to do the same.
Although there was no big emergency response needed during the first half of this year, Timor-Leste Red Cross continued to get ready for any further disasters or crises, preparing their levels of assistance, especially in Cash and Voucher Assistance (CVA). The National Society has been refining its CVA Standard Operating Procedures (SOP) and improving its skills in CVA-related information management during this period. The IFRC country cluster delegation in Jakarta has also been involved in supporting the National Society’s Voucher Application (“Loja”) development and has assisted with the commodity vendor selection process to ensure its compliance with IFRC Procurement Procedures.
To strengthen the internal development of the National Society and partnerships with external stakeholders, Timor-Leste Red Cross has continued to improve its organizational capacity, including developing its planning, monitoring, evaluation, and reporting (PMER) guidelines, engaging in a digital transformation process, improving its financial system, and improving areas of overall management. This work has been supported by the Red Ready and National Society Development (NSD) programmes that are funded by American Red Cross and Italian Red Cross. Timor-Leste Red Cross also actively participated in local and national level working groups, such as the CVA working group and national cluster system with government agencies, United Nations (UN) agencies, and other organizations, while building partnerships with the media and academia.
Timor-Leste Red Cross’s work to improve services at local to national level has increased both the trust of communities and of other stakeholders, including donors and participating National Societies. Starting from April 2023, and with support from the IFRC, the National Society got funding from the Netherlands Red Cross to implement a two-year Chronic Crisis Block Allocation programme, as a support to the National Society’s preparedness work to manage future crises.