WFP Regional Bureau for Asia and the Pacific - 2016 SPRs RBB 2016 SPRs by project type | Page 248

Standard Project Report 2016
Country Context and WFP Objectives
Country Context
Timor-Leste is a young nation which was internationally recognised as an independent state in 2002. From 1999 to
2012, the country had a series of peace-keeping missions following 24 years of occupation by Indonesia and close
to 500 years of Portuguese rule.
Timor-Leste is one of the most successful newly independent countries to have peacefully transitioned to
democracy, and has enjoyed political stability over the past few years. In early 2015, the Prime Minister and former
guerrilla leader, Xanana Gusmao resigned, following which a successor, Dr. Rui Araujo, was appointed, and 2016
was a peaceful year for the country focused on development.
Despite this political stability and recent economic growth, poverty, food insecurity and malnutrition remain
widespread in Timor-Leste. According to the 2014 National Living Standards survey, 41.8 percent of the population
lives below the national poverty line. Despite slight improvements in recent years in both the prevalence of wasting
and stunting in children under 5 years of age, Timor-Leste has one of the highest rates of malnutrition in Asia, with
levels of chronic malnutrition (stunting) categorised as ‘critical' and levels of wasting as ‘serious', according to the
World Health Organization (WHO). According to the 2013 Timor-Leste Food and Nutrition Survey (TLFNS), stunting
decreased from 58 percent to 50 percent and wasting decreased from 19 percent to 11 percent, over the seven
years since the 2009 Timor-Leste Demographic Health Survey.
Since September 2015, Timor-Leste has been severely impacted by El Niño induced drought, with northern and
eastern coastal areas and the autonomous region of Oecusse suffering from reduced rainfall well into the middle of
2016. According to the 2015 Global Hunger Index produced by the International Food Policy Research Institute
Timor-Leste, Democratic Republic of (TL)
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