DILI, June 02, 2021 (TATOLI) – The Government of Timor-Leste, together with its humanitarian partners, including the United Nations had officially launched a joint appeal for US$ 32 million to respond to the residual humanitarian needs to assists the most vulnerable affected people and support with the early recovery efforts in Timor-Leste.
According to the document released yesterday, The appeal request US$32 million (US$ 8.8 million for immediate needs and US$23.9 for short term requirements) that will directly assist the 65,000 people and indirectly benefit all flood-affected population.
The appeal was to address critical gaps across nine sectors, including camp coordination and camp management and emergency shelter, water, sanitation and hygiene, gender and protection, food security, nutrition, health, education, early recovery and livelihoods, and emergency logistics.
Minister of Foreign Affairs and Cooperation, Adaljiza Magno said that despite the significant efforts from the government side to deliver the emergency needs to flood-affected populations as well as increasing the contingency fund to implement short and long term programs to recover from the calamity, there are still considerable funding gaps needed to be filled.
“Therefore on behalf of the government, calling upon for a voluntary contribution to help Timor-Leste to scale-up measures to recover from catastrophic disaster,” Minister Magno said in a statement.
The United Nations Resident Coordinator Roy Trivedy emphasized that “it is imperative to speed up the delivery of assistance to Timor-Leste at this critical stage to prevent further loss of lives, additional damage to essential public services and infrastructure, and stop the spread diseases.”
He added the tragedy has hit at a time when the country is already struggling with the dangerous situation caused by Covid-19.
On 23 April, the National Parliament approved the amendment to the 2021 General State Budget to respond to the impact of Covid-19 and the flooding, by increasing the Covid-19 fund from US$ 31 million to US$ 287.6 million and the contingency fund from US$ 23.8 million to US$ 65.2 million.
Thus the 2021 Timor-Leste floods response plan will facilitate coordination by the government and the humanitarian partners focusing on the next seven months from end-may to end-December to support sustainable recovery and help lay the foundations for building back better.
Under the government leadership, more than 86 organizations, 9 UN agencies, 63 humanitarian partners, and 14 ministries and departments would participate in the 7-month joint response plan ending in December 2021.
The latest official figures show that 33, 835 households have been affected by the floods across all 12 municipalities, including RAEOA, with 44 reported fatalities.
In addition, extensive damages have been reported to houses, buildings, including health facilities and Covid-19 quarantine and isolation centers, public infrastructure, and agricultural land.
Journalist: Filomeno Martins
Editor: Rafael Belo
