Providing short term employment, with a focus on youth

The International Labour Organization work in partnership with the Government of Timor-Leste to rehabilitate and maintain rural roads using labour-intensive approaches. This provides significant employment benefits to very poor people in rural areas who have few alternative sources of cash income. As the program focuses on rural road rehabilitation and maintenance, it complements the activities of the Government of Timor-Leste and other donor in the sector which focus on national roads and road rehabilitation.  The program is funded by  the European Union, Ireland, Norway, and AusAID.

The overall objective of the Project is to contribute to employment generation, poverty reduction, economic growth and peace building through the rehabilitation, construction and maintenance of rural infrastructure using LBT. The Project aims to improve 300 km of rural roads and provide routine maintenance on 1,800 km of roads. This should generate over 1.2 million person days of work, reaching some 26,000 beneficiaries of which 30% will be women. The project will also raise the capacity of the government and the private contracting sector to improve and manage the road network using appropriate sustainable labour-based techniques and procedures.