UNDP-UNEP Poverty-Environment Initiative
PEI is a global UN programme that helps countries to integrate poverty-environment linkages into national and sub-national development planning, from policymaking to budgeting, implementation and monitoring.
Timor-Leste gained independence in May 2002 and remains one of the poorest countries in the world in terms of human development.
Around 42 per cent of the population lives below the national poverty line ($0.55 per day). Timor-Leste faces a combination of sluggish growth, rising inequality, and a rapidly expanding population, indicating that the poverty headcount may be expected to increase.
Investments in infrastructure, social services and programmes to revive economic growth have remained stagnant since independence, resulting in marginal improvements in general living conditions and livelihood opportunities. A key limitation to nation-building activities is a very low human resources skill base. Only 50 per cent of adults are literate, while less than one-third of adults have some secondary education.
Some 80 per cent of the population is rural and over 80 per cent relies on agriculture as the primary means of livelihood. Twenty per cent of the population is currently food insecure, and an additional 24 per cent are vulnerable to food insecurity.