The Government of Timor-Leste has officially launched the Census Thematic Report 2022.
Today 14 May 2024, the Government of Timor-Leste in partnership with the United Nations launched the Census thematic report 2022 in the office of the Ministry of Finance in Aitarak Laran Dili.
The Government of Timor-Leste, through the National Institute of Statistics, a Public Institution, has collected information on every resident in the country, since the beginning of the census on 5 September, to support the planning of and budgeting for development programs in Timor-Leste.
This will be critical as Timor-Leste has one of the youngest populations in Asia, with the youth forming more than 70% of its population.
During the launching, Minister of Finance Ms. Santina Cardoso emphasized the importance of Data in development planning to achieve the SDG and National Strategic Development Plan.
“Our government is sincerely committed to leveraging data for the optimization of developmental planning. Timor-Leste made a political commitment to implement the Global Agenda of 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), therefore these reports have come out at the opportune time with indicators that will measure the progress made. This data will also give provide the progress in implementation of the National Strategic Development plan (NSD 2011- 2030 but also the various sectoral strategic plans for Health and Education. Said Ms. Santina Cardoso, Ministry of Finance of Timor-Leste”
“Maternal health is one of the priority health programs in the country. As fertility continues to decline from an average of 4.5 children per woman in her lifetime in 2015 to 3.6 children per woman, the number of recent births is also declining among women of all ages. The Government has made a lot of investment in the health sector to provide sexual and reproductive health services. Ministry of Health and its partners will be able to review the plans using the indicators that have been presented for each municipality”. She added
United Nations Resident Coordinator (a.i) in Timor-Leste Bilal Aurang Zeb Durrani stressed through the launching of the thematic reports therefore remind us of the urgency for us to review the targets set for the development of various sectors’
“These thematic reports therefore remind us of the urgency for us to review the targets set for the development of various sectors, including health, education, and housing, so that these sectors’ work matches the realities on the ground. In addition, these reports will inform stakeholders on the crucial needs of vulnerable groups, that are being left behind in the country’s development such as those in rural areas, those that have never gone to school, etc”
“As the United Nations family, we are proud to partner with the Government to support all efforts which help in making data available for development planning and policy making". He added
Investing in data such as population and censuses and in human capital will help the country to harness the potential of all its residents, including those that are traditionally marginalized, for example; women, young people, the elderly and persons with disabilities. During the last census conducted in 2015, Timor-Leste recorded a population of 1.18 million.
Since 2004, UNFPA has continued to provide technical assistance to the Government of Timor-Leste through the National Institute of Statistics formerly called GDS to conduct census.
Globally, UNFPA supports countries in population and housing censuses, and other population based surveys through long standing partnerships with Statistics Offices around the world.
