Agroforestry Skills for Employment and Resilience in Timor-Leste

Background

The European Union (EU) Agroforestry Skills for Employment and Resilience in Timor-Leste (“Agroforestry-Skills”) programme seeks to promote green and sustainable economic diversification and resilience in Timor-Leste through private sector development, technical and vocational education training (TVET) for youth integration in the labour market.

One of the priorities of the Government of Timor-Leste is to diversify the economy, giving special focus to Agroforestry private sector development. This involves enhancing the small and medium enterprises sector, while also removing some of the binding constraints to private sector growth and improving infrastructure, increasing efficiency in the public sector, facilitating credit, and the building up of skilled labour.

A lack of skilled workers and high youth unemployment, particularly of young women, are major development challenges. The Agroforestry-Skills programme aims to increase quality employment and entrepreneurship opportunities in the agroforestry sector through skills and private sector development, for youth, particularly young women and girls, while promoting a green and circular economy.

The Programme will facilitate skills provision in TVET to be more closely aligned with the needs of the local rural economy of the target geographies, supported by improved capacity of trainers and training institutions and greater participation of industry and the private sector.

Expected Outcome

The overall Agroforestry-Skills Programme outcome is an increase in quality employment and entrepreneurship opportunities in sustainable Agroforestry for youth, through improved quality of skills and TVET provision, particularly young women and girls to meet their specific needs, while promoting a green and circular economy.

Programme Strategy

The Agroforestry-Skills Programme provides a direct response to the growth priorities of Timor-Leste by supporting private sector development, job creation for youth and diversification of the economy. The support of the Programme will be focused on training related to the development of agroforestry sector which will contribute to the promoting of green, circular, and sustainable economic diversification through private sector development.

The focus of the Programme is on four outputs:

1. Creation and development of an observatory of the Agroforestry Sector to identify the green and circular economy needs and opportunities for employment of the agroforestry sector in Timor-Leste.
2. Improvement in the quality and inclusivity of the TVET through the development of processes and methodologies linked to the private sector demands and training offers.
3. An increase in the skills and competences of managers, trainers, and trainees of Agroforestry TVET organisations in Timor-Leste.
4. Youth and women are further integrated in the labour market and employment, using digital platforms and facilitation services.