Representatives from Timor-Leste's Deputy Prime Minister's Office Visit TNP2K's Secretariat

27 August 2014

With the aim of learning about the National Team for the Acceleration of Poverty Reduction (TNP2K), as well as its role in encouraging policy changes in poverty reduction, representatives from the office of Deputy Prime Minister of Timor-Leste visited the office of TNP2K’s Secretariat. The visit was facilitated by Australia’s Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade (DFAT). They were received by TNP2K’s Executive Secretary Bambang Widianto and several of TNP2K’s senior staff.

Widianto spoke about TNP2K’s organisational structure, including the secretariat, and its role in driving policy improvements of social assistance programmes.

"TNP2K is like a kitchen. We cook various policies, propose improvement to research data and design pilot tests. These proposals are then taken into consideration by the Vice President and ministers when deciding on poverty reduction policies,” said Widianto.

Bambang also explained that contributions to improving and implementing policies remain with the ministries themselves, as all authority, including the budgetary is contained within the ministries.

The delegation from Timor-Leste was led by Marcelino Magno, who is the chief of staff at the office of Deputy Prime Minister of Timor-Leste. He was accompanied by advisers from Timor-Leste as well as from the Australian Embassy in Dili. "We received advice, and learnt that TNP2K is a great place for us to learn about the development of poverty reduction politices," said Magno.

Widianto said that four factors drive the effectiveness of policy improvements by TNP2K. These are a champion in the government, the existence of authority in making strategic decisions, the availability of adequate resources and a pool of talented and capability professionals.

After the meeting, the group visited the management of the Unified Database (BDT) for a closer look at BDT management facilities.