Statement by Emilia Pires,
at the Conference on Sustainable
Development, 25-31 January 2001
Thank you for this opportunity to
speak on the very important issue of sustainable development in East Timor. I
would like to start with some brief
observations on how we can ensure this conference can make a practical and lasting impact on development
planning and implementation in East
Timor. Then I will comment on
sustainable development and the role of the National Planning and Development
Agency.
This conference is a very timely opportunity to draw together a range of
development thinkers from within East Timor and outside. We are at a critical moment in which we must
focus on working better together to ensure that directions being set now can be
built upon in the future. It is vital
that today's development work is not unpicked and re-invented, but rather that
we can consolidate progress post-independence.
We must strengthen our working relations to overcome shared problems. This means talking with one another
constructively and analytically, and sharing information on what has been done
and what is planned. As partners in
development, the government administration, civil society and international
experts in East Timor should all listen and talk to each other. We must not
make judgments based on assumptions, perceptions and hearsay.
In a country the size of East
Timor, we have to ensure that we are all working together to address some of
the considerable development hurdles before us. No one group has the ability to achieve optimal development
results in isolation from the others.
To do so would be counterproductive to our own endeavours, but more
importantly, to the people of East Timor.
To achieve a stronger partnership, we need to improve communication and
coordination between us all. I hope
this will be a significant outcome of this conference - an opportunity to talk
to one another, share experiences and discuss future directions.
Another key focus should be to ensure that we develop practical and
relevant recommendations on sustainable development for East Timor. Simply
illuminating problems is no longer enough.
We do not have the luxury of time to engage in highly academic or
abstract discourse on development theory.
In exercises such as this, linking our deliberations to achieving
development results and solving problems on the ground should be
uppermost. It is incumbent on us all
to find the appropriate balance of developing sound planning principles and
ensuring effective implementation.
I would like to ask the delegates of this conference to help the administration
and the development process in East Timor, as development partners, to find
practical, relevant and lasting solutions to our development problems. And there are plenty of problems for us to
focus on - be they rapid urbanization, deforestation, refugee returns, civic
education, infrastructure rehabilitation or building an effective public
administration. The key is to prioritize those that are critical to East
Timor's sustainable development, and to target our efforts and limited
financial resources on only the most important. We must be realistic about what can be done and then achieve
these as efficiently as possible.
I will now turn briefly to the
issue of sustainable development in the context of work being done by ETTA, and
more specifically, the National Planning and Development Agency.
In a period of enormous pressure to get things done rapidly,
and to make the most of the valuable resources currently available, it can be
easy to lose sight of the bigger picture.
However, we must make sustainability the fundamental principle governing
development planning in East Timor.
When considering development programs, be they through the national
budget, donor programs or NGO support, one critical question must be asked -
Can the government, the people and the natural environment of East Timor
sustain this over the medium to long term?
Some would say this is an obvious question to ask. But it can be hard to answer in an
environment where so much has been destroyed, where the needs are tremendous
and where donors are providing generous, immediate, support for reconstruction
and development.
In such an environment, short term results can cause long term, large
scale problems in the future. For example,
heavy re-investment to restore large-scale infrastructure like roads or power
generators to a level that cannot be sustained will cripple future budgets for
East Timor's independent government.
Another example might be building or re-building an excessive number of
schools when future governments will be unable to fund wages for teachers and
equipment for classrooms. It would be a
waste of money in the short-term and could lock the government into
unsustainable recurrent costs in the longer term. To guard against this, closely examining the sustainability of
all development interventions must be our highest priority.
In designing development programs, all government departments, donors,
NGOs and others should always make a careful assessment of the future burdens
any development spending could place on the government, the people and the
natural environment. If any one of
these cannot sustain the activity in the longer term, be it through degradation
of natural resources, lack of recurrent government spending or low community support
then I would question carefully whether it should be pursued.
While there have been efforts to ensure that programs in
East Timor do reflect these fundamental sustainable development principles, there
have also been certain inadequacies in the way that development is being
planned and delivered, which impact on sustainability. Key among these are:
· Inadequate community
consultation, which leads to a lack of East Timorese participation in some
instances;
·
The absence of good baseline data to support policy formulation and
programme design and development;
· Too few East Timorese in
key positions in government as well as in programme management and project
implementation positions; and
· A lack of well-defined,
integrated, national development priorities
To improve the sustainability of development activities, these key problems points must be addressed as a
matter of priority.
Within the East Timor Transitional Administration, the National Planning
and Development Agency has been established to oversee a program of activities to support good development
planning and practice in East Timor. I would like to highlight a few examples
of how the NPDA's work plan will seek to address some of the inadequacies I
just mentioned and improve planning for sustainable development outcomes. These include the improvement of:
1. Community consultation
and local planning;
2. Data collection and
analysis;
3. East Timorese
involvement; and
4. National Development
Prioritization
1. Community Consultation
For development activities to be
sustainable, it is fundamental that they reflect the views and concerns of the
East Timorese people about the kind of future we want for our communities and
our country. This is critical to
bottom-up development planning, which will help ensure sustainability. Local communities must be actively involved
in analyzing development needs and determining the allocation of
resources. This will help ensure
greater, sustained, East Timorese participation.
Strengthening local capacity for development planning is a high priority
for us. To support this approach we
will need to reach agreement on a model for local governance. This will have to
include a corresponding shift in responsibility from central decision making to
the local level, as well as the devolution of appropriate financial support.
At the same time, by putting greater effort into public information
campaigns about sustainable development planning and prioritization we will
help to convey messages about sustainability to local communities. It is my
hope that this will also promote a more realistic understanding about a future
independent government's ability to deliver services in East Timor, at least in
the medium term. This will contribute
to the broader understanding of what is
sustainable and what is not.
2. Data collection and
analysis
Another prerequisite to improved sustainable development in
East Timor is high quality data
collection to support effective policy and programme design and
implementation. Currently, major
capital investment programmes are being designed and appraised without the
benefit of sufficient consistent and
reliable data. This information is
critical at this moment in time when major decisions are being made or will
shortly need to be made that will
affect the future directions of the country.
I am thinking here of decisions such as re-setting wage
structures which will have lasting impacts on the market economy, or on
establishing constitutional structures, or on models for economic development.
These decisions should not be made without giving East Timorese access to
background data and some comparative analysis on what options are
available. Equipped with this
information, we can then make our own assessments on which options are more
fundamentally suited to East Timor, and the character and nature of East
Timorese society - for example whether East Timorese prefer a model of a
protectionist economy, liberal free market or perhaps other models based on
cooperative principles. Once decisions
are taken then we ourselves need to work out how to transition our society to
achieve the desired end result. This approach, based on empowering East
Timorese, will help ensure sustainability.
Consequently, a priority for the NPDA has been to
develop a work program to build the capacity of East Timorese staff to manage
data collection for the whole of government.
The NPDA will also be the government counterpart for the joint World
Bank, ADB and UNDP funded Poverty Assessment study which will conduct a
household income survey early this year.
This information will be critical to improving the overall quality of
development planning and implementation in East Timor.
3. East Timorese Involvement
It is important also that East Timorese
are more fully involved in the process
of development. To ensure sustainability, East Timorese must own the process of
development and not be reliant on others.
While it is true that, in a number of areas, we can learn a great deal
from our international friends and
colleagues. Wherever possible this
specialized assistance should be provided by international experts in the role
of 'advisors', but with Timorese in the driver's seat. This is in all areas of development work, be
it in government or in development program design and management in civil
society. This needs to happen
immediately so that East Timorese are in decision-making positions now,
supported by advisors who can advise on potential courses of action and help
mitigate the impact of mistakes that we all make in learning something new.
This is at the heart of capacity building.
In the government sector, we are seeking
to achieve greater East Timorese involvement through more rapid recruitment of
East Timorese, particularly at senior management levels. In the NPDA, I intend to have East Timorese
in all the senior management positions of the agency as soon as possible. In some units in my agency, such as the
Environment Protection Unit, East Timorese staff are already playing a lead
role in formulating policy and planning on important environmental issues that
sit at the heart of sustainable development. You will be hearing from a staff
member of the Environment Protection Unit in the course of this conference
regarding their work on pollution and waste.
To further support East Timorese
involvement in government, the NPDA is seeking to recruit East Timorese as
government consultants who will work on an inventory of all programs and
projects currently planned and being undertaken in East Timor. A key aspect of their work will be to
present this data in a way that is easy to understand for all East Timorese, so
that the broader populace has an understanding of the support that is coming to
them. This will ensure they are better informed about, and more actively
involved in, directing the use of this assistance.
Outside of government, we would like to
see a similar increase in East Timorese involvement in the design and delivery
of development programs. I would like
to see East Timorese NGOs and community groups more fully integrated into
development work. This approach may
require more up front work from our international NGOs and civil society
counterparts, but so be it. It is
critical that, as major international assistance draws down, the sustainability
of all the work being done can be assumed through a trained and skilled
Timorese development workforce. This is at the center of ensuring that
development in East Timor today is sustainable tomorrow.
4. Prioritization
Finally, let me touch on work that is
being done to ensure that national development priorities are at the heart of
government programs.
The three major forms of public spending on
development are through the national budget of East Timor, the Trust Fund for
East Timor and bilateral development assistance from donor governments. All of which are primarily funded through
donor assistance.
The national budget process for the
coming financial year will soon commence. This second annual budget for East
Timor will, for 2001-02, incorporate all three major sources of funding in the
one process. This will better align
development priorities for East Timor and should ensure greater cohesion
between all public financing programs.
The Cabinet will assess budget proposals in the lead up to the new
financial year and a budget appropriation regulation will be submitted to the
National Council for approval prior to a major donors conference to be held in
Canberra in June. Through this process,
ETTA will set out its key development priorities for the administration and for
East Timor.
At the same time, the Cabinet has
developed a list of unfunded development priorities, which will be used by the
NPDA to seek donor financing for high priority activities that cannot be funded
out of existing programs. This list
will help ensure that, as much as possible, donor assistance is in full
accordance with the development priorities of East Timor. The role of the NPDA will be to ensure that
ETTA proposals to donors address all relevant environmental, financial and social sustainability factors.
This is just a brief overview of the
activities in which the NPDA and ETTA will be working to improve the delivery
of sustainable development outcomes in East Timor. I trust that my staff and I will have the opportunity to work
with many of you to achieve this.
I would like to conclude by wishing you well
in your discussions and deliberations over the coming days. I believe this conference has the potential
to take the discourse on sustainable development in East Timor to a broader
public arena. We should strive to
ensure that the results of the
conference are accessible to all the people of East Timor and that we use this
chance to reinvigorate our efforts to ensure that all development practitioners can work together to develop a
sustainable future for East Timor.