In three years, Manuel Gaspar's blacksmith business has gone from producing seven tools a week with a handful of helpers to 140 tools a day and 23 permanent staff.
Job opportunities in Baucau District of Timor-Leste are limited, but with some help, Gaspar was able to transform an ailing family trade into a successful enterprise.
“Before, we would each earn US$30-60 a month, but now each person makes about $100. We’ve produced about 8,000 tools since 2006 and made more than $50,000 income,” he said.
At the blacksmiths’ production centre, teenage boys work alongside old men producing everything from shovels and forks to katanas (a machete-like tool) and a device for shredding corn from the cob.
Assistance was provided by Centro de Desenvolvimento Comunitario (CDC), a local NGO that supports community-based activities, which helped the blacksmiths with everything from new production techniques to bookkeeping.
“When people need these kinds of products, they go to Baucau because the quality is so high. All the benefit of the business goes to the blacksmiths,” Simao Luis da Costa, CDC's programme coordinator, said.
Job-creation programmes
For the past five years, the government, International Labour Organization (ILO) and UN Development Programme (UNDP) have worked to boost employment opportunities in the tiny nation.
All around Timor-Leste, rural communities have been learning new skills and income-generating activities as part of a five-year, 5 million euro ($7 million) programme called Skills Training for Gainful Employment (STAGE), funded by the European Commission.
STAGE created more than 11,000 sustainable jobs and it was through this programme that CDC received funds and training to further support rural communities.
More than 40 percent of Timor-Leste’s population of 1.1 million live below the poverty line, according to the World Food Programme (WFP), while about 70 percent live in rural areas, accounting for about 90 percent of country’s poor, based on ILO figures.
Levels of literacy are low - about 50 percent, according to UNDP’s Human Development Report - and the education system has been failing to produce a workforce that is actually capable of working. The youth demographic, 15-29 years old, is of particular concern as it accounts for about a quarter of the population.
Top of the priority list for Timor-Leste’s 2015 Millennium Development Goals is eradicating extreme poverty and hunger. Creating gainful employment opportunities in rural areas is key to achieving this.
Capacity building
Timor-Leste became independent in 2002. José Assalino, chief technical adviser and liaison officer for ILO, told IRIN that since then, there has been a significant gap between government institutions, skills and business training providers, and micro-finance institutions – the core elements needed to help rural populations into jobs.
“The way we designed and implemented the STAGE programme was divided into three objectives: to build the capacity of the Secretariat of State for Vocational Training and Employment, to strengthen the country’s training providers and to empower communities,” he said.
Pradeep Sharma, senior assistant country director for UNDP’s Poverty Reduction and Environment Unit, said this kind of project was crucial to tackling unemployment.
“When STAGE started, there was no institution that would provide skills training. You needed a systematic programme that would not just give skills to people, but build the institution which will then take off so that you don’t need any international support,” he added.
Although STAGE was officially brought to a close at a ceremony held in Baucau in May this year, the initiatives it helped set up will continue through the institutions established and strengthened over the five years.
Skills transfer
Over at the blacksmiths’ workshop, business is booming as the group completes orders for the government departments and NGOs.
“We also train blacksmiths who come here from other districts. Then they can go back and train people in their own districts,” said Gaspar.
He has already taken his training to the districts of Viqueque in the south, Manatuto in central Timor-Leste and Lautem in the east.
“This was a small initiative that has become something bigger. We are proud of what we do here,” he said.
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Job opportunities in Baucau District of Timor-Leste are limited, but with some help, Gaspar was able to transform an ailing family trade into a successful enterprise.
“Before, we would each earn US$30-60 a month, but now each person makes about $100. We’ve produced about 8,000 tools since 2006 and made more than $50,000 income,” he said.
At the blacksmiths’ production centre, teenage boys work alongside old men producing everything from shovels and forks to katanas (a machete-like tool) and a device for shredding corn from the cob.
Assistance was provided by Centro de Desenvolvimento Comunitario (CDC), a local NGO that supports community-based activities, which helped the blacksmiths with everything from new production techniques to bookkeeping.
“When people need these kinds of products, they go to Baucau because the quality is so high. All the benefit of the business goes to the blacksmiths,” Simao Luis da Costa, CDC's programme coordinator, said.
Job-creation programmes
For the past five years, the government, International Labour Organization (ILO) and UN Development Programme (UNDP) have worked to boost employment opportunities in the tiny nation.
All around Timor-Leste, rural communities have been learning new skills and income-generating activities as part of a five-year, 5 million euro ($7 million) programme called Skills Training for Gainful Employment (STAGE), funded by the European Commission.
STAGE created more than 11,000 sustainable jobs and it was through this programme that CDC received funds and training to further support rural communities.
More than 40 percent of Timor-Leste’s population of 1.1 million live below the poverty line, according to the World Food Programme (WFP), while about 70 percent live in rural areas, accounting for about 90 percent of country’s poor, based on ILO figures.
Levels of literacy are low - about 50 percent, according to UNDP’s Human Development Report - and the education system has been failing to produce a workforce that is actually capable of working. The youth demographic, 15-29 years old, is of particular concern as it accounts for about a quarter of the population.
Top of the priority list for Timor-Leste’s 2015 Millennium Development Goals is eradicating extreme poverty and hunger. Creating gainful employment opportunities in rural areas is key to achieving this.
Photo: Wikimedia Commons  |
| A map of Timor-Leste and surrounding countries |
Timor-Leste became independent in 2002. José Assalino, chief technical adviser and liaison officer for ILO, told IRIN that since then, there has been a significant gap between government institutions, skills and business training providers, and micro-finance institutions – the core elements needed to help rural populations into jobs.
“The way we designed and implemented the STAGE programme was divided into three objectives: to build the capacity of the Secretariat of State for Vocational Training and Employment, to strengthen the country’s training providers and to empower communities,” he said.
Pradeep Sharma, senior assistant country director for UNDP’s Poverty Reduction and Environment Unit, said this kind of project was crucial to tackling unemployment.
“When STAGE started, there was no institution that would provide skills training. You needed a systematic programme that would not just give skills to people, but build the institution which will then take off so that you don’t need any international support,” he added.
Although STAGE was officially brought to a close at a ceremony held in Baucau in May this year, the initiatives it helped set up will continue through the institutions established and strengthened over the five years.
Skills transfer
Over at the blacksmiths’ workshop, business is booming as the group completes orders for the government departments and NGOs.
“We also train blacksmiths who come here from other districts. Then they can go back and train people in their own districts,” said Gaspar.
He has already taken his training to the districts of Viqueque in the south, Manatuto in central Timor-Leste and Lautem in the east.
“This was a small initiative that has become something bigger. We are proud of what we do here,” he said.
mc/ds/mw
This article was produced by IRIN News while it was part of the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs. Please send queries on copyright or liability to the UN. For more information: https://shop.un.org/rights-permissions
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