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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