DILI, 29 july 2022 (TATOLI) – The Secretary of State for Equality and Inclusion (SEII) said Timor-Leste’s Integrated Approach to Gender Equality is an important approach to addressing gender inequality in the country.
The representative of SEII, Maria Martins said Integrated Approach to Gender Equality covered laws, policies and programs, and activities to address gender inequality in Timor-Leste.
“This Integrated Approach to Gender Equality involves perspectives of all parties, including civil societies, people with disabilities, LGBTI groups, and other vulnerable groups,” Martins said during the celebration of the sixth anniversary of TATOLI, in Dili, on friday.
She said the Integrated Approach to Gender Equality would benefit both men and women in the country.
Martins said the Government of Timor-Leste has allocated 12.7 (US$2 million) percent of the 2022 General State Budge (GSB) to achieve the goal of the Integrated Approach.
“This integrated approach is crucial to achieving our goal of leaving no one behind and creating an inclusive society in Timor-Leste,” said Martins.
She said the government through SEII will establish Gender Working Groups (GWGs) across ministries and in the municipalities: “We will soon present our National Action Plan on Gender-Based Violence (NAP-GBV) to the Council of Ministries for its approval and implementation.”
“We have a number of programs which are crucial for addressing the gender inequality in the country, including Sexual and Gender-Based Violence Program, Women’s Economic Empowerment Program, and Women’s Political Empowerment and Leadership and Women, Peace and Security Program,” she concluded.
She said equality between men and women exists when both sexes can share equally in the distribution of power and influence.
In Timor-Leste, 14.9% of women aged 20–24 years old were married or in a union before age 18. The adolescent birth rate is 41.9 per 1,000 women aged 15–19 as of 2015, down from 50 per 1,000 in 2010. As of February 2021, 38.5% of seats in parliament were held by women.
Timor-Leste News Agency or TATOLI always strives to provide fair, accurate, and reliable information to the national and international audience.
TATOLI is a national news agency delivering news across the country and the world in four different languages; Tetum, Portuguese, English, and Indonesian.
TATOLI was established following the decision of the Council of Ministers (CoM) on February 3, 2016, which was published in the Official Gazette of the President of the Republic march 16, 2016.
It was officially launched by former Prime Minister Rui Maria de Araújo, on june 27, 2016.
On march 7, 2017, the Council of Ministers approved the creation of TATOLI – Timor-Leste News Agency (in Portuguese: “TATOLI – Agência Noticiosa de Timor-Leste, IP”). The decision came following the creation of a news portal, then called ANTIL, in march of 2016. The main objective of TATOLI is to be the source of official information, with the production of information for national, regional, and international audiences. With a multichannel, multimedia, multiplatform and multitasking character, the News Agency may evolve and serve as a center for the production of cinema and State documentation, as a public opinion institute, as a forum for public information, as a center for the management of archives and State documentation, and as a center for communication applied training and research.
Journalist: Filomeno Martins
Editor: Nelia Borges
