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SITAN

The Situation Analysis of Children in Timor-Leste

The Situation Analysis of Children in Timor-Leste was jointly produced by the Ministry of Finance’s General Directorate of Statistics, the Commission on the Rights of the Child, and UNICEF. It provides an update, current as of 2020, on the previous Situation Analysis from 2014. The analysis is based on existing data, mainly from the Government of Timor-Leste. This includes national surveys such as the 2015 Housing and Population Census, the 2016 Demographic and Heath Survey, and the 2020 Food and Nutrition Survey, as well as ministries’ information management systems, such as the Education Management Information System (EMIS). Other sources include UN databases as well as the reports of UN human rights bodies. Key informant interviews with line ministries also guided the analysis. 

The analysis uses a sectoral approach to key areas including health, nutrition, water, sanitation and hygiene (WASH), education, child protection, etc, but also uses a life-cycle approach to examine the critical periods of early childhood and adolescence. The report has applied the lenses of gender equality, of inequality and exclusion, children’s and human rights and environmental and climate change imperatives. 

To ensure that the views of children were taken into account, UNICEF organized a large-scale nationwide consultation with adolescents in 2019, in partnership with the Alumni Association of the Timor-Leste Youth Parliament. These consultations and the views of the participants are presented in a special section of the report.

This situation analysis shows that in its short history as an independent country, Timor-Leste has made significant progress for children and adolescents. However, more needs to be done to prevent vulnerable children from being left behind.

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