Capacity-building for trade integration and accession to the WTO

Timor-Leste is the beneficiary of the EIF's first institutional capacity-building project exclusively dedicated to supporting accession to the WTO. EIF support helped accelerate the WTO accession towards significant milestones, including successfully completing the work at the level of the Working Party in view of accession at MC13. Key highlights of the support included:

• Support to internal institutional coordination, including the Working Group and the Inter‑ministerial Committee and the establishment of the National Secretariat for WTO Affairs.
• Coordination of the legislative action plan and the preparations of, and participation at, the Working Party. 
• Support to the translation of legislation into English and awareness-raising activities.
• Awareness-raising on the WTO accession process and challenges and opportunities arising from WTO membership to local stakeholders in different municipalities in Timor-Leste.

Gender-sensitive and climate-resilient market access

The EIF has worked with the Government of Timor-Leste and partners, including FairTrade, to support women's economic empowerment. 

Through the EIF's support to gender-sensitive and climate-resilient market access through FairTrade, producers in the coffee value chain, most of them women, were able to export 10 containers totalling USD 525,436 destined for Canada, Japan and the United States of America, with all the exported coffee certified as fairtrade and organic. 

The EIF also supported the Women's School of Leadership in Timor‑Leste, including the graduation of the first set of participants at an event presided by the country's President.

Women's Empowerment and Tourism Recovery project

Under the EIF Empower Women, Power Trade initiative, the Ministry of Tourism, Trade and Industry of Timor-Leste in conjunction with the United Nations World Tourism Organization (UNWTO) through the Women Empowerment and Tourism Recovery Project – Timor-Leste, has built capacities and improved the enabling environment for women's economic empowerment during the COVID-19 tourism recovery process.

A Tourism and Gender Assessment was carried out and a report on it widely disseminated in the sector to raise awareness of women's empowerment in the tourism sector. A tourism and gender training needs analysis was also carried out and formed the basis for a Training of Trainers Seminar on new tools to deliver vocational training efficiently and effectively.

Facilitating Cross-Border Paperless Trade

A cross-country project implemented by UNESCAP has improved the capacity of Timor-Leste (along with Bangladesh, Cambodia and Nepal), to develop voluntary trade facilitation and paperless trade action plans to remove bottlenecks and promote cross-border electronic commerce. Legal and technical readiness assessments in implementing the cross-border electronic exchange of trade data and documents were conducted. The preliminary findings were presented at national consultations for review, consolidation and validation. Based on these findings and recommendations, initial action plans towards cross-border paperless trade were also developed.