Timor-Leste

Battered by Weather

As one of the newest countries in the world, Timor-Leste is struggling with food insecurity as they’re highly dependent on agriculture, which is vulnerable to extreme climate events.
WFP/Dageng Liu

Highly Dependent on Climate and Food Imports

After becoming an independent country in 2002, Timor-Leste is one of the world’s newest nations. More than 45 percent of people are living in poverty, and this is the highest number in Southeast Asia. Although the country has made significant developmental progress, Timor-Leste still experiences some of the highest rates of under-nutrition in the world.

Timor-Leste is a food-deficit country that imports 60 percent of its food, and agricultural productivity is low. The country is vulnerable to climate change and a range of natural hazards. Disasters such as landslides, flash floods, tropical cyclones, earthquakes, forest fires pose a threat to the livelihoods of more than 70 percent of the population who depend on rain fed agriculture as a main source of income.

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WFP/Injun Song
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Hunger Stats

WFP’s Work in Timor-Leste

Despite the challenges, here’s how we’re fighting hunger and building sustainability.
Timor-Leste, Dili, 28 October 2022

In the photo: in Becora Community Health Center in Dili, a mother and her baby is looking at Super Cereal, a blend that is rich in nutrition that is given to malnourished pregnant and breastfeeding women
Nutrition
WFP helps ensure that people – particularly those with high nutrient needs – have access to diverse and nutritious diets year-round. This includes young children, adolescent girls and pregnant and nursing mothers.
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Timor-Leste, 13 August 2020

In the photo: a school girl from Escola Filial Basica (EBF) Leilaus enjoying her school meal during lunch break.
School Meals
WFP is working with the Government to re-start the national school feeding programme. WFP will introduce fortified rice as a part of the school meals programme targeting 79,000 children in over 400 schools.
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Timor-Leste, Dili, 10 October 2022

In the photo: two Timor-Leste office workers (driver and Field Support Unit) are loading super cereal boxes into a car to transport to community health centers
Emergency Relief
WFP is providing logistics coordination and transport services to facilitate ongoing humanitarian responses, and developing an emergency preparedness plan at national and local levels.
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