Dili, March 20, 2025 (Média Democracia) – The Secretary of State for Equality (SEI) together with the Asian Development Bank (ADB) held a validation seminar on the implementation of the Women’s Economic Empowerment (WEE) program for 2019-2025 with the theme, “Assessment to Reactivate the Women’s Economic Empowerment Program (P3A) for 2019-2025” or (Research Findings).
This Women’s Economic Empowerment program began in 2008 and continues to date (2025), which is recognized as continuing to increase. Therefore, S.E.I. is working with ADB through technical assistance to re-evaluate the success and efficiency of the program and propose new strategies to increase women’s economic independence, reduce gender-based violence, and strengthen decision-making capacity.
In the discourse, the Secretary of State for Equality, Elvina Sousa Calvalho expressed her gratitude to the Asian Development Bank for collaborating with S.E.I. in conducting an assessment of the Women’s Economic Empowerment Program through Public Transfer Funds and from the Validation that had been carried out previously.
“S.E.I. and ADB will jointly look at the initial findings in the field so that they can improve the politics, mechanisms, and strategies in implementing the Women’s Economic Empowerment program through Public Transfer Funds that has been started since 2008,” said Secretary of State for Equality, Elvina Sousa.
S.E.I implements the Women’s Economic Empowerment Program through Public Transfer Funds with the aim of empowering women and vulnerable groups to improve their standard of living from poverty, discrimination, violence, and independence life, in order to achieve gender equality and contribute to sustainable economic development.
“S.E.I. implements the Women’s Economic Empowerment Program to encourage the creation of sustainable independent businesses for women, including those who are Heads of Households and those who are victims of domestic violence and gender-based violence to ensure economic independence. This program is a priority program of the IX Constitutional Government which is the responsibility of SEI to achieve its mandate.” She said.
She informed that from the implementation of the Women’s Economic Empowerment Program, SEI has prepared Guidelines for the Implementation of Public Transfer Funds for the Empowerment of Women and Vulnerable Groups.
“In order to direct and regulate the guidelines and implementation process of the PTF for the Empowerment of Women and Vulnerable Groups, there are three groups targeted by this program, such as, 1. Support through the Circular Mechanism, 2. Direct support for vulnerable groups, 3. Support for Civil Society Organizations that provide support for survivors, GBV, a total of 2743 beneficiaries consisting of 2190 women and 452 men, and from the Women’s group there are 344 in the Timor-Leste region in 2019-2025.” She informed
Therefore, Her Excellency S.E.I. expressed her appreciation for all the support to ADB because with specialization and in-depth knowledge in the field of Women’s Economic Empowerment, can contribute to improving the implementation of the WEE Program.
“Hopefully, with the results of this assessment, new strategies can be identified to improve gaps in implementation and increase its effectiveness and ultimately can give rise to gender-responsive politics and contribute to reducing gender-based violence,” She said.
Before closing, he said that the existing validation is not only to be seen in the program assessment but to strengthen the collaboration between SEI and ADB to be stronger and united to continue to fight for the achievement of gender equality and build sustainable economic development.
“We are delivering this with the support of the Asian Development Bank (ADB), because when we are together, we can be stronger to close the barriers that hinder the promotion of gender equality and the new barriers that arise from humanitarian crises, conflict wars, climate change, and online violence,” She concluded.
On this occasion, the Director Manager of the ADB Mission in Timor-Leste, Stefania Dina, said that ADB remains committed to supporting the WEE Program in Timor-Leste.
“I would like to thank SEI for working with ADB in implementing the Women’s Economic Empowerment Program, from the existing validation it can describe what has been done, so that it can be further improved in the future, especially in the Women’s Economic Empowerment Program in Timor-Leste.” Said the ADB Country Director, Stefania Dina
She explained that the existing validation could be in the form of recommendations and become important documents in important reports in the future, in this validation also obtained a presentation of research results from International and National Researchers related to the Women’s Economic Empowerment Program in Timor-Leste.
Reported by : Estefania
Picture by : Estefania