Dili, October 29 2025 (Média Democracia) – The State Secretariat for Equality (SEI), accompanied by the Department of Women’s Economic Empowerment under SEI, held a ceremony to officially sign a joint agreement with potential women’s associations from 12 municipalities including RAEOA. This ceremony was reported by Média Democracia through SEI’s official page on Wednesday.
The Secretary of State for Equality, Elvina Sousa Carvalho, stated that the overall objective of this ceremony is to formalize the agreement between SEI and women’s associations from 12 municipalities including RAEOA regarding the Public Transfer Fund for beneficiary groups for the year 2025.
She added, “As you know, the purpose of this Public Transfer Fund is to empower women economically and politically. In the political sphere, other directorates are already carrying out their work related to increasing women’s economic empowerment, uplifting and strengthening women’s participation in politics, and all of you are part of these programs.”
The Secretary of State further explained that this agreement will support the implementation of programs in municipalities focusing on women’s economic empowerment. By signing this agreement today, the government is demonstrating its commitment as part of the Ninth Constitutional Government in order to strengthen women’s economic capacity and ensure that women can participate actively in national development, bring positive change within their households, and contribute to an inclusive society. This empowerment will enable citizens to contribute to household economies.
She added, “I believe that this will not be achieved unless we work together, with your active participation, and with the maximum supervision by municipal associations and focal points at the municipal level. SEI will continue to conduct strict monitoring throughout the process, because based on evaluations and assessments that have been conducted, we need strong supervision and continuous accompaniment so that all activities carried out by the groups can run properly.”
The Secretary of State appealed to SEI Focal Points in the municipalities to collaborate effectively with all presidents of women’s associations to ensure good communication with all beneficiary groups. This is necessary so they can properly manage the funds received from SEI and avoid misuse.
Present at the event, the representative of the Director of DNDIJ-SEI, who is also the Head of the Department of Women’s Economic Empowerment (EEF-SEI), Henrique da Silva, stated in his intervention that this program aims to economically empower women through an annual support cycle funded by the Social Support Fund. Each year, the signing of this agreement enables the transfer of the budget to the associations.
He added, “The guideline that was approved last year will also apply to the 2025 implementation. The budget support for selected groups this year will be transferred directly to the bank accounts of women’s associations. These guidelines ensure that responsibility and fund management rest in the hands of the associations, while the beneficiary groups under the Social Support Fund remain under municipal associations’ supervision.”
The department head continued that this mechanism is similar to the 2024 process, in which the transfer was made from the Empowerment Center to women’s associations. Since last year this transfer system has been practiced, the women’s associations have played a crucial role in facilitating the distribution to groups, making the signing of agreements between associations and beneficiary groups efficient.
He stated, “According to Article 6 of the guideline, the cycle begins with a public announcement, followed by receiving proposals, evaluation and verification, approval, and finally today’s signing ceremony. After this, funds can be transferred to the bank accounts of the women’s associations so they can further assist married women and mothers.”
He further informed that this year a total of 180 proposals were received. After evaluation and the verification process, only 64 groups were approved for this year.
He noted, “I believe this aligns with our annual budget capacity, since the allocated amount this year is slightly limited. Therefore, the Public Transfer Fund is allocated annually, not only for women’s groups, but its largest portion is indeed prioritized for women’s groups, especially through the Social Support Fund, to strengthen women, particularly those in vulnerable situations.”
He affirmed that SEI also provides support to non-governmental organizations working on issues related to gender-based violence, politics, and economics, as well as to women’s associations in 12 municipalities, including RAEOA. The funds allocated by SEI for this year were approved for the 64 selected groups, who will sign the agreement with SEI for implementation.
“On behalf of the SEI team, I also extend our appreciation to all presidents of the women’s associations. Although you are all busy, we have managed to work together to make today’s agreement signing possible. Over this period, we have collaborated in collecting proposals, verifying them, and finally reaching today where we officially sign the agreements. Municipal-level ceremonies will also be held with the beneficiary groups for this year,” he added.
He also expressed gratitude to SEI Focal Points in the municipalities for their good collaboration with the women’s associations, particularly with beneficiary groups who submitted their proposals and have now been selected to receive the Public Transfer Fund for 2025.
The signing ceremony was attended by the Chief of Cabinet of SEI, the SEI Executive Secretary, the Director of DNGPE-SEI, the Head of the Women’s Political Participation Department of SEI, SEI Focal Points from 12 municipalities, and technical staff from the DNDIJ-SEI Directorate.
Report by: Nelfiano
Photo: SEI Media