What is required to respond to Violence against Women in Timor-Leste?
The country makes its first attempt at assessing costs of services needed by women and children affected by violenceDate:
Press Release
Dili, Timor-Leste — For the first time, Government Officials, Civil Society organizations and UN Agencies have come together to validate data that estimates the necessary resources of a basic support service for women and children affected by violence. The discussion took place from 22nd to 24th of July 2015, and it was organized by the Ministry of Social Solidarity in collaboration with UN Women Timor-Leste, and supported by the Australian Government.
In Timor-Leste, as in many other parts of the world, violence against women and children (VAWC) is a widespread problem. National data suggest that more than one in four women have experienced violence by their spouse in the previous year.
Responding to this reality, the Ministry of Social Solidarity and UN Women are now aiming to better understand what services are already available, and what services could ideally be provided to have a Minimum Package of Essential Services (MPES) to respond to VAWC. Corresponding data on the costs for such a package has been collected through a study conducted over the past 10 months. The study makes part of a larger study undertaken by UN Women in three South-East Asian countries: Lao PDR, Indonesia and Timor-Leste.
Since the costing study is conducted in Timor-Leste for the first time, there has been much learning around how the data is managed. Specific lessons relate to the different levels of details maintained by different sectors, as well as variations in data available related to support services for survivors.
“What we want to achieve from the Costing Study is to find out the necessary cost of basic support services across multiple sectors for survivors of VAWC. We need to make sure that the support services that are established by the State will have a wide coverage and provide the necessary care for the survivors as they are intended to” said Janet Wong, UN Women Country Representative for Timor-Leste. “Through these workshops, we expect to have a validated data set so that we can finalize the Study by September this year”, Ms. Wong added.
Since restoring its independence in May 2002, Timor-Leste has achieved progress in various sectors, including in addressing VAWG. The 2010 adoption of the Law against Domestic Violence (LADV) and its corresponding National Action Plan (NAP) on Gender-Based Violence developed in 2012 have been particularly important steps.
The NAP 2012 is currently being reviewed, so the data collected through the costing study will inform the drafting of the new version of the plan, which will be implemented in coming years.
Media contact
Felix Maia
Communications Officer
UN Women
UN House, Rua de Caicoli, Dili, Timor-Leste
Mob: +670 7833 9440
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