Mai Munisípiu Project Final Report Period: September 23, 2013 – September 22, 2017
Submitted To: USAID/ Timor-Leste Cooperative Agreement Number: AID-486-A-13-00007 Grantee: Counterpart International, Inc.
Contact: Belma Ejupovic, Vice President Programs [email protected] Counterpart International Inc. 2345 Crystal Drive, Suite 301 Arlington, VA 22202
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Contents I. Executive Summary ...... 6 II. Project Purpose ...... 13 III. Project Impacts ...... 15 Objective 1: Enhanced capacity of suco councils to strengthen citizen participation and representation in local governance ...... 15 Objective 2: Improved communication and linkages of suco councils with district administrations, local GoTL line ministries and other providers of basic services at the sub- national level ...... 25 Objective 3: Strengthened local justice sector institutions that increase access to formal and informal justice for marginalized citizens and the poor ...... 34 Objective 4: Strengthened capacity of Government of Timor-Leste (GOTL), in particular its Electoral Management Bodies to hold fair, transparent, inclusive local elections and facilitate voter engagement ...... 51 IV. Gender and other Cross-Cutting Themes ...... 58 I. Project Grants ...... 61 V. Problems Encountered ...... 63 Component A: Local Governance Strengthening ...... 63 Component B: Decentralisation ...... 65 Components C & D: Access To Justice ...... 66 Component E: Suco (Village) Electoral Support ...... 68 VI. Success Stories, Lessons Learned and Recommendations ...... 69 Success Stories ...... 69 Lessons Learned ...... 72 Recommendations ...... 75 VII. Monitoring and Evaluation ...... 78 VIII. Annexes ...... 81
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Acronym List
AATL Asosiasaun Advogadu Timor-Lorosa’e ADR Alternate Dispute Resolution ADTL Asosiasaun Difisiensia Timor Leste ALFeLa Asistensia Legal ba Feto no Labarik AOR Agreement Officer’s Representative ARKTL Asosiasaun Radio Komunidade Timor-Leste BESIK Bee, Saneamentu no Ijiene iha Komunidade CBO Community-Based Organization CCL Local Advisory Councils CDI Community Development Interest CEG Constituent Engagement Grant CNE National Election Commission CNJTL Timor-Leste’s National Council for the Youth COP Chief of Party CRL Legislative Reform and Justice Sector Commission CSO Civil Society Organization DA District Administration DAGs Decentralization Advocacy Grants DFAT Australian Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade DG-DA Directorate-General for Administrative Decentralization DNAAS National Directorate for Suku Administration and Support DNAL National Directorate for Local Administration DNDCAS National Directorate for Community Development and Suku Support DNDHS National Directorate of Human Rights and Citizenship DNJAL National Directorate for Judicial Advisory and Legislation DQA Data Quality Assessment DRAG Decentralization Research and Advocacy Grant ECM Educaҫão Comunidade Matebian EOM PNDS Suku Operation and Maintenance Team ETAN East Timor and Indonesia Action Network FAO United Nations Food Agriculture Organization FDG Focus Discussion Group FECM Fundasaun Educaҫão Matebian FEEO Fundasaun Esperanza Enclave Oé-Cusse FFSO Fundasaun Fatuk Sinae Oé-Cusse FOG Fixed Obligation Grant FONGTIL NGO Forum FPWO Oé-Cusse Women Forum FRETILIN Political Party in Timor-Leste FSM Suco Municipal Forum FY Fiscal Year GACOROA Coordinating Office for Relations with the Special Administrative Region Authority of Oé-Cusse Ambeno GBV Gender Based Violence GIZ Deutsche Gesellschaft fur Internationale Zusammenarbeit GMF Facility Management Group GOTL Government of Timor-Leste GSB General State Budget 3
GTD District Technical Group ICC International Criminal Court IIMS Integrated Information Management System IJTL Timor-Leste’s Judicial Institute INAP National Institute of Public Administration INDMO The National Labour Force Development Institute IP Implementing Partner JICA Japan International Cooperation Agency JPC Comissão Justiҫa I Paz/ Justice and Peace Commission JSMP Judicial System Monitoring Programme KMP Knowledge Management Portal KSDS Superior Council for Defense and Security LAAIG Legal Aid Advocacy and Implementation Grants LADV Law Against Domestic Violence LJTC Legal and Juridical Training Center (formerly Legal Training Center) M&E Monitoring and Evaluation MAE Ministeriu Administrasaun Estatal (Ministry of State Administration) MDI Mata Dalan Institute MOFFETL Movimento Feto Foinsa’e Timor-Leste MOJ Ministry of Justice MOU Memorandum of Understanding MSA Ministry of State Administration (Ministeriu Asministrasaun Estatal) NGO Non-government Organization OCB Organizational Capacity Building OD Organizational Development OPD Office of Public Defenders OPG Office of the Prosecutor General OPS Suco Police Officer PAAS Personnel Support to Suco Administration PACT Plan of Action PDA Pre-Deconcentration Administrative PDID Integrated Plan for District Development PDS Professional Development System PIMD/PDIM Planning of Integrated Municipal Development PMEP Performance Monitoring and Evaluation Plan PMP Performance Monitoring Plan PNDS National Program for Suku Development PQL Program, Quality and Learning PSA Public Services Announcement PNTL National Police of Timor-Leste Q Quarter RAEOA Special Administrative Region of Oé-Cusse-Ambeno RCAL Radio Comunidade Atoni Lifau RCLM Radio Comunidade Lian Matebian RCT Radio Comunidade Tokodede RDTL Democratic Republic of Timor-Leste RFA Request for Application RHTO Ra’es Hadomi Timor Oan RTL Radio Timor-Leste RTTL Timor-Leste’s Public Broadcasting Service 4
SAIM Secretariat for the Administration and Installation of Municipalities SAR Special Administrative Region SAS Water Supply and Sanitation Department (Serbisu Aqua no Saneamentu) SC Steering Committee SEM Secretariat for the Support and Socio-economic Promotion of Women SEPI Secretary of State for Promotion of Equality SEPFOPE Secretariat of State for Vocational Training Policy and Employment SGPS Suku Government Performance Scale SHIO Suku Hadomi Inan no Oan (Suku Loves Mothers and Children) SLAIM Local Secretariat for the Administration and Installation of Municipalities SOPs Standard Operating Procedures STAE Technical Secretariat for the Administration of Elections STTA Short Term Technical Assistance SukAT Suku Assessment Tool TAF The Asia Foundation TL Timor-Leste ToT Training of Trainers Tt DPK Tetra Tech DPK TVET Technical and Vocational Education Training TVTL Television Timor-Leste UNDP United Nations Development Program UNFPA United Nations Population Fund USAID United States Agency for International Development USG United States Government VPU Vulnerable Persons Unit YACTS Youth in Action Towards Sustainability ZEESM Special Zone of Social Market Economy in Timor-Leste
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I. Executive Summary
In September 2013, Counterpart International, Inc. (Counterpart) was awarded funding from USAID/Timor-Leste to implement the four-year Mai Munisípiu1 Project – Cooperative Agreement AID 486-A-13-00007. The project seeks to contribute to a wider vision of improved decentralized governance, inclusive access to justice and strengthened civic and voter education in Timor-Leste. Over the period of the project, Mai Munisípiu achieved the following:
Objective 1: Enhanced capacity of suco councils to strengthen citizen participation and representation in local governance
Increased knowledge and skills of suco members
o Implementing partner Belun facilitated a total of three (3) organizational capacity development assessments for each of the project’s target 100 suco councils in Baucau, Covalima, Ermera, Liquica and Oé-Cusse.
o On the basis of the baseline organisational capacity development assessment, training and technical assistance were provided for the identified key areas of leadership and strategic management, representation and quality control, administration, financial sustainability and external relations/communication. Using pre- and post-tests for each training delivered, the project recorded an average increase of 84.9% in suco members’ knowledge and understanding. 85.5% of female participants saw an increase in knowledge from the 8 suco trainings.
o Using a combination of observation, analysis of suco documents and interviews, Belun also conducted a total of three annual suco capacity assessments to measure the overall impact of the project in the 100 sucos. The three-year capacity assessment results show a 38.2% increase in knowledge and understanding of leadership and strategic management, 48% increase for representation and quality control, 41.7% increase for external relations/communication, 78.2% increase for financial sustainability, 45.6% increase for administration and an overall 52.4% increase for five (5) sustainability key areas.
o In addition to training delivered by Mai Munisípiu via implementing partner Belun, the project produced 11 suco training modules for use by DNAAS, together with educational films, to help DNAAS fill their role in supporting suco councils throughout the country. A total of 11 modules were produced and given to DNAAS: five (5) modules on Leadership and Communication, Community Consultation, Conflict Resolution, Fund Raising, Project Design and Proposal Writing; and Project Management handed over to Belun. One module on Women’s Rights and Access to Justice for JSMP; five (5) modules on Roles and Responsibilities of Suco Council, Financial Management, Administration and tutorial film to support the modules, Civic Education and Combating Corruption to DNAAS.
1 In 2017 in Program Year 4 the program changes its name from “Ba Distrito” meaning to the courts to “Mai Munisipiu.” For continuity, this report identifies the project as Mai Munisipiu throughout even if reporting on the earlier program years. Official documents published prior to 2017 still reflect the original project name. 6
Increased consultations among suco and citizens
o A total of 46 Constituent Engagement Grants (CEGs) were given to community based organizations working in collaboration with suco councils. The grants were competitively awarded, with selection criteria including their proposal’s focus on improving the communication and accountability between suco councils and citizens. Projects included: introducing improved methods of information sharing (message boards, suggestion boxes, radio programs, community meetings, etc.), facilitating community members’ involvement in local development projects (e.g. regular community meetings on project implementation, community members’ rights and responsibilities under the project, financial accountability, complaints mechanisms, and/or opportunities to work as a labourer on the project), and initiatives to strategically respond to the needs of marginalized groups such as women, youth and/or people with disabilities in the suco.
o Higher-performing and lower-performing suco council representatives from the project’s 100 target villages were brought together in a total of 28 suco exchange visits, providing the space for peer learning and mentoring in the skills of strong leadership and community representation.
o To help community members understand and appreciate the role of suco councils, and to build a sense of public pride in community-led initiatives, a total five of (5) public suco expositions were organized presenting successful initiatives from a total of 51 sucos in Baucau, Covalima, Ermera, Liquica and Oé-Cusse. Expos included various activities such as a public speaking competition for school children, suco council representatives titled “If I am a Suco Chief for Two Weeks,” and the launching of the Mai Munisípiu documentary Suco Success Stories. These expos also provided a forum for dissemination of important information, such as JSMP’s research findings on the court system, legal aid providers FFSO, Liberta, JPC and JNJ offering free legal consultations to the public.
Suco and CSOs are more financially sustainable
o In support of the Access to Justice team (Component C), the project developed guidelines on Practical Financial Sustainability and Timor-Leste Labour Code and Human Resource for legal aid partners. Municipal Coordinators also provided mentoring to legal aid partners, as needed.
o As a result of this support, legal aid grantees FFSO, JPC and Liberta have received funding to continue activities beyond the project – with grantees specifically crediting their success to support received from the project. The fourth legal aid grantee has submitted a proposal and is waiting to hear if they have been successful.
o The project successfully supported implementing partner Belun through the INDMO accreditation process, with Belun now registered as a training center for community development thereby, providing them with a new potential funding source.
Improved citizen satisfaction in service delivery
o A total of 30 Suco-Municipal forums were conducted, providing a space for suco council representatives from the project’s 100 target villages to discuss key issues with each other and to present these concerns to government officials. These forums were attended by a total 1122 participants (434 women), during which a total 117 recommendations were developed 7
and presented to government officials. In these forums, community concerns around various issues were discussed, including health, education, agriculture, land and property, water and sanitation sectors, the formal justice system and how it relates to community dispute resolution, one-day trainings and “go and see” visits to justice institutions, a forum to help representatives understand the new Suco Law 9/2016 and how suco elections would be administered. A total of 44 out of 117 recommendations were accepted and acted upon by government officials, while many others are still under consideration, resulting in improved service delivery in health, education, water and sanitation and agriculture for thousands of citizens.
Objective 2: Improved communication and linkages of suco councils with district administrations, local GoTL line ministries and other providers of basic services at the sub-national level
A clear system and observed improvement for vertical and horizontal government communications
o As discussed above, and conducted in coordination Component A, Suco-Municipal forums were particularly successful in improving communications between suco council representatives from the project’s 100 target villages and municipal-level line ministries. A total of 118 recommendations were developed by suco council representatives and submitted to relevant sectors. 44 of these recommendations have already been addressed, 66 are under consideration and only 8 have been rejected. As a result of suco council advocacy via Suco- Municipal forms, much needed services for thousands of citizens have been delivered: schools have been built, chairs have been provided to primary students, additional health care workers have been allocated, additional ambulances have been provided, broken water systems have been fixed, seeds for planting have been distributed and a schedule for sharing community tractors has been developed and implemented.
Decentralization law is refined and implementation begins as a result of civic advocacy
Since the project began in 2013, it has submitted a total of 210 recommendations on four (4) draft laws, as follows:
o Revision Suco Law 3/2009: of 46 recommendations which were submitted to the Ministry of State Administration, 33 were either fully or partially accepted into the revised draft. o Suco Law 9/2016: of 64 recommendations which were submitted to Committee A of National Parliament, 53 recommendations were either fully or partially accepted. o Draft Local Power and Decentralization Administration law: a total of 78 recommendations were submitted on this draft law, which is still under consideration. o Draft Municipal Electoral law: a total of30 recommendations were submitted on this draft law, which is still under consideration.
Very importantly, the majority of these recommendations were developed by civil society partners and suco councils from the project’s 100 target villages, following consultations and workshops conducted by the project. This high level of engagement demonstrates the level of interest that people have in engaging with the legislative drafting process, when it is presented in a format and language that people can understand.
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Objective 3: Strengthened local justice sector institutions which increase access to formal and informal justice for marginalized citizens and the poor
Increased citizen access to quality formal and informal justice in pilot municipalities as a result of improved human and institutional capacity and outreach of targeted municipal courts, legal aid, ADR and legal information providers
o Four national nongovernmental organizations - FFSO, JPC, JNJ and Liberta - received grants and technical assistance to deliver legal assistance in the project’s target municipalities and Oé-Cusse. 1,127 people (299 women) residing in the target municipalities received free legal assistance from the projects four legal aid implementing partners. A total of 229 cases were solved by the partners throughout the project, including 58 cases involving female clients.
o 361 staff members from legal aid and ADR service providers (134 women) benefited from the project’s training and capacity building activities to strengthen the quality of legal aid and ADR services in the municipalities. A 46% knowledge increase was observed for 333 participants who completed both the pre- and post-tests during these training activities.
o FFSO, JNJ, JPC and Liberta participated in organizational development assessments and received capacity building support, including managing funds in an effective, accountable and transparent way. The average increase in capacity of legal aid partners by the end of the project was 34%. Partners’ financial sustainability capacity saw significant improvement, with an average 72% increase.
o FFSO, JPC and Liberta received funding to continue activities beyond the project. The other has submitted a proposal and is waiting to hear if they have been successful.
o 18 lawyers from legal aid organizations and private practices, including nine women, completed training on Practical Case Management in July 2015. An average knowledge increase of 55.7% was observed amongst the 14 participants who completed both the pre- and post-tests. Case management systems were established at each legal aid partner (except JNJ which had its own case management system).
o 12 legal aid advisors and other private lawyers, including four women, completed training on Alternative Dispute Resolution based on the recommendations from the publication titled Access to Justice Brief on Community Dispute Resolution – a Legal and Human Rights Analysis. A knowledge increase of 28.4% was noted from the nine participants who completed both the pre- and post-tests.
o 25 accredited and practicing private lawyers, including nine women, completed training on quality defense in criminal proceedings. A total of 9.4 % knowledge increase was observed from the 21 participants who completed both the pre- and post-tests.
o 17 staff, including 6 women, from Belun, JSMP and the project completed training of trainers on Access to Justice and Women’s Rights. A knowledge increase of 46.9 % was observed amongst the 16 participants who completed both the pre- and post-tests.
o A total of 8,489 people received legal information at over 200 project-supported information sessions. This total includes 3,700 women, 2,005 youth aged 30 or under, and 955 female
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youth. Information session complemented by project-developed PSAs broadcast over community radio 6,369 times.
o 240 suco council members completed training on Access to Justice and Women’s rights. A percentage knowledge increase of 64% was observed at the end of the training for 254 participants who completed both the pre- and post-tests.
o 233 suco council members completed training on conflict resolution. From October to December 2015 a second round of training was provided to suco council members on conflict resolution – specifically, providing clarity on the types of conflict that can be dealt with at the community level and techniques for doing this.
o Monthly court statistic reports include postponement rates and reasons for postponements; age of pending case report that provides information on the number, age and type of cases pending longer than acceptable time goals (backlog); and calendar clearance statistics to help in analysis of individual court and overall caseload trends and dispositional productivity.
o Court signage, compound maps, suggestion boxes, additional benches, whiteboards, and stand-up notice boards installed at each pilot court. Court users report improved ability to access the areas of the courts they needed and to find information on schedules for hearings, postponements, and information about court recesses.
o Manuals and Standard Operating procedures (SOPs) developed and handed over to ensure the ongoing production of improved statistical reports and maintenance of the Bulletin Boards.
A more effective and sustainable legal aid assistance model, primarily as a result of advocacy, improvements to enabling legislation, evidence-based planning, and municipal-level coordination among governmental and nongovernmental actors
o Regular meeting, dialogues, workshops and other advocacy events aimed at increasing input into, and advancing development of an integrated and sustainable legal aid model in Timor- Leste
o Project-funded and supported research resulted in the publication and dissemination of six major publications (Three Access to Justice Briefs on Legal Assistance, Court Functionality and Community Dispute Resolution, a State of Legal Aid Report, a Special Report on Courts and Alternative Dispute Resolution, and a Public Information and Advocacy Guidebook) that recommended improvements to the enabling legislation, including establishing extrajudicial mechanisms for dispute resolution and recognizing customary justice mechanisms and creating linkages to formal justice sector and other state institutions.
o Over the past four years, the project has submitted a total 90 recommendations for improvement to draft law or policies related to the legal aid framework. A total of 75 are still
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under consideration as the policy development process continues, 13 have been accepted (some with minor changes) and only 2 rejected.
o Ongoing monitoring of the quality of legal representation in the courtroom conducted by JSMP established evidence base for planning and policy development; findings and recommendations disseminated through press releases and project funded reports.
o A combined total of 59 Legal Aid Coordination Working Group meetings provided municipal- level dialogue and coordination among nongovernmental and governmental justice sector actors in the target districts. Meetings were attended by 545 people from member organizations, including 218 women. Implementing partners particularly FFSO in Oé-Cusse and JPC in Baucau have committed to continuing Legal Aid Coordination Working Group meetings to promote information sharing and better coordinate legal services among the organizations involved.
Increased willingness and capacity of justice sector organizations to respond to training and professional development needs of their personnel
o National counterparts endorsed project recommendations to develop continuing education for all key justice sector actors; the LJTC’s mandate was strengthened in 2016 to include provision of in-service training to a wider range of justice sector professionals.
Co-development of Practical Case Management training module with LJTC contributed to a pool of national trainers at the LJTC and improved the law school curriculum. LJTC Director, Mrs. Marcelina Tilman, has indicated she will continue using the module as well as the trainer. o 24 judges, including 9 female judges, completed training in 2015 on court administration, management, and leadership. A knowledge increase of 128% was observed among the 23 judges who completed both the pre- and post-tests.
o 23 judges, including 9 female judges, completed high-level formal training on court administration, management, and leadership in 2017. A knowledge increase of 128% was observed among the 23 judges who completed both the pre- and post-tests.
o 22 judicial officers from all district courts including the Court of Appeal completed judicial statistics improvement training to improve case management. The project observed an average increase knowledge percentage of 101.8% amongst the 18 people who completed both pre- and post-tests.
o 16 judicial officers, including four women, from all district courts also completed Advance Excel training to enable the collection of judicial statistics needed to improve case management. An average knowledge increase of 464.3% was observed amongst the 14 judicial officers who completed both pre- and post-tests.
o 25 trainee private lawyers, including 6 women, received Practical Case Management Training, at the request of the LJTC. Knowledge increase, observed from 19 participants who completed both the pre- and post- tests, was 91.4%.
o 30 MOJ staff, including 11 women, received training in quantitative and qualitative research methodologies and attended workshops to support analysis of data collected by the MOJ.
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o A total of 184 elected leaders including 86 women participated in Justice Sector Familiarization Tours/ Go and See visits to meet different justice officials and to better understand the formal justice system.
o In coordination with Component A (Objective 1), 184 suco council members, including 86 women, participated in a Suco Municipal Forum focused on access to justice to build their understanding of their roles and responsibilities under the formal justice system and how it relates to their mandate vis-à-vis community dispute resolution.
Objective 4: Strengthened capacity of Government of Timor-Leste (GOTL), in particular its Electoral Management Bodies to hold fair, transparent, inclusive local elections and facilitate voter engagement
Increase in voter participation among marginalized groups as demonstrated through our midterm assessment.
o Due to the government’s decision to postpone elections, electoral participation data could not be collected in the project’s midterm assessment. Nonetheless, and despite a short lead- up between the promulgation of Suco Law 9/2016 in July 2016 and the suco elections in October 2016, other evidence shows that the project was very successful in supporting STAE, CNE, MSA and civil society in rolling out a comprehensive and inclusive multi-media civic education campaign. This cross-sector campaign reached an estimated 63% of the entire population through radio and 58% through television and helped to secure around 70% participation rate in the suco elections.
o 351 participants, including 135 females, took part in the radio listening groups to learn about the elections. Representatives from different youth organizations and movements also actively participated in coordination meetings with electoral bodies to discuss topics related to the suco elections and youth engagement.
o 9,124 youth and women participants attended Rebenta’s theatre performances in the five target municipalities and regions, resulting in an average increase in knowledge and understanding of the suco election of 63.1% for women, and 41.5% for young people.
o There was a significant increase in the number of women voted into local leadership positions, compared to previous elections in 2009. 321 females presented candidacy for suco chief across the 442 sucos in Timor-Leste, and 21 were elected (compared to 11 in the 2009 elections). In addition, 42 women were elected as aldeia chief (compared to only 2 in 2009.)
o People with disabilities also participated in the electoral process. Four national coordination meetings were attended by 86 participants (35 women) and a national roundtable meeting was attended by 25 people (8 women) to discuss strategies for better inclusion of people with disabilities in the electoral process. Monitoring visits revealed that 39% of observed voters with disabilities were women.
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II. Project Purpose
The four-year Mai Munisípiu project was awarded to Counterpart International, Inc. (Counterpart) by USAID/Timor-Leste, with the aim to contribute to a wider vision of improved decentralized governance, inclusive access to justice and strengthened civic and voter education in Timor-Leste through the implementation of five mutually reinforcing components designed to achieve the following objectives:
Goals Component Objective
Enhanced capacity of sucos to strengthen citizen Local Governance participation and representation in local Strengthening governance. Improved decentralized governance Improved communications and linkages of sucos with municipal and regional administrations, local Decentralization and Input Government of Timor-Leste (GOTL) line ministries of Local Institutions and other providers of basic public services at the subnational level. Legal Aid Organization Strengthened local justice sector institutions which Increased access to Sustainability increase access to formal and informal justice for justice District Court Functionality marginalized citizens and the poor.
Strengthened the capacity of GOTL, particularly Increased civic and voter Electoral Management Bodies (EMBs) and namely education and inclusive National Electoral Commission (CNE) and Technical political participation of Village Elections Secretariat for Electoral Administration (STAE), to women, youth and hold fair, transparent, inclusive local elections and people with disabilities in facilitate voter engagement in preparation for the the electoral process national general election.
Ba Distrito means "To the Districts" National Launch on February 6, 2014. This was the projects original name before it was later changed to Mai Munisipiu.
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In accordance with USAID’s goal to contribute to a more prosperous, healthy and democratic Timor- Leste, the project was designed to contribute to the achievement of USAID’s Country Development and Cooperation Strategy Intermediate Result (IR) 2 as set out in the diagram below:
Goal A: A more Prosperous, Healthy, and Democratic Timor- Leste
Development Objective: Institutional and Human Capacity for Development Strengthened to Improve the Lives of Timor-Leste’s Citizens
IR 2: Increase Capacity to Deliver Responsive Service at National and Sub-National Levels
Sub-IR 2.1: Improved Sub-IR 2.3: Increased Sub-IR 2.2: Sub-National Implementation of GOTL Community and Citizen Institutions Strengthened to Policies and Programs to Engagement with Government
Respond to Citizen Priorities and Local Institutions Deliver Key Public Services
In order to achieve this, the program was designed and structured around four key objectives:
1. Enhanced capacity of sucos to strengthen citizen participation and representation in local governance. Following a comprehensive assessment of suco council and CSO capacity, the project designed a series of trainings and other interventions to support the partners in improving their work, with particular attention to strengthening their relationship with community members.
2. Improved communications and linkages of sucos with municipal and regional administrations, local Government of Timor-Leste (GOTL) line ministries and other providers of basic public services at the subnational level. As well as bringing technical expertise in analysing draft laws and policies related to decentralisation and subnational governance, the project conducted many outreach sessions to suco council representatives, CSOs, subnational government officials and others to help them to understand key features of the proposed new laws, and to develop recommendations for improvement.
3. Strengthened local justice sector institutions which increased access to formal and informal justice for marginalized citizens and the poor. The project focused on improving services provided by legal aid providers across the target municipalities and regions, primarily through the provision of 14
sub-grants, and also provided training to improve judicial actors’ (lawyers and court officials) work and technical expertise.
4. Strengthened the capacity of GOTL, particularly Electoral Management Bodies (EMBs) namely National Electoral Commission (CNE) and Technical Secretariat for Electoral Administration (STAE), to hold fair, transparent, inclusive local elections and facilitate voter engagement in preparation for the national general election. As well as supporting EMBs in implementing a strong civic education campaign to help people understand the electoral system for electing suco councils under the new Suco Law 9/2016, the project focused its attention on facilitating communication and coordination between interested CSOs and EMBs – acting as an important bridge for CSOs to represent their constituent members’ interests concerning the rights of women, young people and people with disabilities.
III. Project Impacts
Objective 1: Enhanced capacity of suco councils to strengthen citizen participation and representation in local governance
The majority of Mai Munisípiu’s activities worked through grants channelled to local government and local organisations, with the objective of providing a sustainable local infrastructure for long-term capacity building for suco councils, local Non-Governmental Organizations (NGOs), district courts and legal aid organizations in Timor Leste.
Given the project’s preferred approach of indirect implementation, capacity development activities were an important part of Mai Munisípiu’s work. The Local Governance Strengthening team provided capacity development support at two different levels: capacity development for target suco councils to assist them in being more responsive to community needs, and capacity development for partner organisations, in coordination with the Local Governance team and the Access to Justice team.
1. Delivery Capacity Assistance to 100 Suco Councils & Associations
Over the past four years, Mai Munisípiu has implemented a variety of capacity development activities to the project’s 100 target suco councils and associations. When the Mai Munisípiu project began, Oecusse was already clearly identified as a target municipality, and the remaining four – Baucau, covalima, Ermera and Liquisa - were proposed and chosen in close coordination and consultation with both USAID and GOTL. However, project staff were responsible for identifying the target 100 suco councils and associations in these municipalities and regions. Sucos were selected in coordination with the Municipal Administrator in Baucau, Covalima, Ermera, Liquisa and Oé-Cusse respectively, using selection criteria which included (among other things) a commitment to involving women and youth in decision making, women in suco chief positions, active attendance in all project activities, suco accessibility by road, and the existence of a suco development plan.
Support has included formal training provided to suco council members from the project’s 100 target villages, technical assistance provided to suco councils dependent on needs, and organization development training and support to implementing partners.
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Formal Training
In early 2014, implementing partner NGO Belun was engaged to deliver ongoing organizational development training to the 100 target sucos. To support their work, the project deployed Organization Development Specialist, Ms. Stephanie Sullivan, who worked with the team to develop the SukAt Toolkit (Suku Assessment Toolkit) reflecting the suco council’s roles and responsibilities, and enabling suco councils to assess their organizational capacity. Using the toolkit, a rapid assessment of the capacities of suco councils and their members was conducted to identify training and support needs. Findings of the rapid assessment were presented to suco representatives in a training session in order to receive their feedback and fine tune their needs accordingly. Using results from this rapid assessment, the following training needs were identified: a) leadership and strategic management; b) service provision, Focus group discussion on suco training, representation, and quality control; c) communication and external facilitated by Belun relations; d) financial sustainability; and e) administrative management.
On the basis of this assessment, the project developed six training modules for the 100 participating sucos; a) leadership and communication; b) access to justice and women’s rights; c) community consultation; d) conflict resolution; e) project design; and f) project management. In addition, a second round of training on leadership and communication, and community consultation was given to suco council members from January to May 2017, following their election into office in late 2016.
To help monitor and assess the impact of Belun’s training, Counterpart’s Municipal Coordinators, based in each of the target municipalities and regions, were tasked with monitoring the trainings and collecting data on participants’ increase in knowledge, via pre- and post-tests. Overall, the project recorded an average increase in participants’ knowledge and understanding of 84.9% - a significant improvement.
Formal trainings provided to 100 sucos were provided as follows:
TOTAL PARTICIPANTS DATES TECHNICAL FOCUS TOTAL Women Men Youth May 11-June 23, Leadership and Communication 155 140 131 426 2015 June 9-October 1, Women’s Rights and Access to 132 67 65 264 2015 Justice August 17- Community Consultation 125 134 110 369 September 17, 2015 November 18- Conflict Resolution 65 150 19 234 December 18, 2015 February 15, 2015- Fund Raising, Project Design and 131 26 88 245 March 16, 2016 Proposal Writing
June 6-July 16, 2016 Project Management 61 60 69 190
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January 3— Community Consultation 80 125 82 287 February 28, 2017 March 27-May 3, Leadership and Communication 83 117 81 281 2017
Based on their experiences in providing training to suco council members, and with project support, Belun was successfully accredited by the National Labour Force Development Institute (INDMO) as a training provider, so they can continue to source funds and provide trainings after the Mai Munisípiu project closes.
To complement these trainings, and in coordination with the Minister of State Administration, the project also developed five suco training modules for use by the National Directorate for Suco Administration Support in the Ministry for State Administration (DNAAS) in fulfilling their mandate to support suco councils: (a) roles and responsibilities of suco councils; (b) financial management; (c) administrative Management, (d) civic education and (e) combating corruption. A tutorial film covering these same topics was also produced to support Handover training materials to the the training. The training modules and film were prepared Ministry of State Administration and handed over to DNAAS, along with 490 copies of the film that were given as an in-kind grant, to help DNAAS to continue their work in training suco councils throughout the country.
Mentoring & Accompaniment.
In addition to the formal training provided by Belun, technical assistance and close mentoring were also provided by both Belun and Counterpart’s Municipal Coordinators. Technical assistance focused on helping suco councils from the project’s 100 target villages to update their suco organizational development plans, improving documentation, and following up on action points from each training for suco council members to practice what they learned to improve their public service delivery. Further support was given to suco council and community members After films remarks from the MINISTER OF in the lead-up to the elections to help them understand the STATE ADMINISTRATION DR. DIONISIO BABO SOARES, on the Suco Council roles and new law and elections process. responsibilities film
OD Support to Implementing Partners.
The project also provided organizational development support to its implementing partners to assist them in better carrying out their activities. This was provided to Belun, FFSO, JSMP, Liberta and Justice and Peace Commission (JPC). At the onset of the project, and with support from the OD Specialist, the project assessed the capacity of its four legal aid partners FFSO, JSMP, Liberta and Justice and Peace Commission (JPC) in six domains that were identified as key sustainability areas: a) leadership and strategic planning; b) program management and quality control; c) accounting and financial management; d) financial sustainability; e) human and material resources; and f) external relations
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and communications. This allowed the OD Specialist and Access to Justice team to measure the baseline capacity and to measure improvements via annual OD assessments.
The project also deployed an intern Mr. Dean Hart, an International Development Master’s student from the University of Sydney in Australia, who worked with legal aid partner FFSO over a five week period to develop new organisational materials including a new staff employment contract, timesheet, inventory list, leave policy, leave record and leave request form, code of ethics for staff and advisory board members, warning letter template, weekly staff coordination and work plan meeting, work plan template, job description for each staff member and employee records for each staff member. Mr. Hart also assisted FFSO to identify funding opportunities, such as opportunity to submit a proposal to RAEOA Civil Society Fund which the RAEOA Authority committed to fund FFSO in 2017.
A combination of formal training, accompaniment and technical support was provided, dependent on the organisation’s needs. For formal training, the project delivered a one-day training on Human Resources and the Labour Code, using the document A Practical Human Resources and Labour Code Guideline to all partner legal aid NGOs, to help them understand their legal obligations to employees. In addition, recognizing the importance of financial sustainability for legal aid NGOs, the project adapted Counterpart’s Financial Sustainability Handbook and Proposal Writing Guidelines into simple formats, suited to the context and designed financial sustainability tools which can be used by its implementing partners to guide future fundraising initiatives. These tools were introduced to partners in a two-day practical workshop focusing on addressing gaps in the individual partner organizations’ financial sustainability.
Mai Munisípiu staff also provided regular technical support to partners in their grants reporting, monitoring & evaluation systems and communications. Communication strategies and supporting templates were developed for JSMP and Belun, and an active Facebook presence was maintained for legal aid organisations JPC, JNI, Liberta and FFSO.
2. Provide 46 Engagement Grants to Increase Citizen Participation & Suco Responsiveness
Constituent Engagement Grants (CEGs) of $550-$750 each were awarded to a total 46 community- based organizations working with their suco council to give selected suco councils and CBOs the opportunity to manage a small grant and implement targeted activities in their suco. The grants process was competitive, with recipients developing a proposal and then using the funds to support active participation of community members in the development and governance of the suco.
Grantees were selected based on the proposal’s relevance in achieving one or more of the following objectives:
I. Provide opportunities for local communities to discuss their needs with suco councils, and create special opportunities for women, youth and the disabled to engage with their suco council.
II. Increase communication and collaboration between participating suco councils and their community members.
III. Increase confidence among community members in the effectiveness of suco councils in local development planning and administration, infrastructure development and maintenance.
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The grants were preceded by pre-assessments and mini training sessions aimed at helping CBOs better understand the objectives of the CEGs, to develop a detailed work plan and to understand the grant’s requirements. This was followed by a second mini-training on how to fill in the narrative report, write meeting minutes, agenda and list of participants, use financial reporting templates and understand and follow protocols when signing agreements in English and Tetum. During grant implementation, the Mai Munisípiu Coordinators in each target municipality and region provided technical assistance to grantees to ensure proper implementation of the CEG according to the work plan and budget. On completion of the CEGs, the grant team and municipal coordinators conducted an evaluation with all grantees to gather lessons learned, including information on the grant implementation challenges and how to address them, and the benefits of the grant for the entire community.
Approximately $30,300 CEGs were awarded to CBOs/suco council grantees which included activities on:
o Introducing new methods of communication to increase information sharing between the suco council and the community about community-specific issues, for example: use of message boards, suggestion boxes, radio programs, community meetings or other information dissemination techniques;
o Coordination of activities to facilitate community understanding of specific local development projects, for example: community meetings to consult on how a project is implemented in the community, communities’ rights and responsibilities under the project, financial accountability, complaints mechanisms, and/or opportunities to work as a labourer on the project;
o Initiatives to strategically engage with and respond to the needs of marginalized groups such as women, youth and/or people with disabilities in the suco;
o Any other creative or relevant activities to improve local development and governance processes in the suco.
3. Facilitate Horizontal Linkages Among Suco Councils to Learn & Pool Resources
The project implemented a variety of activities to encourage interaction between suco councils, allowing them to develop combined advocacy approaches to government bodies at the municipal level, to exchange success stories and to learn from each other.
Suco-Municipal Advocacy Forums
A very successful initiative developed by the project was the Suco-Municipal Network Forums. The Forums aimed to strengthen local governance by providing a platform for sucos to learn about key policies affecting their lives, and to engage in advocacy with government officials at the municipal level to improve service delivery. In total, the project facilitated 30 suco municipal advocacy forums (six in each municipality) bringing together elected village chiefs and women’s representatives from each of the target sucos with responsible government officials at the municipal level.
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Forum discussions were arranged according to theme, with information sessions provided to suco council members to help them understand how relevant government programs operate. Mai Munisípiu staff facilitated each session to help structure the discussion and encourage suco council participants to come up with actionable recommendations, focusing on specific measures that government officials could take to improve their basic service provision and/or be more responsive to citizen needs. Women Representative presenting about The first round of forums identified key challenges faced organizational development at Suco-Municipal Forum in Oé-Cusse in access to basic service provisions, including water and sanitation, health, education and land and property.
The second round of forums focused on the theme of ‘Women’s Participation in Politics,’ to present successful strategies and policies to support women’s participation in politics and encourage sucos to actively involve women in suco activities.
The third round focused on Suco Law No. 9/2016, and was implemented in coordination with the Decentralisation team (Component B) and the Village Elections team (Component E). This forum focused on disseminating information about the new law and elections process, to prepare people for suco elections. The forums were facilitated in coordination with the Municipal Administrator (Regional Secretary Women’s focus group discussion on suco for Administration in Oé-Cusse), and municipal focal forum in Covalima points of CNE and STAE.
The fourth round focused on understanding the formal justice system, and was implemented in coordination with the Access to Justice team (Components C&D.) Suco council members learned about the roles and responsibilities of formal justice institutions, the difference between civil and criminal cases, responsibilities in referring domestic violence cases to the police, and the role of suco councils to maintain social harmony and peace in their sucos under Suco Law No. 9/2016. This was followed up with two days of go-and-see visits to justice institutions where participants meet with officials from the police’s Vulnerable Persons Unit, an NGO providing psychosocial and medical assistance, the Public Defender’s office, the court, Ministry of Justice’s Land and Property Department and a prison in Ermera.
The fifth and final round focused on subnational government: the municipal and administrative post structures under Decree Law No. 3/2016, and Law No. 3/2014 on the special economic region and exclusive economic zone for social markets in Oé-Cusse-Ambeno Participants from suco councils, government (applying to Oé-Cusse) and the objectives of and key and civil society came together to strengthen their relationship at suco municipal forum in distinctions between the RAEOA Authority and ZEEMS. Liquica 20
These forums were conducted in collaboration with the Support Secretariat for the Installation of Municipalities (SAIM), in each municipality and Oé-Cusse special region. A key focus was on methods through which community leaders could share community concerns with higher bodies and ensure their ideas/opinions are heard and considered. The forum was followed by a formal project close-out ceremony in each of these five municipalities and regions.
Forums were conducted as follows:
Suco-Munisípiu Forums
Total Number of Municipality Male Female Total Forums Baucau 6 103 97 200 Covalima 6 132 68 200 Ermera 6 169 76 245 Liquiça 6 149 104 243 Oé-Cusse 6 145 89 234 Total 30 688 434 1122
These forums resulted in 117 recommendations that were submitted to line ministries in Baucau, Covalima, Ermera, Liquica and Oé-Cusse concerning women’s participation in politics, education, health, land issues, water, sanitation and agriculture, among others. From a total of 117 recommendations, 37.6% recommendations were accepted, 55.6% are under consideration and 6.8% were rejected by the target institution.
Suco Exchange
From 2015 until 2017, the project also organised suco exchange visits, which provided an opportunity for successful suco councils to present their work and processes to lower performing suco councils, to help them learn and implement new approaches in public service provision. Mai Munisípiu Coordinators in the five target municipalities and region each led an assessment to help the team select suco role models and potential participant sucos, and to report on the issues and strategies that were discussed during the exchange. Each exchange focused on different issues of local governance, such as planning and project design, and successful sectoral initiatives, such as innovative approaches to agriculture, water management, education, small businesses or health services. There were 28 suco exchanges conducted, with a total 410 participants (238 male, 170 women, and 2 journalists.)
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Suco Expositions
Five public suco expositions also took place (one in each target municipality and region) to highlight successful suco projects to the municipal and national administration, and to facilitate participating suco councils to share information with one another. The theme of the suco exposition was “Let’s Celebrate Our Suco’s Success.” Suco councils were each provided with booths and supported in presenting their work in a visually engaging manner. A total 51 sucos presented their success on administrative management, water and sanitation, agriculture, suco Suco chief in Covalima presenting the success health planning, tarabandu and conflict resolution. There of suco at Suco Expo were a total 535 participants (including 255 women.)
As public events, these suco expos also provided the opportunity for launching and dissemination of research reports with JSMP presenting its research and thematic reports on the formal court system, information sessions & outreach with legal aid providers FFSO, Liberta, JPC and JNJ offering free legal consultations to the public and launching of Mai Munisípiu documentary Suco Success Stories. In addition, a public speaking competition “If I am a Suco Chief for Two Weeks,” in which senior high school students and suco council members were encouraged to give their ideas on what a suco chief could achieve for his or her suco.
ACHIEVEDRESULTS
Outcome 1: Increased knowledge and skills of suco members
In order to assess the impact of training sessions on suco members, the project measured the increase in knowledge of suco council participants using pre- and post-tests for each module. A positive impact on suco members’ knowledge is clearly observed throughout the four years in all topics covered by the test, with an average increase in participants’ knowledge and understanding of 84.9%, as shown in the table below:
% Cumulative Increase of All Trainings Increase in percentage (%) all % of Female participants who participants' knowledge and increase knowledge understanding Female % of Females Training Name Average Average Total Participants participants Total of Pre- of Post- % Increased Female who who Participants Test Test Participants increased increased Scores Scores knowledge knowledge PDA & Action Plan 192 3 4 59.4% 112 81 72.3% Leadership and Communication 404 252.28 1604.72 536.1% 213 212 99.5% Access to Justice & Women’s' Right 254 1430.5 2294 60.4% 96 81 84.4%
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Community Consultation 354 1347 2102 56.1% 193 139 72.0% Conflict Resolution 233 749 1283 71.3% 81 72 88.9% Project Design 244 743 1229 65.4% 81 75 92.6% Project Management 238 775 1284 65.7% 108 96 88.9% Community Consultation II 285 3.8 6.2 63.2% 146 137 93.8% Leadership and Communication II 279 2.9 4.2 46.4% 141 108 76.6% Total 2483 590 1090 84.9% 1171 1001 85.5%
The project also held an annual OD suco assessments to measure how the combination of different activities (training, technical assistance, suco exchange, and suco municipal forum) benefited suco councils in their daily work and enhanced their capacity. Overall, there has been a noticeable increase of 52.4% in suco councils’ capacity since the beginning of the project. Improvement in suco councils’ performance in each key area of sustainability is represented in the table below:
Sustainability Key Areas Baseline Year 2 Year 3 % Increased
Leadership and Strategic Management 2.16 2.69 2.99 38.2% Representation and Quality Control 1.94 2.47 2.87 48.0% External Relations/Communication 2.12 2.62 3.01 41.7% Financial Sustainability 1.66 2.38 2.96 78.2% Administration 1.85 2.24 2.70 45.6% Total average 52.4%
While not specifically measured, observations from project staff also indicate that the technical support provided by project coordinators seems to have motivated suco councils to be more inclusive of women, people with disabilities and the elderly in the planning and implementation of projects so that they are more responsive to their needs.
Outcome 2: Increased consultations among suco and citizens
The project supported suco councils and CBOs with CEGs to finance activities that enhance citizen engagement and governance of suco councils. Most participating groups were very positive about the CEGs, noting that the funding and support enabled them to improve their skills in reporting, archiving, organizing meetings, facilitating discussions and managing a small grant.
In the first round of CEGs, $17,650 was awarded to 23 CBOs in 23 sucos to introduce activities that increase community engagement with elected leaders on important community issues. Such activities were carried out in coordination with suco councils and included community meetings, installing suggestion boxes and establishing public information boards. A total 150 activities were implemented in the first round of CEGs involving 2,851 community members, including 1,050 women.
In the second round of CEGs, a total of $12,650 was awarded to 23 CBOs in cooperation with suco councils to strengthen community participation in suco council governance. Similarly, to participants in the first round, CBOs in the second round carried out various community engagement activities, including installing suggestion boxes and explaining their use, organizing community meetings to 23
develop suco action plans, establishing suco Community Policing Councils and presenting suco operational fund plans to the community. A summary of all CEG grantees and activities can be found in Annex 4.
Outcome 3: Suco and CSOs are more financially sustainable
The project provided ongoing technical assistance, including financial reporting, and training to its implementing partners to increase their capacity, enhance their financial sustainability and enable them to deliver suco training.
The project conducted annual organizational development assessments for its legal aid implementing partners (JPC, FFSO and Liberta), the last of which was conducted in April-May 2017. The assessment focused on partners’ organizational capacity related to (i) leadership and strategic management; (ii) program management and quality control; (iii) accounting and financial management (iv) financial sustainability; (v) human resources and its materials; and (vi) external relations/communication, which were identified at the beginning of the project as key organizational sustainability areas. As shown in the table below, a high percentage increase in all organizations’ financial sustainability capacity was observed as a result of the project, with a highest increase of 131% in JPC, 101% in Liberta and 53% in FFSO.
% Increase of Capacity development organization Functional Areas Under Review Total % in FFSO JPC Liberta Average 1. Leadership and Strategic Planning 60% 20% 47% 42% 2. Program Management and Quality Control 83% -2% 54% 45% 3. Accounting and Financial Management 94% 42% 38% 58% 4. Financial Sustainability 53% 131% 101% 95% 5. Human and Material Resources 48% 4% 10% 21% 6. External Relations / Communications 79% 83% 5% 56% Average across all Function Areas 70% 27% 35% 44%
FFSO, JPC and Liberta clearly demonstrated a better understanding of fundraising strategies and the organizational documentation required to support it, including the organization’s profile, proposal writing skills and template and donor matrix tracking. As a result, FFSO and Liberta will continue to run Oxfam’s land rights programs in Oé-Cusse until 2018. In addition, FFSO has recently been awarded funding by the RAEOA Authority. JPC recently submitted a proposal on women’s empowerment and access to justice through legal education to UN Women. In addition, and as noted above, Belun successfully gained accreditation from INDMO as a training institute, providing them with an additional potential source of income in the future.
As for suco councils, and as shown in ‘Outcome 1’ above, financial sustainability showed the greatest improvement among all OD pillars at an average increase rate of 78.2% compared to suco councils’ baseline capacity.
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Outcome 4: Improved citizen satisfaction in service delivery
Suco-Municipal forums proved to be a successful mechanism for facilitating dialogue between elected village chiefs, women’s representatives and specific line-ministry service providers, and generating recommendations for better service delivery. Overall, the project facilitated 30 Suco-Municipal forums (six in each municipality and Oé-Cusse) attended by 1,122 participants (434 women).
Very importantly, 44 out of 117 recommendations from suco councils to line ministries during these forums were addressed, resulting in significant improvements in service delivery to 1,000s of citizens in the sucos where the project works: schools have been built, chairs have been provided to primary students, additional health care workers have been allocated, additional ambulances have been provided, broken water systems have been fixed, seeds for planting have been distributed and a schedule for sharing community tractors has been developed and implemented. These results show that success can be achieved when communication between the suco level and municipal about priorities is strengthened.
Positive feedback on the forums was given by several participants and public figures, including the Judge Administrator from Suai District Court who stated that the forum held in January and February 2017 allowed the Court and suco councils to become familiar with one another, thereby supporting the court’s role enforcing law. In particular, the Judge Administrator noted, it assisted the court to deliver court notifications to the community level because they now know the contact names and numbers of the newly elected village leaders.
Government participants in the May/June 2017 Suco-Municipal forums also expressed their appreciation for the forum structure. National SAIM Director, Mr. Aderito Aparico Guterres, stated that the forum allowed SLAIM and municipal officials to share information on the new municipal structure to suco councils. Baucau President of the Authority, Mr. António Augostu Guterres S.IP., MM expressed appreciation for the forum’s coordinating role between previous and newly-elected suco councils and the changing structure of Baucau municipality. He also expressed his hope that the Mai Munisípiu project would continue to provide support by adjusting the Suco-Municipal forum into the Municipal Consultative Council, as established under the new de-concentrated administrative structure.
RAEOA Regional Secretary for Rural Development and Agriculture Mr. Regio Salu also stated that they considered the forum to be a good strategy. He further noted that on May 29, 2017 the RAEOA Authority adopted the project’s ‘’go and see’’ visits by inviting lia-na’ins from aldeias in Suco Bene-Ufe to visit the ZEEMS project in Pante Makassar to have better understanding of the current ZEEMS project in education, road reconstruction, international airport, Noefefan bridge and Inur Sakato power plant.
Objective 2: Improved communication and linkages of suco councils with district administrations, local GoTL line ministries and other providers of basic services at the sub-national level
Mai Munisípiu ’s activities under Component B, to improve the relationship between suco councils and subnational government, were targeted at three different levels (i) information sharing activities to improve vertical collaboration between suco and municipal government bodies, (ii) advocacy and dialogue activities in support of ratified and implemented decentralization laws and (iii) public outreach and education campaigns for new decentralisation laws. 25
1. Improve Vertical Collaboration Between Suco & Municipal Government Bodies
Suco-Municipal Advocacy Forums
As noted under ‘Objective 1’ above, the Mai Munisípiu project implemented 30 Suco-Municipal forums (6 in each target municipality and region) designed to bring together elected suco council members from the project’s 100 target villages with line ministry service providers and discuss sector specific service provision. Forums were held according to themes, with Mai Munisípiu project coordinators facilitating discussions to help suco council participants advocate for targeted, achievable changes at the community level. These forums were very successful, demonstrating what can be achieved when a platform is created for suco councils and government officials to share information.
Suco Success Stories
In cooperation with DNAAS, Mai Munisípiu opened a competition in each of the five target municipalities and regions, to identify success stories to be profiled via five short films. The objective was to document success stories from sucos and/or suco associations to promote and encourage modelling of best practices in community engagement, project implementation and other service delivery initiatives. From a total 27 applications, the 5 stories that were chosen for profile were:
Municipalities/Region Suco Success Stories 1. Liquica Vaviquinia Drinking water distribution 2. Covalima Ogues Traditional Conflict Prevention (Nahe Biti Bo’ot) to resolve suco border between Ogues and Holpilat 3. Oé-Cusse Bobometo Community initiative to develop health plan and build health facility in the suco 4. Ermera Estadu Conflict Resolution 5. Baucau Fatulia Road Construction
Local multimedia company Uairawa Multimedia produced these five short films. The films were launched in Dili with 76 attendees, including the Minister for State, Coordinator for State Administration Affairs and Minister for Administration, the Director of USAID’s Office of General Development, representatives from international and national NGOs, government representatives, representatives from sucos profiled in the short films and media representatives. The national launch was then followed up with municipal launches during the suco expositions in each of the five municipalities and regions.
The documentaries were then given to implementing partner Belun as an in-kind grant, to support their work in capacity development for suco councils and associations. One of these films was broadcast Minister of State Administration Dr. Dionisio twice on the national TV station RTTL. In addition, USAID-funded Babo Soares presenting cerificates to Suco Chiefs at the national premiere of the 5 short project, Reinforce, has been using one of the films to support documentaries celebrating suco success implementation of their health project in 30 sucos in Covalima. stories from each municipality and RAEOA
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2. Support Advocacy & Dialogue Leading to Ratified & Implemented Decentralization Laws
Mai Munisípiu has been extremely active in supporting advocacy and dialogue related to various pieces of decentralization legislation that have been drafted and debated over the past four years. From its inception, Mai Munisípiu has made a point of working closely with the GoTL, taking a supportive role during the legislative drafting and revision process, and conducting various consultations & providing expert advice at the request of the GoTL and National Parliament. This approach has been important, ensuring the project had various entry points to contribute to the legislative drafting and revision process, adapting to government requirements and consultation needs. The project has provided direct support to the Government and National Parliament by undertaking research and providing expert advice, to assist them in creating laws that are responsive to citizen needs and concerns and that fit the Timorese local governance environment.
The project has also worked extensively with civil society partners, actively engaging in various forums and network meetings to contribute to the decentralization debate, and to assist civil society and local leaders to understand and engage with proposed changes to subnational governance. At the national level, the project has taken an active role in a Policy Forum which was formed in 2014, comprising a select group of participants from government, civil society and the donor community interested in decentralisation. This Policy Forum stopped meeting when the 6th Constitutional Government came into power in early 2015, but was revived at Mai Munisípiu ’s initiative in March 2016, providing a space for key stakeholders to discuss implications of the changing decentralisation landscape. The project has also been actively involved in consultations with civil society partners and target suco councils, disseminating information, facilitating discussions and gathering recommendations for
Representative of suco chief from Baucau submitted improving draft legislation the recommendation on draft suco law to the committee A of the National Parliament There have been a number of important pieces of legislation regulating subnational governance that have been drafted since 2013, when the Mai Munisípiu project began (discussed below), and the politics have been somewhat complicated.
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Revision Suco Law 3/2009
During the four-year span of the project, there were two pieces of draft legislation produced governing suco (village) councils. The first, a draft revision of Suco Law 3/2009, was produced following a collaborative, consultative process in 2014. Mai Munisípiu actively worked with the legislative drafting team based in the Ministry for State Administration (MSA), providing advice and undertaking research and district dialogues. At the request of the GoTL, local governance expert, STTA Dr. Deborah Cummins, was engaged to analyse the potential impacts of changes to suco’s legal status and to make concrete recommendations for revisions to the law, resulting in a comprehensive analysis report titled Suco Councils’ Role in Effective Inclusive Group discussion at public consultation on draft Local Governance, which was published and law – Local Power and administrative desentralization at presented at a national consultation in August 2014 fongtil (see Annex 6). In addition, MSA asked Mai Munisípiu to conduct a series of district dialogues across Baucau, Covalima, Dili, Ermera, Liquica and Oé-Cusse to gather citizen opinions on the draft law, and to help them produce recommendations for improvement. A number of substantive recommendations arose from these dialogues, which were presented together with Mai Munisípiu ’s own recommendations. However, as the 5th Constitutional Government completed its mandate, this draft was shelved and was not taken to the Council of Ministers for discussion.
Suco Law no. 9/2016
When the 6th Constitutional Government came into power in early 2015, a second very different draft was produced, which resulted in the successful passing into law of Suco Law no. 9/2016 on 24 May 2016. The legislative drafting and revision process for this law was less consultative, with copies of the draft only made available in Portuguese language, following approval by the Council of Ministers. The project engaged STTA Dr. Deborah Cummins to analyse the draft law with particular emphasis on potential impacts for women, people with disabilities, and young people’s participation and facilitate workshops with civil society partners to help them understand key changes and to support them in developing recommendations.
Given the rushed nature of the consultation process, it was not possible to conduct workshops with all of the project’s suco councils and civil society partners. Nonetheless, the project managed to FONGTIL’ Members develop the recommendation on municipal election draft law
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conduct workshops with two civil society partners, and suco council members from two municipalities.
These included:
campaign for women’s local representation “100% Hau Pronto” (I’m 100% ready), with participants from Women’s Caucus, Fundacao Patria, Rede Feto, UN Women, Pas y Dessarollo, Movimentu Feto Foinsa’e Timor-Leste, and the Alola Foundation; network for people with a disability Ra’es Hadomo Timor Oan (RHTO); suco council members in Covalima; suco council members in Oé-Cusse; and Baucau Suco Association.
In addition, the project gave a special training to 22 journalists from television, radio and newspapers ranging from national to municipal level, to enable them to more effectively report on the draft law as it was being debated. A key success of Mai Munisípiu ’s support emerged from a meeting facilitated by the project in March 2016 between the President of Republic and suco chief representatives. During this meeting, suco chiefs argued for a key change to the election modality from indirect to direct election for the chief of village—an extremely important and controversial element of the draft law, as it impacted on the perceived legitimacy of suco chief amongst community members. Following this meeting, the Suco Law was revised to include this change.
Draft Local Power and Decentralization Administration and Municipal Electoral laws
In the same month that the draft Suco Law 9/2016 was released for consultation (February 2015), two other pieces of draft legislation were approved by the Council of Ministers and released for consultation by Committee A of National Parliament. These were the draft Local Power and Administrative Decentralization Law and the draft Municipal Election Law, which together make up the framework for decentralization in Timor-Leste. At the request of Committee A, the project held public consultations with suco council members in the project’s five target municipalities and regions to explain key details of the proposed laws and gather recommendations from suco council members. Based on the success of these consultations, the project was invited to personally present their recommendations at the public hearing by Committee A on March 9, 2017. Partners FONGTIL (NGO network) and Patria (representing women’s groups), who were supported by Mai Munisípiu in developing their recommendations, were also invited to present their recommendations. As follow- up, Committee A also asked Mai Munisípiu to give further additional written analysis on the constitutionality of certain provisions in each of the two draft laws. While these draft laws are still awaiting debate, Mai Munisípiu was advised that several of the project and partners’ recommendations have been included in Committee A’s recommendations to Parliament.
The project conducted a number of workshops and consultations with suco council and civil society stakeholders to educate people on key proposed changes on these various pieces of legislation (detailed in Outcome 2, below). All of these consultations were conducted either at the request, or with the approval, of the GoTL/National Parliament. In keeping with Mai Munisípiu ’s focus on improving the links between sucos, municipal administration, local GoTL line ministries and other basic service providers and encouraging active citizen engagement, all consultations took a participatory approach, facilitating participants in coming up with recommendations based on their own experience and analysis, and wherever possible creating separate spaces for women to encourage their participation.
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3. Organize Public Outreach & Education Campaign for New Decentralization Laws
In keeping with the focus on citizen engagement, the project prepared and distributed a variety of easily understood materials to support consultations on each of the four laws mentioned above. These have included explanatory posters, briefing notes, presentations and others. Materials were all produced in Tetun—an important contribution, given that three of the four draft laws listed above were only released in Portuguese, which most Timorese are unable to read. All of the materials were approved by relevant members of the GoTL prior to dissemination.
Pre-Deconcentration Administration & Special Economic Zone of Social Market Economy
In addition to the newly drafted laws on decentralization discussed in Section II (above), the project prepared information materials and facilitated public outreach activities on two other pieces of legislation regulating subnational governance:
Law No. 3/2014 on Establishment of the Special Administrative Region of Oé-Cusse Ambeno (RAEOA) and Special Zone of Social Market Economy in Timor-Leste (ZEESM); Law No. 4/2014 on the Organic Statute of Structures of Administrative Pre-Deconcentration, later replaced by Decree Law No. 3/2016 (The Structure of the Municipal Administration and Municipal Authorities and the Inter-Ministerial Technical Group for Administrative Decentralization)
Over the past four years the project has undertaken two rounds of civic education activities to inform suco council members, civil society representatives and other community members to promote citizen’s understanding of what these structures mean for them. In December 2014, Mai Munisípiu issued an RFA for a grant up to $12,000 to implement a community radio outreach campaign. Local NGO ARKTL was chosen from a total nine applications, successfully implementing a Project partner Belun films remarks from the Vice community radio campaign from July to Minister of State Administration, Mr. Tomás Cabral, December 2015. In the four target for a PSA for television on Decree Law No. 3/2016 municipalities of Baucau, Covalima, Liquica and Ermera the Organic Statute of Structures of Administrative Pre-Deconcentration was explained. In Oé-Cusse as a special region, the Special Administrative Region of Oé-Cusse Ambeno (RAEOA) and Special Zone of Social Market Economy in Timor-Leste (ZEESM) was explained.
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The Mai Munisípiu team conducted various support activities during this time, including giving training to ARKTL staff, and giving training to community radio stations and local journalists in Baucau, Covalima, Ermera, Liquica and Oé-Cusse where the campaign was conducted, to ensure everyone involved understood the technical elements of these two laws. During this campaign, ARKTL broadcast radio programs in a variety of formats as follows:
Number of Broadcasts on Decentralization by ARKTL via 5 community radios Radio DATES PSA Talkshow Drama Vox Pop Total June-September 2015 (FY15) 1400 32 334 400 2166 October- November 2015 (FY16) 596 25 434 106 1161 Total 1996 57 768 506 3327
Additionally in 2016, partner Belun undertook a series of outreach activities at the administrative post level across the five target municipalities of Baucau, Covalima, Ermera, Liquica and Oé-Cusse to educate newly-elected suco council members on relevant provisions of Decree Law No. 3/2016 (The Structure of the Municipal Administration and Municipal Authorities and the Inter-Ministerial Technical Group for Administrative Decentralization), and Law No. 3/2014 on Establishment of the Special Administrative Region of Oé-Cusse Ambeno (RAEOA) and Special Zone of Social Market Economy in Timor-Leste (ZEESM). In support of this initiative, the project delivered a ToT to the combined Belun and Mai Munisípiu team and provided them with various civic education materials on the two laws. More people attended these sessions than were invited, demonstrating the high level of interest that the new suco council members have in understanding subnational government structures.
Participants were as follows:
MUNICIPALITY FEMALE MALE TOTAL PARTICIPANTS PARTICIPANTS Baucau 31 22 53 Covalima 20 33 53 Ermera 28 33 61 Liquiça 28 22 50 Oé-Cusse 31 18 49 Total 138 128 266
Partner Belun also conducted separate outreach sessions for CSOs, with a total 80 participants (37 women) in the four target municipalities, and 11 participants (2 women) in Oé-Cusse.
In addition, at the request of MSA, Mai Munisípiu worked closely with Belun and MSA to produce a 4- minute PSA on Decree Law 3/2016. The PSA was broadcast 26 times on National Television and RTTL. The General Director of MSA advised that the Vice-Minister was very pleased with the support and cooperation the project has shown to the government.
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Suco Law no. 9/2016
Following the approval of Suco Law no. 9/2016 and in coordination with the Village (Suco) Electoral Support team, the project supported STAE and CNE in public outreach activities (see Component E. for more details.) Prior to the election, the project conducted suco town hall meetings to educate community members on key changes in the new law and to prepare them for suco elections. In addition, following the elections and using materials developed by Mai Munisípiu, project partner Belun conducted public outreach sessions at the posto level in the five target municipalities and regions, to educate newly-elected suco council members on their roles and responsibilities.
Participants of these public outreach sessions for new suco council members were as follows:
MUNICIPALITY FEMALE MALE TOTAL PARTICIPANTS PARTICIPANTS Baucau 23 18 41 Covalima 20 26 46 Ermera 11 30 41 Liquiça 26 28 54 Oé-Cusse 12 32 44 Total 92 134 226
Project partner Belun also distributed information to civil society representatives in each target municipality and region on relevant provisions Suco Law no. 9/2016, with a total 139 participants including 59 women. In addition, the project gave training on relevant provisions of Suco Law 9/2016 to 22 journalists in national radio and TV, including nine women.
ACHIEVED RESULTS
Outcome 1: A clear system and observed improvement for vertical and horizontal government communications
As noted above, the Suco-Municipal forums were particularly successful in improving vertical government communications, supporting suco council representatives in practicing essential advocacy skills with subnational line ministry representatives, which were well-received by municipal level service delivery agencies. Over the past three years that these forums have been in effect (from the second to fourth year of the project), 117 recommendations were developed by suco council representatives and submitted to relevant sectors. 44 of these recommendations have already been addressed, 66 are under consideration and only eight have been rejected.
Outcome 2: Decentralization law is refined and implementation begins as a result of civic advocacy
Since the project began in 2013, it has submitted a total 210 recommendations on four (4) draft laws, as follows:
Revision Suco Law 3/2009: of the 46 recommendations which were submitted to the Ministry of State Administration, 33 were either fully or partially accepted into the revised draft.
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Suco Law 9/2016: of the 64 recommendations which were submitted to Committee A of National Parliament, 53 recommendations were either fully or partially accepted. Draft Local Power and Decentralization Administration law: a total of78 recommendations were submitted on this draft law, which is still under consideration. Draft Municipal Electoral law: a total of 30 recommendations were submitted on this draft law, which is still under consideration.
Importantly, there were many recommendations that were developed by civil society partners and target suco councils following consultations and workshops conducted by the project. This high level of engagement demonstrates the level of interest that people have in engaging with the legislative drafting process, when draft legislation is presented in a format and language that people can understand. Recommendations were produced by partners as follows:
DATE WORKSHOP/ STAKEHOLDERS PARTICIPANTS OUTPUTS CONSULTATION September 3 District Dialogues in Suco Councils, 60 from 60 sucos, 15 recommendations 2014 Baucau, Covalima and CSOs, media, GoTL more than 9 Oé-Cusse , to support reps organisations, more Revision of Suco Law than 25 government 3/2009 officials
October Suco Law 9/2016 CSO members of 8 organizations 14 recommendations 2015 100% Ha’u Pronto (Dili) October Suco Law 9/2016 CSO members of 10 organizations 13 recommendations 2015 ADTL (Dili) February Suco Law 9/2016 Suco Councils (Oé- 19 from 18 Suco 23 recommendations 2016 Cusse) March 2016 Suco Law 9/2016 Suco Council 19 from all 59 Suco in A formal letter to President Association Baucau of Republic and National (Baucau) Parliament with 4 main recommendations. March 2016 Local Power & Suco Councils 29 from 23 sucos 10 recommendations Decentralisation (Liquica) March 2016 Local Power & Suco Councils 21 from 13 sucos 14 recommendations Decentralisation (Covalima) March 2016 Local Power & Suco Councils 19 from 20 sucos 15 recommendations Decentralisation (Baucau) June, 2016 Local Power & Suco Councils 34 from 18 sucos 25 recommendations Decentralisation (Ermera) April 2016 Local Power & CSO members of 44 from 31 CSOs NA Decentralisation FONGTIL (Dili) July 2016 Municipal Elections Suco Councils 32 participants from 15 recommendations (Liquica) 19 sucos June 2016 Municipal Elections Disability network 26 participants from 23 recommendations RHTO (Dili) 11 organizations July 2016 Municipal Elections CSO members of 48 participants from 17 recommendations FONGTIL (Dili) 33 organizations
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Objective 3: Strengthened local justice sector institutions that increase access to formal and informal justice for marginalized citizens and the poor
The project contributed to the GOTL’s efforts to develop an improved legal framework by advocating an integrated and sustainable legal assistance model and providing targeted assistance towards creating the legal framework for such a model. The Access to Justice team was divided into two components, reflecting the different target groups. Staff working under Component C focussed on strengthening local legal aid and legal information service providers, and the legal framework in which they operate, to increase access to formal and informal justice for marginalized citizens and the poor. Staff working under Component D addressed targeted capacity building needs of the district courts as part of the overall strategy to increase access to formal justice for marginalized citizens and the poor.
When activities under these two Components were designed, it was envisaged that an integrated and sustainable model in Timor Leste would encompass a government-funded Public Defender system and some if not all of the following: a mandatory post-graduate legal service program; a mandatory pro- bono requirement for practicing lawyers; more effective use of non-lawyers through paralegal programs and academic clinical and pro bono programs; extrajudicial alternative dispute resolution mechanisms, and the creation of linkages between formal and traditional justice system. As such, the project’s focus was not only a framework for legal representation, consultation and advice in the formal justice system, but also for extrajudicial conflict resolution provided by community leaders such as the elderly, traditional adat leaders and village chiefs.
1. Support government to develop and implement an improved framework for legal aid
Research and Advocacy
Mai Munisípiu grantees/implementing partners, and at times representatives from the MOJ’s National Directorate of Judicial Advisory and Legislation (DNAJL), were brought together to form the project’s Legal Advocacy Working Group to network and regularly discuss and coordinate advocacy around legislation, legal aid sector sustainability and other issues affecting their work. Through the Legal Advocacy Working Group, the project facilitated a network of NGOs and other civil society partners, such as university law schools and the AATL to support ongoing JSMP Director presenting findings and dialogue needed to advance development of recommendations to MOJ representatives about the criminalization of incest on National legislation to improve access to justice. The project Legal Aid Advocacy group meeting also engaged short-term technical advisors (STTAs) to assist the group in legal research and drafting of commentary on proposed new legislation in relation to such issues as formation of a bar association. Importantly, the project also used the forum to invite the GoTL partners, such as MOJ, to give briefings on the legislative processes where the member groups also asked questions and raised issues they faced relating to access to justice and legal aid in their communities. 34
The Working Group focused significantly on the draft law on mediation and amending the penal code to include the crime of incest, an issue that two of the members the Judicial System Monitoring Programme (JSMP) and Asistensia Legal ba Feto no Labarik (ALFela) had been strongly advocating. The MOJ representatives asked the Working Group to support the MOJ in formulating an article that criminalizes incest. The Working Group’s 10 recommendations regarding the draft law on mediation and four recommendations regarding the criminalization of incest are all still under consideration, and are detailed in the Advocacy Matrix in Annex 3. Realizing the importance of a concerted advocacy effort, Working Group member organizations JSMP and ALFeLa have stated that they will continue to convene the working group members to assist future advocacy on justice issues.
Project support in research and advocacy focused primarily on promoting the findings and recommendations of research and analysis conducted by the project’s Access to Justice (A2J) team, implementing partners, and external technical experts. Sub grants and related technical assistance were provided to national NGOs like Belun and JSMP to enable them to conduct research, draft reports and engage in dissemination activities and advocacy. Findings and recommendations were disseminated through project publications and launch events that brought together high-level Timorese justice sector counterparts to discuss reforms. The project and its partners, especially JSMP, engaged in soft advocacy to reaffirm findings and recommendations with key government stakeholders over the life of the project. The project also participated in public consultations on draft laws relevant to legal aid, such as the Law on the Bar Association. The project’s technical reports and legislative submissions were well-received by counterparts, many recommendations were taken under consideration and some recommendations were accepted.
Access to Justice Brief: Legal Assistance in Timor Leste
In 2014, U.S. Law Professor Christie Warren worked with the A2J team to assess the existing legal framework for legal assistance. Ms. Warren identified gaps and inconsistencies in laws regulating access to justice and legal aid, and included various recommendations to address these. The preliminary findings and recommendations were presented to the Ministry of Justice (MOJ) at a meeting attended by officials from the Office of Public Defender (OPD), the Legal and Judicial Training Center (LJTC), the National Directorate for Legal Advisory and Legislation (DNAJL) and the National Directorate of Human Rights and Citizenship, and later formally disseminated in the first Access to Justice Brief: Legal Assistance in Timor Leste (See Annex 7). The project formally launched the publication in February 2015. The then Director-General of the MOJ, Mr. Francisco Carceres, welcomed the report’s findings and recommendations and asked the international community to continue support the GOTL to improve legal aid and access to justice. Of the 10 key recommendations that were submitted, 3 were accepted (or partially accepted), and 7 are under consideration.
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Access to Justice Brief on Community Dispute Resolution in Timor-Leste and the Special Report on Courts and Alternative Dispute Resolution
In November 2016 the project launched the Access to Justice Brief on Community Dispute Resolution – a Legal and Human Rights Analysis, which was informed by project-funded research conducted by local NGO Belun and international law and human rights expert Megan Hirst (See Annex 8). The brief provides a general overview of the types of matters handled through community-level resolution, the procedures followed, the existing legal framework that regulates them and linkages to the formal justice sector. The Brief also contained a number of recommendations on how to best handle community dispute resolution and customary justice procedures, including the strong argument that efforts to codify traditional principles or establish detailed procedures for local justice mechanisms are unlikely to succeed and may not produce added benefits. The report was well-received by various high-level officials who were guests at the launch, including president of the Legislative Reform and Justice Sector Commission (CRL) Dr. Jorge Graca, and President of the Court of Appeal the Honorable Judge Deolindo dos Santos. Specifically, the report included four recommendations, which are currently under consideration.
Following this publication, the project went on to provide support to implementing partner JSMP in 2017, to undertake research into how courts of Timor-Leste consider community-based resolution in their decision-making process. The research resulted in JSMP’s completion of a Special Report on Courts and Alternative Dispute Resolution (See Annex 12). The report found that in most cases, but not all, the courts use information from community dispute resolution processes for consideration as mitigating circumstances, in accordance with the law. The report made a number of recommendations to inform legal framework reforms concerning public education and training of justice sector actors, to ensure people know their rights and obligations, and understand the implications of resolutions at the community level. All eight recommendations are under consideration.
State of Legal Aid Report
In 2016, project partner JSMP and international technical expert, Megan Hirst, completed Timor Leste’s first State of Legal Aid (SOLA) report (Annex 9.) The report included an analysis of the findings of JSMP’s project-funded monitoring of the quality of legal assistance provided in the courts. JSMP launched the SOLA in February 2017, at a high-level event attended by Public Defender, General Dr. Sergio Hornai, the new President of Lawyers Association (AATL) Dr. Ana Pessoa, and a member of Management and Disciplinary Council for private lawyers, Dr. Manuel Tilman. Key recommendations for improving legal aid in Timor Leste included establishing a comprehensive system to support private legal aid provision, including provision of compulsory training, and establishing and training community-based paralegals to provide basic legal advice to the communities, especially those in the rural villages.
Prominent speakers at the launch, including Dr. Hornai, Dr. Ana Pessoa and Dr. Manuel Tilman, highlighted some of the challenges for legal aid provision. Among other issues, these included the
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limited number of public defenders, the lack of sufficient resources, the need for quality training of trainee lawyers and the importance of developing a Statute for Private Lawyers and establishing a Bar Association to improve professionalism of private lawyers. The project made a number of detailed recommendations in seven key areas to improve legal aid, which are currently under consideration. Reflecting the importance of these issues, the Director of implementing partner JSMP noted they will continue to lobby the new government to consider and implement recommendations contained in project reports, especially the SOLA, once the project is finished. JSMP’s plans for advocacy around the SOLA recommendations are set out in an Advocacy Matrix for SOLA report prepared with support from the project (see Annex 10 for the SOLA Report Advocacy Plan).
Commentary on the draft Law on the Establishment of Bar Association:
The A2J team, the members of the project’s Legal Aid Advocacy Working Group and international technical experts submitted a formal submission to the draft Law on the Establishment of Bar Association to the Timorese National Parliament. The project’s technical engagement culminated in an invitation to present its submission to the Parliament Committee A in April 2017. The project’s submission, building on recommendations in the Access to Justice Brief on Legal Assistance, emphasized the need for the future Timorese Bar Association (TBA) to administer a pro bono legal aid scheme, provide continuing education for private lawyers, and various other issues. Parliament Committee A acknowledged the project’s contribution and said the 31 recommendations contained in the submission “will be taken into account in the initial assessment of the TBA statute”.
The report made a special note about the importance of training for private lawyers together with magistrates to ensure that they all have same basic legal training. JSMP and International Bar Association (IBA) will continue advocate for the 31 recommendations and the passing of the draft law on Bar Association.
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Revisions to the Statute of Public Defenders: The GOTL adopted a new Statute of the Public Defender’s Office in 2017 by passing Decree Law No. 10/2017 on the New Statute of Public Defender. The new statute addresses some of the challenges raised by the project in its reports, specifically the Access to Justice Brief on Legal Assistance and the State of Legal Aid Report, and the findings of other organizations. For example, the new statute more clearly defines economic insufficiency and explores the measures OPD and the court can take to determine a client’s financial capacity. This is a critical improvement as the OPD has been subject to much criticism for representing JSMP Director presenting findings and clients who have sufficient economic and recommendations to MOJ representatives about the financial means, such as former government criminalization of incest on National Legal Aid Advocacy group meeting officials. Article 3 of the new statute requires the OPD to provide legal assistance to victims and defendants, which is needed to harmonize it with the Law Against Domestic Violence. Article 6 of the new statute makes clear that the OPD is responsible for legal protection, legal consultation, legal information and extrajudicial dispute resolutions. The statute also creates a new position of Deputy Public Defender-General to (PDG) to support the PDG on management matters.
Establishment of Legislative Reform and Justice Sector Commission (CRL) to Advance Legislative Review and Reform: In 2015, the GoTL, under the Council of Ministers, established the CRL with mandate, according to Government Resolution No. 30/2015, to identify key issues and challenges in relation to the current national legislative framework and establish methodologies leading to its modernization, simplification, harmonization and implementation. Inaugurated in December 2015, the CRL comprised three permanent members (Dr. Jose M. Ferreira da Graca, Dra. Melisa Caldas, and Dr. Henrique Oliveira) and a non-permanent member (Dr. Jose Guterres). The establishment of the CRL had its origins in the government resolutions passed in 2014 that led to the removal of international experts working in the justice sector. However, its establishment is a step toward a more systemic and systematic approach to legislative review and the planning required to implement agreed reforms, something advocated by the project in numerous publications. To support the CRL, the project provided technical input to the CRL’s research methodologies, participated in CRL briefing sessions, and otherwise met with CRL members to share and discuss the project’s research findings and recommendations for improved access to justice and legal aid. The Commission’s work and products are available in Portuguese, Tetun and English and can be found online here.
Changes to the Use of Official Languages in the Justice Sector. Portuguese, which is spoken by a minority of the population and often not well, has been the dominant language of the legal and justice system, especially the court system. The project’s Access to Justice Brief on Legal Assistance in Timor- Leste described the dominance of Portuguese as, “the greatest impediment to the delivery of justice in the formal justice sector.” The project’s second Access to Justice Functional Assessment of the Oé- Cusse and Baucau District Courts, which was launched in May 2015, described how the use of only Portuguese language in the court records negatively impacts court functionality and public access to courts and court records. (See Annex 13).
In early 2017, the GOTL adopted Decree Law No. 11/2017 on the Use of Official Languages in Justice Sector to promote the full and equal use of both official languages (Tetun and Portuguese) in the areas 38
of law and justice as a means to “promote access to justice, protect citizens’ rights and facilitate availability and access to justice services”. The decree law follows numerous recommendations made by this project and other organizations to remove language barriers. Article 4 of the decree law provides the principle of non-discrimination on the basis of language and requires the use of both official languages for court proceedings, written legislation, ministerial diplomas and orders. Article 9 of the law provides that everyone has the right to use either of the official languages in oral or written communication with a court or judicial. Article 11 says where the language of the process is not the language of the victims or accused persons, the right to interpretation should be ensured. Importantly, Article 12 also provides for the use of both languages in the training and education of judicial actors, reflecting an earlier Decree Law on Activities of Legal and Judicial Training Centre (LJTC) No. 18/2016 which provides for the use of both official languages in all LJTC activities. (See QR. 14 for more details).
A fully functional interpretation service to ensure the smooth administration of and access to justice did not exist during the program period. Proper interpretation services were not routinely provided during court proceedings due to budget, staff and skill shortages. When interpretation was provided, it was often ad hoc, often not provided by qualified and trained translators, and mostly only provided for testimony. Interpretation was not provided to help the victim/accused understand the court proceedings and translation was not provided of judgments or court documents. For the most part, court staff handled the need for Portuguese-Tetun translation as needs arose and with the resources and skills available. The work arounds developed were both time intensive and rarely ensured quality translation.
The new laws on official languages in the justice sector set out the provision of qualified and competent translation and interpretation services for the courts and other judicial bodies and the adoption of bilingual (Portuguese-Tetun) procedures within the public services of justice. Implementation of the new law was not monitored by the A2J team as the law was passed in the final months of the program. Monitoring its implementation would be a good future activity.
The new legislation establishing a proper bilingual legal system (Portuguese and Tetun) will help, but access to justice will continue to be hampered by language challenges. Often the defendant or the accused speak Bahasa Indonesian or his or her regional language. In remote areas of East Timor, even Tetun and Indonesian are not understood and one of as many as 35 different regional languages may be the mother tongue of the defendant or accused. Access to justice and the administration of justice – specifically the interpretation and meaning of law and evidence - will continue to be compounded by these significant language challenges.
Collaboration between the CRL and National Justice Sector NGOs to Support Formal and Informal Justice Research to Inform Reforms. The A2J team advocated for collaboration between CRL and the project’s implementing partners JSMP and Belun and facilitated the CRL’s entry into a Memorandum of Understanding with JSMP and Belun to support formal and informal justice research respectively. The Reform Commission has yet to submit its findings and recommendations.
2. Increase Capacity and Outreach of Legal Aid Organizations and Services
Increase (out)reach of legal aid organization and their services through sub-grants
The key challenge facing all legal aid service providers, especially those based outside of Dili, is financial sustainability. From 2014 to 2017, Mai Munisípiu provided sub grants, combined with 39
technical assistance, to legal aid organizations to ensure legal aid services (including legal assistance to women, girls and other marginalized communities) were available in municipalities outside of Dili, including the Oé-Cusse enclave, despite the considerable logistical challenges. Over the past four years, the project was able to design and competitively award legal aid grants to the following four legal organizations to provide legal information, legal aid consultations, mediation and coordinate monthly legal aid working groups in the municipalities of Baucau, Covalima, Ermera, Liquica and the special region of Oé-Cusse.
Municipality or Region NGO grantee Duration of Grants Baucau Justice and Peace Commission February 2015 – May 2017 Covalima JNJ Advokasia March 2016 – May 2017 Ermera Liberta Consultoria e Advocasia February 2015 – May 2017 Liquica Oé-Cusse Fundasaun Fatuk Sinai Oé-Cusse September 2013 – May 2017
Partners were selected through a competitive grant process, except Fundasaun Fatuk Sinai Oé-Cusse (FFSO) which was selected as an implementing partner from start-up. Non-governmental organizations (NGOs), including legal aid organizations, were invited to apply for grants to deliver legal outreach and/or legal aid assistance to the poor and vulnerable at the suco level, in the 100 sucos across five municipalities/region in which the project was implemented. Grants varied from over US$16,411 per annum to over US$20,000 per annum depending on the area of coverage and length of partnership. Grantee activities were monitored closely by the project team, and the grants were renewed yearly on the basis of performance.
Mai Munisípiu subgrants to legal aid implementing partners enabled the following legal aid services to be provided:
361 people (including 70 women) received free legal aid assistance in Baucau via implementing partner Commissao Justisa e Paz/Justice and Peace Commission (JPC.) These were a combination of criminal and civil cases. Out of the total people who sought JPC’s legal assistance, 72 of their cases were concluded at the end of its partnership with the project, including 14 cases involving female clients. JPC will continue to work with clients whose cases are still awaiting resolution beyond the life of the project. FFSO holding legal information session and mobile 314 people (including 87 women) legal aid clinic received free legal aid assistance in Ermera and Liquica via implementing partner Liberta Advocacia. Out of the total people who brought their cases to Liberta, six of the cases were concluded.
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109 people (including 21 women) received free legal aid assistance in Covalima, via implementing partner JNJ Advocacia. JNJ was able to conclude nine of the total cases and will continue provide assistance to the remaining clients within the limits of its resources.
341 people (including 121 women) received free legal aid assistance in Oé-Cusse via implementing partner Fundacao Fatuk Sinae Oé-Cusse (FFSO). From the total number of people who received legal aid, FFSO was able to resolve 138 cases including 43 cases involving female clients.
Support for Implementation of an Integrated and Coordinated Legal Assistance Model in the Target Municipalities
Recognising the issue of poor resourcing for legal aid organisations, the project undertook a number of activities to support the development of an integrated and coordinated legal assistance model, involving various legal service providers in each municipality. These activities included the creation and support of legal aid working groups at the municipal level to coordinate and strengthen the range of legal assistance services available. Legal aid grantees established Legal Aid Coordination Working Groups in Baucau, Covalima, Ermera, Liquica and Oé-Cusse. The Working Groups were facilitated by each partner in their respective municipalities. The coordination meetings in each targeted area were attended by representatives from various government institutions and CSOs including: the MOJ, OPD, Ombudsman’s Office, Ministry of Social and Solidarity (MSS), Community Police Council (PNTL), Vulnerable Persons Unit (VPU-PNTL), Land and Property Divisions, Church organizations, safe houses, and other CSOs. The idea was to create integrated legal assistance models in the municipalities where we worked. The goal of the coordination groups, which met on a monthly basis, was to build local ownership and capacity to develop, administer and monitor a sustainable network of legal assistance services customized to the conditions in each municipality.
Increase Capacity of Legal Aid and ADR Service Providers and Improve Quality of Services
In coordination with the project’s organizational development team, the A2J team conducted a comprehensive organizational development (OD) capacity needs assessment of the legal aid partners, FFSO, Liberta and JPC, as well as mid-term assessments for FFSO. In response to assessment findings, the organizational development team provided capacity building training and on-the-job support to our legal aid partners in the following six areas: leadership and strategic management, project Lawyer from legal aid partner participates in Case Management training management and quality control, human resources, accounting and financial management, external relations and communications and financial sustainability. A final assessment was completed for each of the partners at the end of the project and each partner was provided with a written summary of their progress as well as areas for continued improvement (see the above Section on Objective One: Local Governance Strengthening for more details.)
Legal aid partners were also provided with ongoing technical assistance to develop important internal policies and processes such as standardised employment contracts, monthly technical support to 41
finance staff on accounting and financial management (see section V on Grants for more detail) and to develop, implement and analyse monitoring and evaluation tools to improve their program quality (see section VII on Monitoring and Evaluation for more detail).
In addition, the Organizational Development Manager facilitated a one-day training for representatives from the four legal aid partners on Human Resources and the Labour Code, using the document A Practical Human Resources and Labour Code Guidelines, developed by Mai Munisípiu. The training gave a general overview of key sections of the Timor-Leste Labour Code and how to apply them, with particular focus on the difference between contractual and permanent staff, the difference between a fixed term and permanent contract, managing employees, employees’ rights, different types of leave entitlements and how they accrue, 13th month salary, dismissal rules and staff severance.
To complement these broad organizational development activities, the A2J team provided targeted training to implementing partners to improve the technical quality of their legal assistance. The project collaborated with the LJTC and engaged an STTA, Alison Ryan, to develop and deliver complementary training to legal assistance service providers on such topics as ADR from the perspective of fair trial and rights protections, quality defense in criminal proceedings and case management. The case management capacity building also included providing each legal aid grantee with a simple case management database tool and supporting them to implement it within their organizations. The ADR training was aimed at ensuring that practicing lawyers are cognizant of rights protection and principles of fair trial when they provide mediation or are invited by the community leaders to partake in community resolution processes.
Achieving sustainability of project activities undertaken by legal aid grantees is a major challenge. The project engaged an international expert to develop materials and work with legal aid providers to address issues of financial sustainability. Adapting Counterpart’s Financial Sustainability Handbook and Proposal Writing Guidelines into simple formats, suited to the context, the project designed financial sustainability tools to be used by FFSO, the Justice and Peace Commission, JNJ and LBH Liberta to guide future fundraising initiatives. These tools were introduced to partners in a two-day practical workshop focusing on addressing gaps in the individual partner organizations’ financial sustainability. Following this workshop, the project team gave three days’ individual mentoring to each the four legal aid partners, to assist them in putting what they had learned into practice.
To provide support to ADR providers, the A2J team also took responsibility for organising one of the Suco Municipal forums in January to February 2017, with the theme ‘Access to Justice’ (refer to Section III Objective One Local Governance Strengthening for more details on Suco Municipal forums.) The focus of this forum was to help suco council members to better understand the formal justice system, the role of suco councils in semi-public and public crimes, their role in civil disputes and their role in relation to community dispute resolution and formal justice provision under Law No. 9/2016. During this forum, newly-elected suco council members were given briefings from the PNTL, the PNTL’s Vulnerable Person’s Unit (VPU), judges, prosecutors, public defenders, legal aid lawyers, representatives of safe houses, the MOJ’s Land and Property department and the Office of Ombudsman for Human Rights and Justice (PDHJ), about the services they offer to help people access justice. During the second day of this Forum, suco council participants were also taken on “go and see” visits to subnational service provider's locations, including the police and the relevant Municipal court, to increase council members’ understanding of where to send their community members to access assistance. This forum and “go and see” visits were very well-received by participants, most of whom had very limited interaction with these formal justice providers.
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3. Support the creation and dissemination of legal information
One of the key impediments to access to justice in Timor Leste is lack of legal awareness among citizens of their rights and duties and where to seek assistance and remedies when their rights are violated. Increased community legal awareness through legal information and outreach activities was a critical component of the project. The creation and dissemination of legal information was delivered by the same five implementing partners who provided legal aid services: Justice & Peace Commission (Baucau), JNJ Advokasia (Covalima), Liberta Consultoria e Advocasia (Ermera & Liquica) and Fundasaun Fatuk Sinai Oé-Cusse (Oé-Cusse).
The National Legal Information Working Group comprising the grantee legal aid partners as well as JSMP, Timorese Lawyers Association (AATL), Legal Aid for Women and Children (ALFeLa), Educacao Communidade Matebian (ECM), MAG Lawyers Associates and Jursita Lawyers met over a facilitated two-day workshop to discuss delivery of legal information, particularly to marginalized populations, women and girls. Following this consultation, Working Group members conducted community consultations and decided to develop legal information materials on six topics relevant to the laws that the earlier MOJ legal socialization efforts had focused on, including the Law Against Domestic Violence and the Land and Property Law. Mai Munisípiu’s Legal Aid Specialist then went on to create a training module for project partners that provided a basic format for the delivery of legal outreach sessions on a range of topics: land and property; alimony and maintenance; Law Against Domestic Violence; civil vs criminal cases; actors in the justice system and the Timor-Leste Penal Code. The training modules included Group discussion on legal outreach session in Covalima illustrations to assist participants with low literacy and suggested participatory methods for engaging groups in delivering legal education and outreach at the community level.
Using these training modules, Mai Munisípiu implementing partners delivered legal outreach sessions at the suco level, to engage with remote communities to strengthen the public’s understanding of key laws and how to access and use the formal justice system to resolve legal disputes. To ensure that women attended and actively participated in the outreach activities, the implementing partners organized special outreach activities targeting mostly women, held women-only sessions focused on similar challenges women face and various facilitation techniques such as games, quizzes, group discussions were used to engage them. Mai Munisípiu’s Access to Justice and Monitoring and Evaluation teams conducted regular site visits to monitor the legal aid partners’ facilitation of targeted legal education sessions in the community. These visits formed the basis for further training and coaching by the Legal Aid Specialist as required, to ensure that the legal aid organizations were continuously improving the quality of their legal outreach delivery.
To reinforce these sessions, the project facilitated the further dissemination of legal information through radio PSAs with Community Radio Lian Matebian in Baucau, Cova Taroman in Covalima, Café Ermera in Ermera, Tokede community radio in Liquica and Radio Atoni in Oé-Cusse. The PSAs focused on the role of judicial actors; rights to alimony and maintenance for spouse and children; alternative 43
resolution for cases; key aspects of the civil and penal codes; the law against domestic violence; and women’s right to property. PSAs were broadcast over community radio 6,369 times throughout the life of the project. In addition to radio PSAs, an international communications expert trained legal aid grantees on how to effectively use social media in disseminating important legal information.
To ensure important discussions held with the national Legal Information Working Group were not lost, the project compiled discussions that were held over the life of the project as a single publication: The Legal Information and Advocacy Guidebook in July 2017. The Guidebook was completed, professionally printed and distributed to each member organization in Tetun. The Guidebook describes a range of activities from community-level legal familiarization and outreach about basic rights and laws, to Lawyer from legal aid partner Liberta holding a legal outreach training of village councils and community session outdoor in suco Loidahar, Liquica leaders on the plural justice system and their roles and responsibilities in community-based dispute resolution, to capacity building with municipal court and ministry-level officials to improve public information and outreach. The Guidebook shares lessons learned and also contains examples of different methods and materials used by the project in its legal outreach activities. (See Annex 13)
4. Strengthen district court and justice sector institutions
The project implemented activities to increase access to formal justice by: 1) strengthening functionality of the Oé-Cusse and Baucau District Courts through implementation of training and capacity building activities agreed in an MOU with the Court of Appeal at project start and subsequent program action plans (PACTs) to achieve court functionality improvements; 2) building capacity at the LJTC through joint development and delivery of training for legal assistance service providers in such areas as case management; 3) identifying training needs and advocating in-service training for court and other justice sector staff through the LJTC; and 4) supporting the MOJ’s National Directorate of Human Rights and Citizenship (DNDHC) to research the effectiveness of its legal education activities.
The project’s work to strengthen district courts and increase the capacity of judicial actors utilised Tetra Tech DPKs “PACT” methodology. During Year One, Mai Munisípiu entered into an MOU with the Court of Appeal which introduced the PACT process and established a working group or committee to collaborate with Mai Munisípiu ’s Access to Justice team and international experts.
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Immediately after the signing of the MOU, the project deployed international court administration expert, Barry Walsh, to work with the A2J team to undertake an assessment of court functionality in the Baucau and Oé-Cusse courts. Field research included an assessment of staff training needs and desk research that took into account previous training received under GOTL, USAID and/or other donor programs. Following the completion of the assessment in May 2015, an Access to Justice Brief: Functional Assessment of The Honorable Judge, Dr. Afonso Carmona leads group discussion on judge training the Oé-Cusse & Baucau District Courts was completed and launched at a high-level event held at the Court of Appeal. Judge administrators from pilot courts, other judges, representatives from the USAID, the USA Embassy in Timor-Leste, the MOJ and other government institution where present at the launch. Court of Appeal President, Hon. Judge Guilhermino da Silva, responded positively to the findings and recommendations and indicated his willingness to support some of the recommendations for improved court functionality. See Annex 12 for the Access to Justice Brief and full set of recommendations.
In Year Two, Mai Munisípiu worked with the Court of Appeal Committee to agree on pilot activities to be implemented with project support in the Baucau and Oé-Cusse courts. The Committee worked with the A2J Manager to first develop an action plan for improved collection and reporting of court statistics to inform case and court management. The functional assessment conducted by Mr. Walsh found that caseload statistics were not routinely reported by the Court of Appeal and that the only official figures collected by the judicial secretaries in Oé-Cusse and Baucau were on newly opened cases, closed cases and pending cases at the end of the month. No statistical information was being collected on the age of cases, i.e. the time taken from the date the case is initially registered to the date it is finalised and closed after a court determination. Because information about the age of cases is not collected, it was hard to determine if there were any case delay problems, and no data was being collected on the causes of delay. Mr. Walsh worked to sensitize the Court of Appeal and Baucau and Oé-Cusse courts on the importance of being able to collect useful statistics on case management and delay reduction. Mr. Walsh’s report made an initial set of recommendations to adjust existing data collection methods and reports to produce management information needed to improve court functionality and the public’s perception of it.
Following on from this work, the project deployed court administration technical expert, Mr. Rick Callanan, to work with the Court of Appeal Court Statistics Working Group and established PACT focal points for each district court. Among others, these activities included adopting new data requirements & SOPs, improving staff record-keeping and implementing regular case management statistical reporting to better inform court management.
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In Year Three, the project worked with the Court of Appeal Committee to agree a second set of PACT activities to improve the availability of public information and access to the courts. Judicial Secretaries of Baucau and Oé-Cusse District courts were appointed as PACT focal points to facilitate and support the implementation of PACT activities. The A2J team and international judges and court administration experts provided formal and on-the- job training and mentoring to advance the agreed performance The project provides training to the judicial officers from all improvements in the Oé-Cusse and District Courts and the Court of Appeal on improved court Baucau courts. Most of the statistics reporting improved court access PACTs tools such as suggestion boxes, court benches, stand-up boards, noticeboards, and courtroom signage were produced in the final quarter of Year Three. The project also completed the production of court complex maps and worked with the pilot courts to install signage, maps and notice boards and develop guidance for their use and maintenance. The project then worked with the courts to publicize the court access and information improvements with handover events at each individual court.
High-level formal training on court administration, management and leadership was delivered by Judge Harlan Grossman from the United States in September 2015, with opening remarks provided by the then Vice President of the Court of Appeal Hon. Judge Deolindo dos Santos and Director of the Office of General Development at USAID, Lisa Whitley. Additionally, in the final year, a second court administration expert was deployed to conduct training with judicial officers on the SOPs developed and to again train judges on the importance of improved court statistics to case management and overall court administration, especially resource needs and resource allocation.
At the conclusion of the project, all of the above PACT activities were completed. In May 2017, Mai Munisípiu concluded its collaboration with the Court of Appeal in a series of high-level events including workshops held at each pilot court to thank the judicial officers and the management team for their collaboration and the importance of continuing to build on the initiatives. A management workshop was also held at the Court of Appeal where the project reported on work completed for all agreed PACTs and encouraged the Court of Appeal to continue to take leadership in ensuring that initiatives launched are well maintained, and where possible simulated in other district courts. This series of 46
concluding workshops and discussions culminated in a high-level closing event with the new president of the Court of the Court of Appeal, Hon. Judge Deolindo dos Santos, and the USAID Mission Director, Dr. Diana Putman, as keynote speakers. Expressing his gratitude to the project for such a positive collaboration and support, Hon. Judge dos Santos said that he expects both pilot courts to continue to submit rich statistical reports using templates and guidance the project helped develop and stated that he will convene the judge administrators from Baucau and Oé-Cusse to discuss ways to initiate similar activities in other district courts. Dr. Putman of USAID thanked the Court of Appeal President, Pilot Court Administrators and all their personnel for willingness to work with USAID Mai Munisípiu.
Additional Functionality Improvements in the Oé-Cusse Court The Oé-Cusse court’s caseload is made up of a high percentage of domestic violence cases. The project signed a sub agreement with implementing partner JSMP from March 2014 until end of June 2017 to conduct daily monitoring of Oé-Cusse court. JSMP monitored 542 criminal cases in the Oé-Cusse court of which 274 were cases involving domestic, sexual, or gender-based violence. Out of the total cases monitored, the Oé-Cusse court concluded 311 cases including 153 cases of domestic, sexual and gender-based violence. A thematic report was produced by JSMP in November 2015 entitled Application of Alternative Sentencing in Domestic Violence Cases in Oé-Cusse, the first thematic report to ever be produced exclusively on the Oé-Cusse court. The report found an overwhelming use of suspended sentences and fines in domestic violence cases and made a number of recommendations that were subsequently acted upon by the Oé-Cusse court (see JSMP press release http://jsmp.tl/en/12417-2/).
The report was well received by various stakeholders, including DFAT Nabilan program addressing violence against women, who now plans to work with the Courts in developing sentencing guidelines in domestic violence cases. As a result of guidance and training provided to judicial actors, the project noted a significant drop in the use of fines (and suspended sentences) in DV decisions in the Oé-Cusse court. When monitoring began in 2014, the percentage of DV cases resulting in fines was approximately 40%. This compares to 2016 statistics, in which only about seven out of 82 decisions in DV cases (8%) were fines. JSMP press releases also noted greater consideration by the Court of additional or auxiliary orders when substituting prison sentences with a suspended sentence or fine.
Targeted Assistance to Other Justice Sector Institutions
The project’s ability to provide assistance to the MOJ, LJTC and other justice sector institutions faced a number of serious challenges detailed in Section VI below. Despite these challenges, the project was most successful in two areas: 1) building LJTC capacity through joint development of new training for trainee lawyers and complementary training for legal assistance providers; and 2) supporting an MoJ research project to evaluate the effectiveness of legal information and outreach sessions that had been held in 32 administrative posts in 10 municipalities between 2010 and 2014. 47
Capacity building activities with the LJTC focused on demonstrating modern teaching methods and developing more skill-based training programs for trainee lawyers. At the request of the LJTC, the project provided the technical assistance of international expert, Alison Ryan, and senior Timorese lawyer, Dr. Jose Pedro Camoes, to adapt the project’s case management training for delivery as a permanent part of the trainee lawyer curriculum at the LJTC. A Practical Case Management Training manual was completed in Tetum, Portuguese and English in July 2016. The module was co-taught by Ms. Ryan and Dr. Camoes and the national trainer was able to lead and facilitate the two case management refresher training sessions held at the LJTC in Year Three. LJTC Director, Mrs. Marcelina Tilman, now advocates the inclusion of case management in training for all future private lawyers.
Support for MoJ research project. The project provided the expertise of international student interns from the US and Australia to help design the research methodology and tools, and train MOJ staff in their use. The project then supported the MOJ to analyze the findings and draft a report, which is still forthcoming.
ACHIEVED RESULTS
Objective 3: Strengthened local justice sector institutions which increase access to formal and informal justice for marginalized citizens and the poor
Increased citizen access to quality formal and informal justice in pilot municipalities as a result of improved human and institutional capacity and outreach of targeted municipal courts, legal aid, ADR and legal information providers
o Four national nongovernmental organizations received grants and technical assistance to deliver legal assistance in the project’s target municipalities and Oé-Cusse. 1,127 people, including 299 women, residing in the target municipalities received free legal assistance from the projects four legal aid implementing partners. A total of 229 cases were solved by the partners throughout the project, including 58 cases involving female clients.
o 361 staff members from legal aid and ADR service providers, including 134 women, benefited from the project’s training and capacity building activities to strengthen the quality of legal aid and ADR services in the municipalities. A 46% knowledge increase was observed for 333 participants who completed both the pre- and post-tests during these training activities
o Four legal aid organizations participated in organizational development assessments and received capacity building support, including to effectively, accountably and transparently raising and managing funding. The average increase in capacity of legal aid partners by the
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end of the project was 34%. Partners’ financial sustainability capacity saw significant improvement, with an average 72% increase. o Three of the four legal aid grantees have received funding to continue activities beyond the project. The other has submitted a proposal and is waiting to hear if they have been successful. o 18 lawyers from legal aid organizations and private practice, including nine women, completed training on Practical Case Management in July 2015. An average knowledge increase of 55.7% was observed amongst the 14 participants who completed both the pre- and post-tests. Case management systems were established at each legal aid partner (except JNJ which had its own case management system). o 12 legal aid and other private lawyers, including four women, completed training on Alternative Dispute Resolution based on the recommendations from the Access to Justice Brief on Community Dispute Resolution – a Legal and Human Rights Analysis. A percentage knowledge increase of 28.4% was noted from the nine participants who completed both the pre- and post-tests. o 25 accredited and practicing private lawyers, including nine women, completed training on quality defense in criminal proceedings. A total of 9.4 % knowledge increase was observed from the 21 participants who completed both the pre- and post-tests. o 17 staff, including six women, from Belun, JSMP and the project completed training of trainers on Access to Justice and Women’s Rights. A knowledge increase of 46.9 % was observed amongst 16 participants who completed both the pre- and post-tests. o A total of 8,489 received legal information at over 200 project-supported information sessions. This total includes 3,700 women, 2,005 youth aged 30 or under, and 955 female youth. Information session complemented by project-developed PSAs broadcast over community radio 6,369 times. o 240 suco council members completed training on Access to Justice and Women’s rights. A percentage knowledge increase of 64 % was observed at the end of the training for 254 participants who completed both the pre- and post-tests. o 233 suco council members completed training on conflict resolution. From October to December 2015 a second round of training was provided to Suco Council members on conflict resolution – specifically, providing clarity on the types of conflict that can be dealt with at the community level, and techniques for doing this. o Monthly court statistic reports produced that include postponement rates and reasons for postponements; age of pending case report that provides information on the number, age and type of cases pending longer than acceptable time goals (backlog); and calendar clearance statistics to help in analysis of individual court and overall caseload trends and dispositional productivity. o Court signage, compound maps, suggestion boxes, additional benches, whiteboards, and stand-up notice boards installed at each pilot court. Court users report improved ability to access the areas of the courts they needed and to find information on schedules for hearings, postponements and information about court recesses. Manuals and Standard Operating 49
procedures (SOPs) developed and handed over to ensure the ongoing production of improved statistical reports and maintenance of the Bulletin Boards.
A more effective and sustainable legal aid assistance model, primarily as a result of advocacy, improvements to enabling legislation, evidence-based planning, and municipal-level coordination among governmental and nongovernmental actors
o Regular meeting, dialogues, workshops and other advocacy events aimed at increasing input into, and advancing development of an integrated and sustainable legal aid model in Timor- Leste
o Project-funded and supported research resulted in publication and dissemination of six major publications (Three Access to Justice Briefs on Legal Assistance, Court Functionality and Community Dispute Resolution; a State of Legal Aid Report, a Special Report on Courts and Alternative Dispute Resolution, and a Public Information and Advocacy Guidebook) that recommended improvements to the enabling legislation, including establishing extrajudicial mechanisms for dispute resolution and recognizing customary justice mechanisms and creating linkages to formal justice sector and other state institutions.
o Over the past four years, the project has submitted a total 90 recommendations for improvement to draft law or policies related to the legal aid framework, with a total 75 still under consideration as the policy development process continues, 13 accepted (some with minor changes) and only 2 rejected.
o Ongoing monitoring of the quality of legal representation in the courtroom conducted by JSMP established evidence base for planning and policy development; findings and recommendations disseminated through press releases and project funded reports.
o A combined total of 59 Legal Aid Coordination Working Group meetings provided municipal- level dialogue and coordination among nongovernmental and governmental justice sector actors in the target districts. Meetings were attended by 545 people from member organizations, including 218 women. Implementing partners particularly FFSO in Oé-Cusse and JPC in Baucau have committed to continue hosting Legal Aid Coordination Working Group meetings to promote information sharing and better coordinate legal services among the organizations involved.
Increased willingness and capacity of justice sector organizations to respond to training and professional development needs of their personnel
o National counterparts endorsed project recommendations to develop continuing education for all key justice sector actors; the LJTC’s mandate was strengthened in 2016 to include provision of in-service training to a wider range of justice sector professionals.
o Co-development of Practical Case Management training module with LJTC contributed to pool of national trainers at the LJTC and improved the law school curriculum. LJTC Director, Mrs. Marcelina Tilman, has indicated she will continue using the module and the expert trained as a national trainer.
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o 24 judges, including nine female judges, completed training in 2015 on court administration, management and leadership. A knowledge increase of 128% was observed among the 23 judges who completed both the pre- and post-tests.
o 23 judges, including nine female judges, completed high-level formal training on court administration, management and leadership in 2017. A knowledge increase of 128% was observed among the 23 judges who completed both the pre- and post-tests.
o 22 judicial officers from all district courts including the Court of Appeal completed judicial statistics improvement training to improve case management. The project observed an average increase knowledge percentage of 101.8% amongst the 18 people who completed bot pre- and post-tests.
o 16 judicial officers, including four women, from all district courts also completed Advance Excel training to enable the collection of judicial statistics needed to improve case management. An average knowledge increase of 464.3% was observed amongst the 14 judicial officers who completed both pre- and post-tests.
o 25 trainee private lawyers, including 6 women, received Practical Case Management Training, at the request of the LJTC. Knowledge increase, observed from 19 participants who completed both the pre- and post- tests, was 91.4%.
o 30 MOJ staff, including 11 women, received training in quantitative and qualitative research methodologies and attended workshops to support analysis of data collected by the MOJ.
o A total of 184 elected leaders, including 86 women, participated in Justice Sector Familiarization Tours/ Go and See visits to meet different justice officials and to better understand the formal justice system.
o In coordination with Component A (Objective 1), 184 suco council members, including 86 women, participated in a Suco Municipal Forum focused on access to justice to build their understanding of their roles and responsibilities under the formal justice system and how it relates to their mandate vis-à-vis community dispute resolution.
Objective 4: Strengthened capacity of Government of Timor-Leste (GOTL), in particular its Electoral Management Bodies to hold fair, transparent, inclusive local elections and facilitate voter engagement
In early 2015, and with the agreement of The Minister of State Coordinator for the Affairs of the State Administration and Justice and the Minister for State Administration, USAID awarded an Election add- on component to the Mai Munisípiu project. This new component sought to build the capacity of Government of Timor-Leste (GOTL), in particular its Electoral Management Bodies (EMBs), to hold fair, transparent, inclusive local (suco) elections and facilitate voter engagement in preparation for the suco election. To do this, the project strategically implemented activities in the following areas: 1) strengthening voter education through the Technical Secretariat for Electoral Administration (STAE); 2) connecting political parties to their constituents; and 3) civic education and inclusive participation, particularly through support to the National Election Commission (CNE) and through CSOs working with women, youth and people with disability.
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1. Strengthening Voter Education Through STAE (Technical Secretariat for Electoral Administration)
With the passing of Suco Law 9/2016, which changed the electoral process from government-run to community-run, it was vital that a comprehensive civic education program be implemented to help community members to understand and run the elections. This was particularly challenging as there was only a short window between when the Suco Law that was passed in early July 2016, and when elections were scheduled in September 2016, and then re-schedule for October 2016.
Through a joint recruitment process, STAE and Mai Munisípiu hired a communications specialist and a training specialist from March to September 2016 to work with STAE staff in strengthening their voter education outreach activities, including media & external communications, production of a voter education manual which became the basis for a Government Decree, and production of various civic education materials. In addition, the project hired five municipal electoral coordinators to implement activities and support grantees at the municipal, administrative post, and suco level. Following detailed communications/marketing needs assessments, the two specialists gave a series of focused trainings which included on-the-job training for writing press releases, Facebook updates, taking photos and digital voice recordings, radio program production, writing and producing the ‘Wall’ magazine and various training-of-trainers’ packages to train election staff in providing civic education to voters and in running elections.
Enhancing Media Presence
The communication specialist developed media and Facebook protocols for STAE, and supported staff in ensuring consistent external communications, increasing the number of page likes from 1,500 to 2,100 in the lead up to suco elections. She also worked with STAE to produce a communications strategy for the suco elections, outlining stakeholder management, outcomes, objectives, target audiences, messages and communication channels. This strategy also served as a work plan over the electoral period, outlining key messages and templates for news, press releases, Facebook blurbs and brochures.
In addition, the communications specialist worked to enhance STAE’s presence in different media outlets, coordinating three talk shows on national TV and four one-hour talk shows on national and government radio. She also led the production of a one-hour documentary film about STAE’s experience in implementing previous general and suco elections, as well as their perspective on the upcoming suco elections and national elections. The movie was broadcast twice on TVTL in the primetime hours just prior to the elections. Through these channels, STAE was able to give vital information on the new electoral process, understanding how second-round elections should be implemented, strategies to increase women’s participation, and various other issues. The communications specialist also organized a press conference at STAE just prior to the suco election, in which the Director General explained how STAE was preparing for the elections, and reinforced information on RTTL Live Transmission on Suco Election Day, by how to present candidacy for suco chief. The Vice Minister of State Administration, Mr. Tomás do Rosário Cabral conference resulted in broad media coverage 52
across print media, television (RTTL, STL TV and TVE), radio and online media. Finally, on election day, October 29, the communications specialist, in close collaboration with the National Radio Timor-Leste (RTL) and STAE, coordinated an update on the process of elections across the nation through national live broadcast for six hours.
Voter Education Manual
To prepare for the suco elections, the training specialist collaborated with STAE to produce a civic, voter and election education manual over the period of April – June 2016, based on the draft Suco Law which was still under discussion. Following the promulgation of the Suco Law, the Training Specialist worked with the Chief of Department for Training at STAE, to adapt the manual to the law and describe the election process in detail. This manual went through an extensive drafting process, with the tenth draft submitted by STAE to the Council of Ministers. A Government Decree was then produced based on this manual, providing the legal mandate for the suco election process. 5,000 copies of the manual were distributed by STAE to all aldeias, sucos, administrative posts and municipal administrations, including RAEOA, to help people prepare for the elections.
Civic Education
The project supported LUMA Production and STAE in producing a short 12-minute voter education film. The film script was initially developed by STAE and LUMA with a general democratic theme given the lack of information about the promulgation of the new Suco Law and date of elections. The film script was frequently revisited and adapted to include more specific information about the elections as it unveiled. The project, LUMA and STAE developed scripts for three educational videos based on the new law about: a) elections process, b) presenting a candidate and c) competencies of the Suco Council. The movies were produced in Tetum and Baikeno, the local language of Oé-Cusse, with English subtitles and were each broadcast nationally on RTTL 10 times during prime time.
In addition, the project and STAE produced two posters explaining: a) criteria for presenting candidacy; and b) composition of the Suco Former Suco Chiefs from Ermera receiving their suco’s Council, which were distributed in the five target package of voter and civic education information from municipalities and regions. This was STAE and CNE. The package was produced by mai munisípiu complemented with a one-minute television public service announcement (PSA), with sign language, to promote the elections and requirements for voting, which was broadcast 100 times in October. This was followed by a second PSA for the second- round elections.
The project also produced monthly radio programs on RTL and community radio in Baucau, Covalima, Ermera, Liquica and Oé-Cusse, with 30 minutes of national news and 30 minutes of local context, three times each month leading up to elections. Issues discussed included elections, decentralization and local leadership.
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2. Connecting Political Parties (Suco Councils) to Their Constituents
In order to develop better outreach activities for young people, the project engaged community engagement agency, Bridging Peoples, to conduct research to investigate young people’s attitudes and understanding of political participation. Because these elections marked the first time that young people born after the 1999 popular referendum would have the right to vote, the research targeted youth who had never voted, but had just come of voting age. The report entitled New Voices: The Engagement of Young Timorese in the Political Process (Annex 10) was launched at CNE, which was attended by 66 participants, including the President of CNE, representatives of USAID, US government representatives, Australian government representatives, political parties’ youth representatives, youth organizations, national and international NGOs and national media. The report highlighted a number of concerns and issues raised by the young people, including the issue of electoral bribery, their disenchantment with many leaders who do not engage with community and ‘forget’ electoral promises and their hopes and dreams for the future. The report also received attention of Prime Minister, Dr. Rui Araujo, who shared some of the findings on his personal Facebook page.
The project also supported CNE in hosting two talk shows on the suco elections and the status of the Suco Law, which were each broadcast twice during the morning and the evening. The first was held in June 2016, and the second in September, 2016. The talk show was hosted by Counterpart’s communications specialist to CNE and former journalist, Ms. Eugenia de Souza Ribeiro, with selected expert panellists. Audience members then participated in a Q&A session at the end of the talk show. CNE television talk show was recorded at the studios of the national TV broadcaster RTTL The first talk show focused on issues around inclusive participation, and the second on logistical issues and the police’s plans for maintaining security. During the second talk show, CNE also formally announced a change of dates for election, moving it from September to October 2016.
As a way of disseminating information about the new Suco Law 9/2016 and the electoral process, the project awarded 100 small grants to suco chiefs to run Suco Town Hall Meetings with community members. The grant covered travel costs to bring all aldeia chiefs to the meetings, thereby enabling them to pass on the correct information to their aldiea community members. In most cases, STAE and CNE municipal focal points facilitated the meetings, which were attended by suco council members, aldeia chiefs, potential candidates and community members, as follows:
Suco Town Hall Meetings Implemented Overall No. Suco Town Hall Municipality Male Female Total Meetings Baucau 20 734 347 1081 Covalima 18 615 255 870 Ermera 21 867 311 1178
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Liquica 23 939 403 1342 Oé-Cusse 18 925 270 1195 Total 100 4080 1586 5666
IV. Civic Education & Inclusive Participation
To enhance civic education and inclusive participation, the project focused on creating links between STAE and CNE and the civil society organisations that advocate for women, youth and people with disabilities. The project also gave direct support to its implementing partners to help them understand key features of the Suco Law 9/2016, and to advocate on their constituents’ behalf. In coordination with the Decentralization team (Component B), the project conducted workshops to analyze the Suco Law 9/2016 from a gender perspective (with the 100% Hau Pronto steering committee) and from the perspective of people with disabilities (through the member groups of Association of People with Disability – ADTL) (see the above Section on Objective Two for more details.) Following these workshops, the project finalized its research Barriers to Political Participation and shared these findings with partners to inform their messaging in encouraging traditionally marginalized groups to vote in the suco elections.
In addition, the project awarded a series of grants to assist partners in their outreach activities, as follows:
Women’s participation. Grants totalling $38,600 to encourage women’s participation in the electoral process. Activities included a series of national stakeholder meetings coordinated by Fundacao Patria and Caucus, and which were attended by women’s NGOs, electoral management bodies, political parties and other bodies involved in the suco elections. Caucus also produced six public service announcements (three television and three radio) with the following themes: a) vote for women to make a change; b) women’s participation decides development, and c) what is your big dream. These PSAs were broadcast on television 100 times each in the lead-up to the elections. The project also engaged a national NGO, Ba Futura, to produce a short film for national broadcast, discussing the barriers for women and encouraging them to participate in the suco elections.
Youth participation. The project collaborated with CNJTL, who organized five national youth participation coordination meetings with electoral management bodies and youth stakeholders to identify and develop youth participation strategies in the suco elections, and address identified barriers to participation. With the support of the project’s electoral coordinators, CNJTL also organised a program Koalia ho Komunidade, coordinating seven radio listening groups at youth centers in the five target municipalities and regions, to gather young people to listen to and discuss their ideas. CNJTL also organized a song competition for young people to write an original song about the elections, with prizes awarded for the best three songs in each municipality and region.
People with disabilities. The project granted $25,000 to Ra’es Hadomi Timor Oan (RHTO) to promote the civic engagement and inclusion of people with disabilities. RHTO held four national coordination meetings prior to elections, and developed a series of recommendations to improve the accessibility of polling stations, which were presented to STAE and CNE to assist them with their preparations. RHTO also produced three radio PSAs and three television PSAs, with sign language, to encourage people with disabilities, and to instill the idea that democratic elections must include all citizens, including people with disabilities.
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The total number of films, videos, debates, radio programs, and PSAs to support voter and civic education were broadcast with project support as follows:
Number of broadcasts of films, videos, debates, radio programs, PSAs, to support civic education
BROADCAST TOTAL NUMBER
Video STAE 131 Video CNE 5 Video Ba Futuru 8 PSA Women Radio 100 PSA Women TV 100 PSA Youth Radio 40 PSA Youth TV 40 PSA PWD Radio 124 PSA PWD TV 118 Radio Magazine 123 Radio Local Program 102 Talkshow 4 Total 895
To further encourage women and young people to participate, local theatre advocacy group, Rebenta, was also supported to develop and perform two shows: one to promote women’s participation, and another to promote youth participation. 61 shows were performed in 24 administrative posts in Baucau, Covalima, Ermera, Liquica and Oé-Cusse with a total 9,124 attendees. This was a particularly effective medium for encouraging a better understanding amongst audience members: based on pre- and post-tests, there was an average 63.1% increase in knowledge amongst Rebenta Show at Liquiça - to promote youth and women audience members, and an women participation in elections average 41.5% increase in knowledge amongst youth audience members.
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ACHIEVED RESULTS
Outcome 1: Increase in voter participation among marginalized groups as demonstrated through our midterm assessment.
Despite a short lead-up between the promulgation of Suco Law 9/2016 and the suco elections, the project was very successful in supporting STAE, CNE, MSA and civil society in rolling out a comprehensive and inclusive multi-media civic education campaign. This cross-sector campaign reached an estimated 63% of the entire population through radio and 58% through television and helped to secure around 70% participation rate in the suco elections.
In addition, many young people who have just reached their voting age participated in the project’s youth engagement activities. 351 participants, including 135 females, took part in the radio listening groups to learn about the elections, and there were lively discussions of issues pertaining to the elections process and youth participation. Representatives from different youth organizations and movements actively participated in coordination meetings with electoral bodies to discuss topics related to the suco elections and youth engagement.
An effective tool that enhanced the knowledge and understanding of youth and women was Rebenta’s theatre performance (attended by 9,124 participants), as shown in the table below.
% Cumulative Increase of Rebenta's Theater Performance in Four municipals and Oé-Cusse Special Region
Increase in percentage (%) all Increase in percentage (%) all participants' knowledge and participants' knowledge and understanding on Women participation understanding on Youth participation on on Suco Election Suco Election Municipality
Pre- Post- Pre- Post- Total % Total % Test's Test's Test's Test's Participants Increased Participants Increased Score Score Score Score
Baucau 35 19 134 605.3% 40 23 161 600.0%
Covalima 20 69 67 -2.9% 30 120 121 0.8%
Ermera 30 64 78 21.9% 49 146 161 10.3%
Liquica 26 12 18 50.0% 20 13 18 38.5%
Oecuse 20 50 52 4.0% 37 105 115 9.5%
Total 131 214 349 63.1% 176 407 576 41.5%
The suco elections witnessed a significant increase in the number of women in leadership when compared to previous elections. 321 females presented candidacy for Suco Chief across the 442 sucos in Timor-Leste, and 21 were elected, as opposed to 11 in the 2009 elections. Out of the 2,225 aldeias, 57
42 women were elected Aldeia Chief, compared to only two in 2009. These results suggest that women’s participation in the electoral process as leaders and voters can be increased when a quota is combined with ongoing leadership training and public outreach through mass media to encourage women’s participation.
People with disabilities also participated in the electoral process, including receiving information and voting. Four national coordination meetings were attended by 86 participants (35 women) and a national roundtable meeting was attended by 25 people (eight women) to discuss ways through which people with disabilities can be more involved in the elections process. Based on discussions, recommendations were put forward to enhance the accessibility of polling stations and dissemination of information to people with disabilities. Monitoring visits revealed that 39% of observed voters with disabilities were women.
V. Gender and other Cross-Cutting Themes
Through a variety of measures, the project demonstrated its commitment to the inclusion of traditionally marginalized groups through its various components, and has employed innovative tools to reach out to and engage these groups.
Before designing its activities, the project conducted a survey in Baucau, Covalima and Oé-Cusse- Ambeno, to hear community members’ perspectives. Key findings included that women were generally less satisfied than men with community-level systems for dispute resolution and that local leaders needed to be more responsive to community concerns, which were then used to inform program development.
To encourage the active participation of traditionally marginalized groups, various participatory techniques were used to communicate and engage with each of the groups, including games, quizzes, visual training materials for those who are not literate, sign language for those with hearing difficulties, women-only sessions, films and theatre and other techniques. Coordination meetings organized to discuss issues related to the traditionally marginalized groups were participative in nature, allowing representatives and community members to voice their concerns and put forward recommendations for better engagement.
LOCAL GOVERNANCE STRENGHENING (Component A)
The project has been consistent in targeting women, youth and people with disability in all project activities, suco training modules, training facilitation approaches and methodologies, and data on their participation has been collected via monitoring and evaluation. At the beginning of the project, and with support from the Gender Specialist and Organizational Development Specialist of Counterpart Headquarters, the project ensured that suco selection criteria included a high commitment of the suco chief in involving women and youth representatives in project activities. The project targeted the suco chief, women and youth representatives for participation in suco training, suco-municipal forum, suco exchange visits and suco expo.
In suco training modules, there was always one chapter which included suco council roles and responsibilities to promote gender equality, women and the participation of people with disability in suco development processes. These trainings highlighted relevant provisions in the RDTL Constitution, 58
CEDAW and Suco Law. Project staff also gave support to implementing partner Belun and ensured their facilitators had the capacity to encourage women to actively participate in the training and other activities. The project collected M&E data to measure success rates in supporting the participation of women, youth and people with disabilities. This included counting the number of women, young people and people with disabilities who attended the training or program, and also conducting a post- program evaluation to assess the facilitator’s skill in encouraging women, youth and people with disabilities to actively participate. Finally, the increase of women’s knowledge following trainings was measured via the use of pre- and post-tests.
Suco-municipal forums were facilitated to ensure that concerns presented by suco councils to line ministries were also analyzed by gender perspective, considering the particular needs of women, youth, children and people with disabilities for better public service delivery. One round of forums solely focused on ‘Women’s Participation in Politics’ to discuss successful policies and strategies to increase women’s participation in politics and in suco activities. The project also encouraged women participants to participate in public speaking skills practice as follow-up to the training on Leadership and Communication, by formally presenting their concerns during a suco-municipal forum.
As a result of such activities, Mai Munisípiu Municipal Coordinators observed that suco councils had become more motivated to include women, people with disabilities and the elderly in project planning and implementation.
DECENTRALISATION (Component B)
Component B activities have taken a combined approach in promoting more inclusive practices for traditionally marginalised groups, including women, youth and people with disabilities. At the technical level, all draft laws and policies that were analysed took into account the particular needs of women, youth and people with disabilities, resulting in a series of practical recommendations to advance the interests of these groups as new laws on suco and municipal-level governance continue to be rolled out.
In addition, subgrants under this component were awarded to civil society partners that worked with, and advocated for, women, youth and people with disabilities organizations. These included women’s network 100% Hau Pronto, Women’s Caucus, RHTO (representing people with disabilities), and CNJTL (representing youth.) Through a combination of subgrants, in-kind grants and technical communications support, these CSOs were supported in developing recommendations on laws relating to decentralisation and suco governance, engaging with the media, formally presenting their recommendations and concerns to Committee A of National Parliament and various outreach activities educate the general public and to encourage constituent members to understand the new structure and to take part in suco elections.
All consultations took a deliberately participatory approach, encouraging all participants to actively contribute to discussions, and wherever possible creating separate spaces for women only to encourage their participation. Wherever possible, materials were presented in a visual form to help those with lower levels of literacy to understand the material.
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ACCESS TO JUSTICE (Components C & D)
The activities under Components C and D emphasized the commitment to and importance of providing legal aid services to females and other marginalized groups through the provision of sub-grants and technical training for legal aid organizations. As a result of this assistance, 299 women across the project’s target municipalities and regions were provided with free legal aid services through the project’s implementing partners.
Representatives from women’s and other marginalized groups’ organizations were present and consulted during workshops to discuss challenges and approaches to the dissemination of legal information to different audiences, based on which public outreach activities were planned and carried out. Very importantly, the project’s implementing partners organized outreach activities especially for women and delivered women-only sessions during which different engagement techniques were employed, including games, quizzes and group discussions.
An important improvement observed in Oé-Cusse, as a result of Component D activities, is the change in the court’s decisions in domestic violence cases – a major issue in the region. The project’s implementing partner JSMP published a report about the application of alternative sentencing in domestic violence in Oé-Cusse that included solid recommendations that were acted upon by the court. As opposed to suspended sentences and fines, the court has started considering prison sentences in cases of domestic violence.
Additionally, the project supported advocacy to amend the penal code to include the crime of incest, with implementing partner Judicial System Monitoring Programme (JSMP) working closely with Asistensia Legal ba Feto no Labarik (ALFela) to develop recommendations. JSMP’s 4 recommendations (currently under consideration) regarding the criminalization of incest were presented in a meeting with the Minister for Justice. Women from different justice organizations were encouraged to attend several training sessions, networking meetings and workshops, and an impressive attendance rate was observed, together with an increase in knowledge.
VILLAGE (SUCO) ELECTORAL SUPPORT (COMPONENT E)
The project was successful in employing several tools to increase voter and civic education among women, youth and people with disabilities, and to encourage their participation in the electoral process. In consultation with women and youth organizations, the project conducted research on the barriers to political participation to guide communication with traditionally marginalized groups. Grants were then given to organizations working with women, youth and people with disabilities to encourage the participation of these groups in the elections. In addition, the project and its implementing partners successfully Caucus’ meeting with CNE and STAE to promote women’s used various methods to engage with participation.
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these groups, including coordination meetings, television and radio PSAs specifically tailored to each of the groups, a short film and theatre performances. Significantly, project partner, RHTO, produced three one-minute PSAs that also had sign language interpretation - the first time sign language has ever been included on election advertisements in Timor-Leste.
Women and youth showed strong interest and participation in these activities and, as a result, demonstrated much higher knowledge and understanding of the electoral process as measured by pre- and post-tests. Very importantly, the number of women in leadership positions was observably higher in the 2016 round of suco elections, with 21 women elected as suco chief (previously 11 women) and 42 women elected as aldeia chief (previously 2 women).
VI. Project Grants
Over the past four years, the Mai Munisípiu project has allocated more than 18 large grants and 146 micro grants to local partners, with a total value of approximately $1.8 million. The grants process followed Counterpart International’s established grant management system, using Counterpart International’s Grants Manual, which was created specifically for grant management (GM) teams and served as a guide to the GM process. The project also issued a grant management summary as a practical guide to run day to day grants, to assist grantees in understanding their obligations. There were four CBO group from Suco Loilubo, Baucau fixing types of grant that were given, depending on the water access at (Sede) Suco’ office nature of the activities and the capacity of the recipient: simplified grant, in-kind grant, Fixed Obligation/Fixed Amount Award grant (FOG/FAA) and standard grant.
The majority of the project’s activities worked through grants channeled to local government and local organisations, with the objective of providing a sustainable local infrastructure for long-term capacity building for suco councils, local Non-Governmental Organizations (NGOs), district courts and legal aid organizations in Timor Leste. The project also issued 46 small grants, called Community Engagement
COMMUNITY BASED ORGANIZATIONS (CBOS) FROM BAUCAU LEARNING HOW TO WRITE A CEG REPORT
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Grants (CEGs.) These grants were issued to community-based organisations following a competitive application process, with the objective of strengthening the suco council’s capacity to respond to community needs.
Mai Munisípiu’s preferred approach of indirect implementation via local partners had some challenges. The grants manual, which was created in 2014, was too high-level and complicated, failing to provide grantees with the type of information they needed in terms of hands on, or step-by-step requirements of grants management. In addition, grants procedures were sometimes too inflexible in dealing with local realities—for example, requiring CEGs recipients to have legal registration, which in many cases was simply not possible. There were also issues with local partners’ capacity. Even for local partners that were well-established, partner capacity in grants management was generally quite low with many delays in reporting and communication, inadequate supervision from the management team, lack of crucial internal policies and frequent mistakes requiring corrections. Because of this, Mai Munisípiu’s grants and program teams needed to provided close supervision and ongoing coaching. Understandably, recipients of smaller grants such as CEGs were unaccustomed to grants reporting, providing only very basic information. The project’s Municipal Coordinators played a crucial role in providing close supervision, monitoring and ongoing technical assistance to these community groups.
Nonetheless, despite these challenges and with the support of Counterpart HQ, the project was successful in maintaining best practices in grant management, especially in grants selection process, grants orientation and induction and a concrete and comprehensive grants closeout procedure.
Grants were provided as follows:
Objective 1: Local Governance Strengthening Belun create and review local governance strengthening Standard grant tools and resources; design and deliver capacity development assistance to suco councils 46 CBO recipients of increase the capacity of suco councils to respond to Fixed amount small Community the need of their community; to increase the ability award Engagement Grants of communities to actively participate in setting (CEGs) priorities within their suco Objective 2: Decentralization Asosiasaun Radio support information dissemination on Fixed obligation Komunidade Timor- decentralization policy and legal framework grant Leste (ARKTL) Belun support information dissemination on approved Standard grant laws Objective 3: Access to Justice Asosiasaun Advogadu develop responsive, integrated and sustainable legal Standard grant Timor-Lorosa’e (AATL) aid assistance; improve legal aid outreach & ADR providers; assess and reinforce ADR mechanism in Baucau municipality Fundasaun Fatuk Sinae develop responsive, integrated and sustainable legal Standard grant Oé-Cusse (FFSO) aid assistance; improve legal aid outreach & ADR providers; assess and reinforce ADR mechanism in Oé-Cusse municipality Liberta develop responsive, integrated and sustainable legal Standard grant aid assistance; improve legal aid outreach & ADR
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providers; assess and reinforce ADR mechanism in Ermera & Liquica municipalities JNJ Advokasia develop responsive, integrated and sustainable legal Standard grant aid assistance; improve legal aid outreach & ADR providers; assess and reinforce ADR mechanism in Covalima municipality Justice and Peace develop responsive, integrated and sustainable legal Standard grant Commission (JPC) aid assistance; improve legal aid outreach & ADR providers; assess and reinforce ADR mechanism in Baucau municipality Judicial System deliver training for justice and accountability of Standard grant Monitoring institution’s staff and monitor the district courts, Programme (JSMP) especially in the Special Region of Oé-Cusse Objective 4: Inclusive Elections Caucus support national coordination mechanism for Standard grant women’s participation and encourage women’s engagement in the suco elections Raes Hadomi Timor establish people with disabilities working group at Standard grant Oan (RHTO) national level and encourage civic engagement of people with disabilities in the local elections CNJTL support youth-focused civic engagement campaign, Fixed amount to support youth voter turnout and to establish award coordination network at the national level to promote youth engagement in local elections Rebenta encourage women’s and youth’s engagement in the Fixed amount electoral process through community theatre award Ba Futuru promote inclusive participation of women in the Fixed amount democratic process of local elections through short award films
In addition to the above-mentioned grants, Mai Munisípiu also channeled some support using in-kind grants, through which services or/and equipment were donated to STAE, CNE, Baucau District Court and the Court of the Special Region of Oé-Cusse.
VII. Problems Encountered
Component A: Local Governance Strengthening
Local NGO Capacity
The project design relied heavily on implementation of activities through grants awarded to local NGOs and those activities becoming sustainable beyond the project. This is good in theory, but in practice this was a challenge given the very low levels of organizational and human resource capacity in the small pool of potential NGO partners and the very limited sources of non-donor funding available to sustain NGO activities. For the Access A2J team, the RFA recommended working with the The Asociasaun Advogado Timor Lorosa’e (AATL) (the Timor‐Leste’s Lawyers Association), which was 63
to evolve eventually into the bar association with passage of the new law on the bar association. In the first year of the project, AATL was awarded a grant to implement activities related to legal aid framework development, advocacy, legal information, and training for legal aid service providers. In January 2015, the partnership was terminated due to AATL’s lack of performance in Year One and ongoing internal organizational problems. The project adjusted its Year Two Work Plan to have the A2J staff, international experts, and the Legal Aid Advocacy and Legal Information and Advocacy Working Groups absorb the roles intended for the AATL. AATL members continued to be involved in project activities through the working groups.
Further challenges arose because the small pool of more competent NGOs were engaged on a number of donor programs and had to juggle commitments. In some cases, the organizations that had better capacity, but were not local to a municipality, had to be engaged and this created another set of problems. For example, legal aid organization Liberta – based in Dili but delivering legal aid services to Ermera and Liquica, and JNJ Advocasia – based in Dili but delivering legal aid services in Covalima – had great difficulty getting traction with other local organizations in the justice sector because they were not an established, long-term entity in those municipalities. This was less of an issue with Dili- based NGO Belun, as they also have an established network of municipal coordinators in the target municipalities and regions.
Another problem noted was that while the project invested in organizational development with its grantees, the level of intensive organizational development required to realize significant improvements could not be met by the project. More day to day change management support was needed to ensure that new processes and procedures were implemented and used by all staff in their organization, rather than just the staff working with Mai Munisípiu (see the above Section on Local Governance Strengthening for more information.)
In another example, the new case management systems developed for legal aid partners was often only used by the lawyers engaged in Mai Munisípiu activities, rather than used by all lawyers in the organization.
Sustainability of the Suco Training Modules and Tools Within DNAAS
Since 2015 the project invested significant time in coordinating its activities with DNAAS. This was particularly challenging because of the lack of planning and coordination within DNAAS itself. During the last year the project coordinated around the finalization of 5 training modules and an educational film for DNAAS. However, poor time management and lack of strategic management within DNAAS has resulted in a number of last minute “urgent” requests, inconsistent instructions, reversals of decisions previously made, and various other problems. The general lack of technical capacity within DNAAS itself has meant that the project has taken a leadership role on content development, with DNAAS supplying ideas about the topics, overall framework and approving the final product. DNAAS continues to receive in depth technical assistance and resources from donors and non-governmental organizations in order to strengthen the existing suco council capacities trained by Mai Munisípiu project.
Considering the importance of the DNAAS to the sustainability of the project’s activities, the project team has responded diplomatically to the frequent poor planning and reversal of decisions, and adjusted its work schedule and plans to try its best to accommodate these requests. However, insufficient capacity within DNAAS has been a significant challenge to the project, also raising into question the sustainability of suco training modules and tools once the project ends. 64
Component B: Decentralisation
Changing Approach to Suco Law & Laws on Decentralisation
When the project began in 2014, the Minister of State Administration was very collaborative in working with civil society, and in seeking feedback from interested suco councils and community members. In response to this, the project invested significant time and resources into working together with senior officials of the Ministry for State Administration and civil society members of the Policy Forum working on decentralisation. At the request of the Director-General, an STTA was contracted to undertake research & policy analysis, and the project also conducted extensive consultations with civil society partners and target sucos, to gain their feedback on the draft legislation.
However, with the change of government, this drafted Suco Law was shelved, and was not submitted for discussion in the Council of Ministers. Following a re-organisation of the GoTL Council of Ministers in early 2015 and the formation of the 6th Constitutional Government, a new Minister was appointed to the State Administration portfolio who decided to take a different approach to the Suco Law. In early 2015, a second very different draft law was produced, which resulted in the successful promulgation of Suco Law no. 9/2016. The legislative drafting and revision process for this law was much less consultative, with the draft only made available to interested parties by Committee A, once it had already met approval in the Council of Ministers. The allocated consultation process was very short, and copies of the draft were only made available in Portuguese language – indicating a general lack of interest in extensive consultation.
Around the same time that the draft Suco Law was released for consultation, two new draft Decentralisation laws were also approved by the Council of Ministers. Similarly, to the process in developing the draft Suco Law, these draft laws were only released for consultation by Committee A following approval in the Council of Ministers, only made available in the Portuguese language and had only a very short consultation period allocated.
The secrecy of the legislative drafting process made it very difficult to track any changes and/or progress related to the draft laws. Most of the time, the time frame was not fixed so project staff needed to adapt to the changes as they arose. In addition, the timing of release in which three important pieces of legislation were released very close together, together with the short consultation period, put significant pressure on the Decentralisation (Component B) team’s limited resources. While the team worked around the clock to conduct consultations with representatives from the 100 target sucos, and STTAs were engaged to analyze the draft laws and assist with consultations, it was simply not possible to carry out comprehensive consultations on each of the three pieces of draft legislation with representatives from all target sucos. As a result, some consultations were done too quickly, others were combined and a small number were missed out altogether.
Shifting Date of Suco Elections
Another consequence of the changed approach to the Suco Law was that the scheduled suco elections needed to be postponed until the Suco Law 9/2016 was approved. The shifting date of the suco elections and uncertainty around proposed changes to the suco council’s structure, roles and responsibilities made it difficult for the project to prepare for the elections (discussed in more detail in discussion of Component E, below.)
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Components C & D: Access To Justice
Political Will
Implicit in the design of the access to justice activities in response to the RFA was a series of assumptions about the operating environment, including: 1) that the MOJ would welcome project support to help the GoTL implement the Justice Sector Strategic Plan with regards to strengthening access to legal aid and training of key justice sector actors; and 2) that key legislation needed to support improved legal aid and training in the justice sector would be a GoTL priority.
The project design envisioned gaining the participation of key stakeholders, the MoJ and OPD, in a systematic legal aid model and legal aid framework reform process based on TetraTech DPK’s Legal Aid strengthening tools. However, activities related to developing and implementing a new legal aid framework had to be rethought as it became clear that MOJ leadership, even when it changed over the course of the project, was not prioritizing work in this area. Negotiations with the MOJ to establish an MOU on key areas of cooperation stalled and were eventually abandoned in Year Two. Instead the project worked with departments within the MOJ on specific ad-hoc activities and shifted its focus to working more closely with the Court of Appeal and CRL. In the absence of close collaboration with MOJ, the project also created coordination groups for both legal aid and legal information and invited GoTL organizations to participate; however, the result was that primary collaboration was with NGOs.
Needed Legislation Was Not Advanced Quickly Enough
Key laws were not progressed by the GOTL until late in the project, if at all. Over the course of the project, the MOJ identified a number of legislative priorities important to improving access to justice, including amendment of the Statute of Public Defenders (which did happen) and drafting laws related to Customary Law, Bar Association, and Alternative Dispute Resolution. A draft 2011 Law on Access to Courts to guide the provision of legal aid by private lawyers, which underwent a number of public consultations into 2013, stalled for the life of the project. Delays in finalising the law establishing a Bar Association did not help matters as the MOJ indicated that that law needed to be passed before the Access to Courts law would be considered. Over the life of the project, the GoTL placed on hold work towards a comprehensive regulation of the informal justice sector. Instead, draft laws on alternative dispute resolution were prepared. The Legislative Reform and Justice Sector Committee (CRL) is including traditional justice systems in its review of areas requiring harmonization and the project was awaiting announcement of its findings when the access to justice activities concluded.
Challenges to Building capacity of the LTC and Other Justice Sector Institutions
The original RFA and project design also assumed that the LJTC, the Court of Appeal/Superior Council, the Public Defender’s Office and other bodies responsible for training justice sector personnel would be willing to engage with the project in organizational and human capacity development needed to assess, design and deliver in-service training and to establish a professional development system to track training compliance. However, it was not until 2016 that Ministerial Diplomas No. 43/2016 and No 18/2016 that the MOJ’s Legal Training Centre (LTC) became the Legal and Judicial Training Centre (LJTC), making it responsible for both initial and complementary (in-service) training for justice sector actors (not just trainee lawyers), mandating development of annual plans for its training courses as well as training of trainers, and requiring that the contracting of international training from 2016 to 2021 be directed towards capacity building and training of Timorese trainers and accompaniment and mentoring of Timorese trainers. Up until the passage of this legislation, the LTC had not shown the will or capacity to do more than provide training for new lawyers who are then placed in various roles 66
throughout the justice system, including in the courts as judges. It was not until Year 4 of the project that implementation of the new structure and duties of the LJTC began and it was essentially too late for any robust engagement in institutional capacity building. The project was limited at that stage to providing technical support from international and national experts to develop and deliver training on practical case management at the LJTC and to providing the LJTC a compilation of areas identified by the project for in-service training and capacity building.
It must also be noted that the National Parliament’s passage of Resolution No. 11/2014 in October 2014 had a negative impact on all donor work with legal and judicial training institutions. The resolution urged the government to conduct a thorough audit of the justice sector and called for an immediate termination of contract of international judges including foreign officials working with the Office of Public Prosecution Service, the Public Defender’s Office, the Anti-Corruption Commission and the Legal Training Center. The GOTL then passed Resolution No. 29/2014 establishing an audit commission to audit the judicial system “for reasons of force majeure and national interest,” and urged that the relevant government ministries terminate contracts of international advisors in the judiciary. The resolutions raised serious concerns about the independence of judiciary and garnered widespread national and international attention including from JSMP, organizations within the country and from the international community such Amnesty International and UN Office of High Commissioner for Human Rights. One of the immediate impacts was a delay in admitting new magistrates for training at the then LTC due to a shortage of qualified trainers. It was not until January 2017 that the National Parliament passed Law No. 1/2017 on the recruitment of foreign magistrates and public defenders to train Timorese trainee magistrates and public defenders at the LJTC, conduct performance evaluations of Timorese judges for career promotion and provide institutional support to judicial institutions such as the Office of Public Prosecution (OPP) and the Office of Public Defenders (OPD). The LJTC did not resume training for trainee magistrates until May 2017. In addition to the major issues above, the project’s ability to engage more robustly in organizational and human capacity development was made difficult by the long-standing cooperation between the LJTC and the Portuguese Pedagogical Council and a strong preference for training to be done by Portuguese experts. In light of all of the above, they opted to deliver complementary formal training at the LJTC and Court of Appeal on an ad hoc basis; informal training workshops, on-the-job mentoring and technical support in the pilot Courts of Oé-Cusse and Baucau through the PACT processes; and training workshops through the legal aid coordination groups in the municipalities.
Legal Aid Sustainability
Achieving sustainability of project activities undertaken by legal aid grantees is a huge challenge. Implementing partners such as FFSO, JPC, and JSMP have all indicated their willingness to continue legal aid coordination and legal aid-related advocacy work at the municipal and national levels. However, partners like JNJ, a private law-firm based in Dili, will likely withdraw staff back from Covalima to the main office in Dili following termination of their sub-agreement. Similarly, Liberta is also unlikely to continue coordination activities in Ermera and Liquica after their sub-agreement ends, and citizens from these municipalities will instead have to revert back to nearby Dili for services.
The Challenge of Mapping and Monitoring Community Dispute Resolution
The original project envisioned the possibility of legal aid organizations receiving grant funding to map and monitor the quality and legal compliance of decisions made via community channel. However, the challenge of designing a monitoring system for diverse community dispute procedures that happen on short notice in remote locations to be implemented by already stretched NGO partners was too great. During their access to justice promotion activities in 100 sucos in Baucau, 67
Covalima, Ermera, Liquica and Oé-Cusse, Belun staff used standard questionnaires to gather information about local dispute resolution processes from stakeholders including members of suco councils (suco chiefs, lia-n’ain, women’s representatives); other organizations involved in dispute resolution (civil society organizations, legal aid groups and government departments); and persons who had participated in dispute resolution procedures. What became apparent through this mapping activity however is that the very problems that hamper the provision of legal assistance in community procedures also make systematic mapping and monitoring of these mechanisms very difficult, and that significant resources and funding would have to invested in such an activity to produce reliable results.
Component E: Suco (Village) Electoral Support
The suco elections were originally intended to be held in late 2015. However, following the formation of the Sixth Constitutional Government and the appointment of a new Minister for State Administration, this election was postponed by the Council of Ministers. There was no clear timetable given for when suco elections would be held, making it difficult to plan. As a result, while the initial plan was that the project would begin electoral support activities in early 2015, these were suspended until new information became available.
The process was further complicated by the secrecy in developing Suco Law 9/2016. While Mai Munisípiu were aware that a new draft law was being discussed by the GoTL, there was no clear information released as to the proposed changes to the suco council’s structure, roles and responsibilities. The project was able to progress with some activities, such as drafting the film script for suco elections which the project decided to script following a general democratic theme to manage the lack of information. Even so, the script was re-written numerous times as new information arose on the suco council roles & responsibilities, and the suco election process. For other activities, the project needed wait until the Suco Law 9/2016 was released for consultation before developing informational materials, and working with the Technical Secretariat for Electoral Administration (STAE) on civic education activities.
In addition, the window between when Suco Law 9/2016 was approved in early July 2016, and when suco elections were scheduled by the GoTL for September 2016 was insufficient to adequately prepare community members for the new elections. However, this preparation was particularly important because of a key change in the electoral processes, making suco elections community-run instead of STAE-run. STAE successfully lobbied the GoTL to reschedule the elections for October 2016 to allow them to do their job properly, however this was still a very short period of time to familiarize community members with the new process. It is to the credit of the Electoral (Village) Support team, and STAE staff who worked openly and collaboratively with the project, that a successful civic education campaign was developed and implemented during this period.
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VIII. Success Stories, Lessons Learned and Recommendations
Success Stories
LOCAL GOVERNANCE STRENGTHENING (Component A)
Suco-Municipal forums were particularly effective in giving citizens the chance to voice their concerns directly to the government officials responsible for service delivery at the Municipal level, via their suco council representatives. As the result of one Suco-Municipal forum where communities were struggling with food security, on September 2, 2015, 41 communities in Covalima developed a schedule to share a tractor that was provided by the government. With this new tractor, the land was easily cultivated, improving the planting process. Encouraged by this success, 23 of these communities then reached out to the Ministry of Agriculture at another forum to get new seeds that would improve their harvests and the health of villagers.
In July 2015, in Railaco Leten, Ermera where access to water was a serious issue, suco council representatives and Water and Sanitation officials worked together via the Suco-Municipal forum to develop a plan to not only repair the water system, but also to put measures into place to minimize the risk of this happening again. They determined that, in order to share responsibility and work together, Water and Sanitation would provide the materials to repair the water system, and the village would dig trenches to bury the pipes, reducing the risk of damage by fire and other elements in the future – thereby bringing a clean water supply back to thousands of community members who needed it. However, in November 2015 there was in Riheu, sub-village Lauabe, Ermera the Water and Sanitation Department officials advised they could not reach. So, the suco council, using project management skills learned from the Mai Munisípiu trainings, mobilized together to build their own access – successfully using bamboo for piping.
DECENTRALIZATION (Component B)
As detailed above, the Decentralisation team were responsible for conducting many consultations and information sessions with CSO and suco council participants on different laws related to subnational governance. With the coming into power of the Sixth Constitutional Government, the new Minister for State Administration put little emphasis on conducting consultations, with the draft only released by Committee A once the Council of Ministers had already approved it, only in the Portuguese language, and only providing minimal time for consultations.
Despite these challenges, the project successfully conducted a series of strong and inclusive information dissemination and consultation activities, empowering CSO partners and suco council representatives to understand the draft law and to advocate for important changes. As a result of this strong and inclusive advocacy, CSO partners and suco council representatives submitted a number of important recommendations that were accepted by National Parliament and the President of the Republic. This support culminated in suco council delegates presenting their recommendations in person to the President of the Republic, and convincing him to cause a change in the electoral mechanism for chief of village from indirect to direct election – a very important change in promoting grassroots democracy.
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ACCESS TO JUSTICE (Components C & D)
Legal Aid Service Providers Sustained and Strengthened
The A2J project was successful in sustaining the few community-based legal aid service providers working in the hardest to reach of Timor’s municipalities. When the project launched, many of the NGOs who had been engaged in legal assistance funded by previous donor projects FFSO participating in a 3-day organizational development were strapped for funding and assessment conducted by USAID’s Mai Munisípiu Project scaling back. Fundaçao Fatuk Sinae Oé-Cusse (FFSO), one of the few NGOs providing legal assistance in the exclave of Oé-Cusse, was on the verge of collapse due to leadership and funding challenges. FFSO partnered with Mai Munisípiu and has been revitalized. The project provided FFSO with direct support, such as grants, capacity building activities and equipment, and technical assistance on administration, finance, and case management. To further improve their processes, an intern from Sydney University was allocated in Oé-Cusse to work with them on organizational strengthening activities for a sustained period of time.
With the project’s support, Fundaçao Fatuk Sinae Oé-Cusse (FFSO) was able to reengage in free legal aid assistance to poor and vulnerable populations, conduct legal information sessions in remote aldeias (communities) and sucos (villages) and coordinate legal aid services with other relevant organizations.
FFSO Executive Director Antonio dos Remedios credited the project with his organization’s ability to attract additional donor support because of its enhanced institutional capacity: “We are recently being funded by Oxfam to gather data from … communities…. This would not have been possible had Mai Munisípiu not supported us in making our organization stronger after it nearly collapsed …..” He further explained, “If USAID’s Mai Munisípiu project had not supported FFSO, our conditions would have become worse, making our organization unattractive to donor programs. Mai Munisípiu helped keep us afloat ….[T]he technical support and capacity building activities in areas of facilitation skills, narrative and financial report writing, case management, and administration ma[de] FFSO a stronger organization.
Simple, Small-Scale Activities to Improve Public Access to Information and Court Processes Can Have Big Impact
The project experience proves that simple small-scale activities can have a large impact. This was seen in the case of the project-funded activities agreed with the Court of Appeal to improve public access to information and court processes in Oé-Cusse and Baucau and the “Go and See” visits organized for new suco council members to visit the courts and familiarize themselves first hand with formal justice institutions. The simple court signage, compound maps, notice boards, suggestion boxes, benches and whiteboards installed at each pilot court were warmly welcomed and praised by court staff and court users. These simple but effective activities built bridges between the formal and informal justice sector and the courts and the communities they serve. The establishment of legal aid working groups in the municipalities and Oé-Cusse also proved a simple but effective way of putting greater 70
coordination and management of access to formal and informal justice services in the hands of community leaders and local NGOs.
ELECTIONS (Component E)
Strategic Support for STAE and CNE
Despite the challenges of there being only a few months between the promulgation of Suco Law 9/2016 and the suco elections, the project was very successful in supporting STAE and CNE in implementing a comprehensive, multi-channel citizen engagement campaign. This success was largely due to the close working relationship that project staff were able to develop with the electoral management bodies, underscoring the openness and interest that the electoral management bodies STAE and CNE have in implementing an effective civic education campaign. Because project staff were flexible and supportive rather than combative in their general approach, EMB decision-makers welcomed them as part of the team. A person featured in the CNE poster This openness provided project staff with the opportunity to series promoting inclusive use some interesting participatory communications participation in elections sees his techniques, encouraging community members to interact photo on the poster for first time. directly with government officials through e.g. Q&A style television broadcasts, thereby building a sense of connection with STAE and CNE officials as viewers learned about the new electoral mechanisms. with project staff working flexibly and collaboratively with key officials in both offices.
A ‘Bridge’ Between EMBs and CSOs
By focusing on creating links between the electoral bodies and key civil society organisations, advocating for traditionally marginalised groups, civil society leaders and electoral bodies were able to align their messages in the lead up to the elections. To achieve this, the project partnered with Caucus: Women in Politics (“Caucus”), a prominent women’s advocacy organization; the National Youth Council of Timor-Leste (“CNJTL”), a youth representative organization; and Ra’es Hadomi Timor Oan (“RHTO”), a disability advocacy organization, and supported them in voicing their recommendations and concerns about inclusiveness and election accessibility. Project focus was on linking these partners directly to STAE, creating a channel for the groups to interact with them directly on issues of inclusive participation and informed voting. For some partners, this was the first time they had been supported in such work.
The project also partnered with CNE and implementing partners to produce education campaigns for print, television and radio that informed the public – specifically women, young people and people with disabilities – about the elections and their rights to vote.
Using the opportunity this provided, on partner, RHTO, produced three one-minute public service announcements also using sign language interpretation. This is the first time that sign language has been included on election advertisements in Timor Leste.
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Lessons Learned
LOCAL GOVERNANCE STRENGTHENING (Component A)
The importance of dialogues and forums in bringing stakeholders together
The success of the Suco-Municipal forums highlights the need for suco council representatives and municipal government officials alike to have a forum through which they can interact, learn about each other’s work, and improve the provision of services in the communities they serve. The interactive communication during the forums has provided an opportunity for suco councils to directly advocate their concerns to line ministries, and to respond community needs. In addition, the line ministries were able to present their work plan, budget, and implementation strategy so that suco council representatives could understand identify appropriate entry-points for advancing community needs. As mentioned above, from total 117 recommendations, 37.6% recommendations were accepted, 55.6% are under consideration and only 6.8% were rejected by government representatives. Recognising the importance of these forums, the President of the Municipal Authority in Baucau stated his hope that the Municipal Consultative Council (to be formed under the new decentralisation laws) would adopt the Suco-Municipal forum model, promoting dialogue between different stakeholders. In addition, the Regional Authority in Oe-Cusse has stated it will continue with the forum’s “go and see visits”, to help suco councils understand line ministries’ work, and to help government officials to get to know their suco councils.
Suco-Municipal forums would provide a good working model for the Municipal Consultative Councils that are planned under the new legislation on decentralisation, which is awaiting debate in National Parliament.
The importance of CSO leadership in promoting organisational development
The project provided many different types of support to CSO partners, depending on their particular needs, including formal assessments and training to improve knowledge in particular areas, ongoing accompaniment and mentoring for finance, operations, communications and M&E staff, the provision of interns to help produce necessary organisational policies, SOPs, systems and templates, technical assistance for improved financial sustainability and various other activities.
While there were many areas of knowledge and practices that were improved by these interventions, it was a sometimes slow and frustrating process as these practices were often not internalised throughout the organisation. Project staff noted that key to successful organisational development (OD) support is good leadership within CSOs – otherwise successes tended to only be noted with individual staff rather than across the organisation. CSO leaders need to invest the time into understanding the logic behind different policies and adapting them to suit the organisational culture, to incorporate OD learnings across different parts of the organisation, and to model and promote these practices regularly with staff.
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DECENTRALIZATION (Component B)
Adaptability in Advocacy Activities
While advocacy activities were designed following a structured format, this relied on there being government interest and commitment to conducting open consultations. In reality, however, three important draft laws were pushed through very quickly and It was difficult for the Decentralisation team to track their progress. Most of the time, the time frame was not fixed and the project needed to be ready to respond at a moment’s notice. Mai Munisípiu messaging to consultation participants also needed to be carefully managed while maintaining a good relationship with government stakeholders. Some suco council participants did not understand that Mai Munisípiu staff were equally bound by government consultation timeframes, and so could not carry them out as thoroughly as they would have preferred.
Maintain Multiple Advocacy Channels
Because of the changeability of the policy environment, the project was careful in ensuring that they worked with multiple stakeholders, at different levels of governance. At the beginning of the project, much focus was put on working with the Ministry for State Administration through its decentralization Policy Forum, but with the coming into power of the 6th Constitutional Government, the project needed to take a different approach. Because the project had been careful in maintaining multiple advocacy channels, they were able to adapt relatively quickly to the new governance environment, working through other relationships including some senior officials and advisors in the Ministry for State Administration, and very importantly the president of Committee A.
The Importance of Educating Journalists
The consultation process in Timor-Leste is based on draft legislation, rather conducting public consultations on more easily-understood policy papers. Journalists’ ability to report on draft Suco Law 9/2016 and the draft laws on decentralisation required a level of legal ability, which journalists are not trained in. This becomes even more complicated when draft laws are released only in the Portuguese language, which most Timorese (including journalists) are not fluent in. Because of this, project initiative to conduct media-specific training to help journalists understand key aspects of Suco Law 9/2016 and draft decentralization laws was very successful, and is a model worth repeating for other advocacy projects.
ACCESS TO JUSTICE (Components C & D)
Legal Aid Framework Development
Improving legal aid service delivery requires government commitment to progress legislative framework and institutional strengthening in a timely fashion. Government funding must then be forthcoming to implement what is established by law. Until legal aid improvements are truly prioritized by the government, and a sustained level of commitment is demonstrated, legal aid service improvements will be limited to what can be achieved by supporting legal assistance and alternative dispute providers. In an environment where political commitment and government resources are lacking, well-informed and coordinated advocacy to progress needed legislation becomes paramount. Mechanisms that brought together legal aid stakeholders, like the project’s national-level Legal Aid 73
Advocacy Group and legal aid coordination groups in the municipalities, were key to building understanding of salient issues and gaps and capacity for advocacy. Importantly the legal aid coordination groups in the municipalities started to create linkages and models for improved legal aid delivery at the local level in the absence of progress to create a framework at the national level.
Mapping and Monitoring of Community Dispute Resolution
To better understand the procedures being followed in community dispute resolution, and to ensure compliance with human rights standards and the law, more widespread monitoring of both the process and the outcome of these procedures is necessary. As project implementation proceeded, it become clear that it was beyond the resources of the project and capacity of legal aid organizations and other NGOs to oversee the quality and legal compliance of decisions made via community channels on the scale needed. Some of the same problems which hamper the provision of legal assistance in community procedures also make systematic monitoring of these mechanisms Legal Education for community members, difficult. Because procedures happen on short conducted by Liberta notice in remote locations it is difficult to envisage a system for monitoring other than the use of monitors who live within communities themselves and perhaps monitoring on an ad hoc (part-time) basis. However, training such persons to ensure consistent and objective gathering of information would be particularly difficult. This is because community mechanisms do not follow rigid procedures and some of the questions of most interest (such as any real or perceived bias by facilitators or decision-makers) are inherently difficult to assess from an objective perspective in any event.
Despite this, it is possible to conceive of methods for systematically monitoring community dispute resolutions, but implementing them would require a long-term engagement with community-based monitors and provision of significant training and support. In the absence of a mechanism appropriately placed to do that work, the current best source of information appears to be organizations (such as Belun and legal aid groups) that work regularly within local communities and speak with community members and leaders about their practices. In the future, further use could also be made of suco records to track the types of cases dealt with and their outcomes. Human rights groups among civil society or the Provedore for Human Rights and Justice (“PDHJ”) could consider undertaking this work.
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VILLAGE (SUCO) ELECTORAL SUPPORT (Component E)
The success of this project in facilitating coordination between EMBs and CSOs has demonstrated the importance of bridge- building between government officials and CSO and community stakeholders. Good programming to encourage democratic participation and civic engagement should consider strategic ways in which INGOs/donors can act as a conduit for Timorese CSO and community stakeholders to access key decision-makers – allowing them to voice their ideas and concerns, and to advocate on their constituents’ behalf. Community member from Suco Uma Ana Ulo asking questions at the Suco Town Hall meeting
Recommendations
LOCAL GOVERNANCE STRENGTHENING (Component A)
DNAAS needs a stronger legal mandate to have a stronger roles and responsibilities by laws to manage sucos throughout the country and addresses suco council members on organizational capacity development needs. The project has transferred suco training modules, tutorial film on roles and responsibilities of suco councils, suco assessment and training monitoring and evaluation tools to DNAAS to ensure suco council members execute their roles and responsibilities according to the laws. DNAAS also needs stronger roles and responsibilities and resources by law to strengthen the capacity of suco council members specifically further decentralization processes ongoing in municipality and post administration level.
There are many CSOs conducting training at the local level, however they don’t coordinate with DNAAS to strengthen both DNAAS and suco councils’ capacity. DNAAS must also be prepared to coordinate and to share resources with CSOs.
Suco-Municipal forum could be interpreted into the Municipal Consultatitve Council/Regional Consultative Council (Oé-Cusse), in order to provide a bridge between suco councils and municipal level government/Oé-Cusse Special Region.
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DECENTRALISATION (Component B)
Funding agency interest in decentralization is low. However, decentralization and associated issues of effective governance in Timor-Leste is an important policy area for the government of Timor-Leste, and should continue to be supported. It is particularly important that funding and capacity building support to CSOs and suco councils is provided, to help local-level stakeholders to understand the implications of different policy approaches, and to continue to engage with the draft decentralization laws which are still to be debated in national parliament.
There is an important opportunity to prepare CSOs to monitor the activities of subnational government, particularly when decision-making power and larger budgets are devolved to the Municipal level. With the creation of different layers of government, there is a significant risk of buck-passing resulting in lower levels of accountability, and of corruption as larger budgets may be manipulated, particularly if institutional structures are weaker. Managing these potential risks requires a commitment and readiness of CSOs to monitor activities and to hold municipal officials to account.
Except for encouraging journalists to report on project activities via media releases and other initiatives, journalists tend to be forgotten as important stakeholders and/or it is presumed that they have access to good information on policy initiatives. This is a missed opportunity, as better-informed journalists are better able to contribute to a higher level of public debate. Journalists who participated in the project’s trainings on the draft Suco Law 9/2016 and draft decentralization laws were very appreciative, with some commenting that that was the first time they had been able to learn the details of the law they were reporting on.
ACCESS TO JUSTICE (Components C & D)
Funding and capacity building support to legal aid organizations, private lawyers and public defenders and paralegals to provide accessible legal assistance in communities should be continued and scaled up. Such assistance is needed to assist potential litigants in navigating the formal and informal systems, and ensure that the choices they make are informed and fully consensual. The few legal aid organisations currently operating have been funded by this project and it remains uncertain how much of their work will be able to continue without replacement resources. Funding is needed to enable them to maintain their current reach and continue to improve the quality of their work.
To build public understanding and the legitimacy of the formal justice sector in Timor Leste, much legal information and outreach work remains to be done by governmental and nongovernmental actors. In many rural communities, confusion persists around the land law, and civil and criminal law. Misconceptions and misunderstandings need to be clarified through community-based legal information activities appropriately tailored to the needs of rural communities and to disadvantaged groups within them. Community education activities should focus not only on the law and formal justice system but also seek to improve the knowledge of informal dispute resolution participants of the core principles for fair dispute resolution and the extent of community leaders’ dispute resolution powers. The MOJ, MSA and DNAAS, and other GoTL organizations, as well as donors, have an ongoing and important 76
role to play in funding, coordinating and working with civil society and other justice sector actors to ensure that legal information continues to reach remote communities in Timor Leste.
Effective monitoring of the processes and the outcomes of community dispute resolution procedures is necessary in order to understand the procedures being followed and to ensure compliance with human rights standards and the law. Presently no organization is undertaking this work. The PDHJ should consider establishing a monitoring program for this purpose. However, at the very least, more basic monitoring could be undertaken by reviewing suco records to identify types of cases handled and their outcomes.
Training, especially in-service training, of justice professionals in Timor-Leste must be improved to ensure that they are adequately prepared for, and remain competent, throughout their careers. This will require addressing the priority needs already identified by Mai Munisípiu and other organizations and engaging in regular assessments to identify ongoing and emerging training and capacity building needs in each justice sector institution. It will also require provision of more skill-based training, mandatory ongoing professional development that is linked to performance evaluation, and proper training oversight. The capacity of the LJTC must be increased to enable it to perform these tasks in collaboration with individual institutions including the Court, OPD, OPP, and AATL or future independent Bar Association when established. Continuing education should be linked to the professional development system within each legal profession. Continuing professional development should be made a regulatory requirement for all judges, prosecutors, defender and private lawyers, and a comprehensive system for its operation should be established.
Continue to work with the Court of Appeal to support the courts in their efforts to improve the management, accessibility and the standard of court services to inspire greater public confidence in formal rule of law institutions. Future support could include: 1) replicating in other courts in Timor Leste the small-scale efforts facilitated by Mai Munisípiu to improve public access to information and court processes, and 2) continuing to build the court’s engagement in public information and outreach activities in the communities they serve. More can be done by the courts to engage in outreach initiatives through such things as establishment of a court user consultation group made up of prosecution, public defender, police and leaders of community groups to discuss practical problems affecting the use and management of the court building and the services provided to those who visit, conduct court user surveys, and to develop and promote court outreach events, such as visits to the court by public groups (such as the Go and See visits) and by conducting court open days.
Continue to work with the court of appeal to maintain and replicate the court statistics data gathering and reporting established through this project and build capacity among court leadership to use the data to improve court functionality, specifically with regard to case management and management of the courts’ limited resources.
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VILLAGE (SUCO) ELECTORAL SUPPORT (Component E)
There is an opportunity for future programs to strengthen democratic engagement in Timor- Leste, through collaborative civic engagement activities with electoral management bodies STAE and CNE. This will be particularly important in the event of Municipal elections, if and when the draft legislation on decentralization is passed into law. Following the success of Component E activities, electoral support initiatives could involve the use of various communication for development (C4D) activities to build a sense of civic connection as well as providing essential information for voters.
While Mai Munisípiu partner RHTO was very active in developing a series of practical recommendations in improving the accessibility of voting booths, these recommendations were not implemented by the electoral management bodies. For some of the recommendations, the reason was given that there wasn’t enough time to implement them for the suco elections. It is important that these recommendations continue to be pushed well in advance of the next round of elections, and that RHTO and other CSOs working with people with disabilities are supported in strategically advocating for improved accessibility.
Results from Mai Munisípiu’s research report New Voices: The Engagement of Young Timorese in the Political Process clearly demonstrated young voters’ concerns with broken campaign promises, once candidates are elected into office. There is an opportunity to record and track candidates’ campaign promises and MPs’ voting record on different laws, thereby strengthening voters’ capacity to hold their elected officials to account.
IX. Monitoring and Evaluation
Given the complexity of the Mai Munisípiu project, working across multiple activity focal points and with a combination of direct and indirect implementation, the project needed to develop a number of different M&E tools to record relevant information on activities and impact. The Mai Munisípiu M&E team have initiated three online initiatives to help the project to track and learn from different project activities. The Performance Monitoring and Evaluation Plan (PMEP) provides the project’s overarching M&E framework, including 27 indicators for reporting. The Knowledge Management (KM) Portal provides a portal for project staff and local partners to track and report on their activities. And training activities were recorded on USAID’s TraiNet Database.
The project M&E team were responsible for maintaining these portals and databases, conducting various monitoring visits, and for providing (sometimes significant) capacity development support to project staff and local partners in collecting and recording relevant data. In addition, the M&E team coordinated with the Local Governance Strengthening team (Component A) to undertake regular monitoring of training, informational and outreach activities undertaken by the project and local partners.
Performance Monitoring and Evaluation Plan (PMEP): At the beginning of project implementation, the project developed a Performance Monitoring and Evaluation Plan (PMEP) as a guideline for the M&E department to measure the project progress. These PMEP indicators were updated regularly, to aid the project’s quarterly reporting. A total 27 indicators were developed and approved by USAID to measure progress under Components A-D (Local Government Strengthening, Decentralization and 78
Input of Local Institutions, Legal Aid Organization Sustainability, and District Court Functionality). With the support of Counterpart HQ M&E Specialist, these 27 indicators were revised in the second year, removing some irrelevant or difficult-to-measure indicators, and adding new indicators for Component E (Village Electoral Support), making a total 26 indicators. USAID also revised the five (5) Country Development Cooperation Strategy (CDCS) indictors as they related to Mai Munisípiu project. A summary of the project’s progress against the indicators is set out in Annex 1.
Knowledge Management (KM) Portal: during implementation of the project, the Mai Munisípiu project has provided M&E capacity support through a combination of formal training and accompaniment to local partners including Belun, Judicial System Monitoring Program (JSMP), Fundasaun Fatuk Sinae Oé-Cusse (FFSO), Asosiasaun Radio Komunidade Timor-Leste (ARKTL), Women Caucus, Raes Hadomi Timor Oan (RHTO), Liberta, Komisaun Justisa no Paz (JPC), and JNJ. Local partners used the Knowledge Management Portal (KMP) to report and provide information on project activities, including training data, working group meetings, legal education sessions, technical assistances, rapid assessments, grant information, reports written and any media attention they received. The KM Portal served a few different purposes, helping the project to maintain up-to-date records on local partner activity while also providing a conduit for M&E capacity support to partners. The KM Portal database can be accessed through https://mande.counterpart.org/portal/Pages/default.aspx.
USAID TraiNet Database: In accordance with USAID requirements, the Mai Munisípiu project began using the USAID TraiNet Database in 2016, recording all trainings of more than one day provided by the project. Total project trainings (of more than one day) that were recorded are as follows:
Number Trainings Recorded in the USAID TraiNet Database Training Name # of Training Male Female Total Action Plan and Pre-Deconcentration Administrative structure (PDA) 17 93 138 231 Leadership and Communication 26 206 220 426 Access to Justice and Women's Right 15 164 101 265 Community Consultation 23 175 197 372 Conflict Resolution 15 151 83 234 Project Design and Proposal Writing 15 162 67 229 Project Management 16 128 109 237 Community Consultation II 16 141 149 290 Leadership and Communication II 16 136 139 275 Training of Trainer (TOT) 9 103 28 131 Qualitative Methodology Research 1 8 12 20 Court Case Management and Statistical 1 14 8 22 Case Management to Private Lawyer 2 25 13 38 Court Management and Leadership 1 16 8 24 Advance Excel Training for Judicial Officer 1 12 3 15 Alternative Dispute Resolution to Private Timorese and legal aid lawyers 1 8 4 12 Total 175 1542 1279 2821
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Monitoring Visits:
Mai Munisípiu project staff conducted regular monitoring of local partners’ training and other activities using a variety of methods, including scheduled field visits to implementing partners and grantees and their activities, spontaneous visits, emails and phone calls.
Project municipal coordinators monitored all trainings that were implemented by Belun for each of the 100 target suco councils. As discussed in the Section on Objective One: Local Governance Strengthening above, these training had a very positive impact, with an average 84.9 increase in suco council understanding and knowledge, assessed via pre- and post-testing. These results were due to the skill of Belun in delivering engaging training, using a variety of participatory techniques and where4 appropriate using local language. It was also due to the quality of the training modules, which were well-targeted and contextualised to participant needs.
Other activities that were monitored by the project included legal outreach sessions by legal aid partners, Working Group Meetings by legal aid organizations and electoral management bodies and grants, the implementation of Constituent Engagement Grants activities, and Public Service Announcement (PSA) on access to justice, decentralization and elections through community radios and Radio Television Timor-Leste (RTTL). The effectiveness of these activities was measured using a variety of indicators developed to suit activity objectives, including the quality and the effectiveness of legal information sessions, the effectiveness of CEGs activities in increasing community participation in local government, the effectiveness of working group meetings, quality of monthly financial report, and quality of monthly narrative reports.
Rapid Assessments:
Project Municipal Coordinators worked together with Belun in conducting annual rapid assessments of the 100 target suco councils in Baucau, Covalima, Ermera, Liquica and Oé-Cusse Special Region. Using SukAt tools developed by Counterpart International, Municipal Coordinators interviewed suco council members, checked available documents and wrote annual capacity reports for each of the 100 target sucos. The M&E and Local Governance Strengthening (Component A) teams also assisted Belun in developing appropriate M&E tools, enabling them to further measure suco improvement and report according to the project’s PMEP indicators.
A total three rapid assessments were conducted during the life of the project, as follows:
Rapid Assessment to 100 Suco Councils 2014-2016
# Of Suco who increased in Capacity No Year Total Suco % Capacity of Suco % Increase (overall) 1 2014 100 NA 47.5% NA 2 2015 100 95 55.0% 18.7% 3 2016 100 99 70.0% 28.2% Total 52.2%
Full results from the rapid assessment are available in Annex 2.
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X. Annexes
(submitted separately to this document as a zip file)
Monitoring & Evaluation Data Annex 1: PMEP Annex 2: Rapid Assessment Results (2014 – 2016) Annex 2b: List of Sucos Annex 3: Advocacy Tracking Matrix Annex 4: CEGs Recipients
Training Modules Annex 5: Training Modules
Research Reports Annex 6: Suco Councils’ Role in Effective Local Governance: Review, Considerations and Recommendations Annex 7: Access to Justice Brief: Legal Assistance in Timor Leste Annex 8: Access to Justice Brief on Community Dispute Resolution in Timor-Leste Annex 9: State of Legal Aid Report Annex 10: SOLA Advocacy Plan Annex 11: New Voices: The Engagement of Young Timorese in the Political Process Annex 12: Special Report on Courts and Alternative Dispute Resolution Annex 13: Access to Justice Brief: Functional Assessment of the Oé-Cusse and Baucau District Courts Annex 14: Legal Information and Advocacy Guidebook
Posters, Videos & PSAs:
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All available at the Mai Munisípiu Facebook page: https://web.facebook.com/BaDistrito
Mai Munisípiu National Closing Ceremony
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