UN Timor-Leste Resident Coordinator’s message on COVID19 response and recovery

COVID19 has drastically damaged health, social, and economic systems. The response and recovery measures needed in the short to medium-term include protecting health services, ensuring social protection and basic services are provided especially for those who are most vulnerable, protecting jobs and supporting businesses as well as strengthening social cohesion and community resilience. We need to halt the economic slide, to keep markets and the economy functioning, and to safeguard the physical and economic health and wellbeing of people specially children, women and girls, people with disabilities and others around the world.

The COVID19 health crisis is unfolding fast into an unprecedented global economic crisis. The sudden reduction in economic activity has put severe stress on families, households and individuals, as well as businesses and employers.

The United Nations system in Timor-Leste is fully mobilised to work with Government and other partners, to support the health response and address the social and economic impacts. To date, the UN Timor-Lest has successfully mobilized USD 16.6 million for the COVID-19 response, and an additional USD 2.2 million worth of reprogramming has been identified and is now being implemented to help respond to the impact of COVID-19.

Currently UN agencies and partners are assisting the people and Government of Timor-Leste through various measures including implementation of COVID-19 cash transfer programme, ensuring many services continue to be provided, conducting a joint UN Socio-Economic Impact Assessment, launching the air service to ensure transportation of humanitarian cargo and workers, providing technical support on development of the Government’s Economic Recovery Plan (2021-2023) and supporting the Government’s participation in the ‘Recover Better Together Action Forum’ in New York on 26th June.