A healthy, educated workforce is critical to Timor-Leste's future productivity and growth. Australia's investments focus on supporting the Government of Timor-Leste to deliver essential services, including for the most vulnerable, through efficient budget allocation, improved service quality and strong oversight.

Partnership for Human Development

Up to $120 million (Phase 2, 2021-2026)

The Australia Timor-Leste Partnership for Human Development (PHD) is a 10-year program dedicated to improving the wellbeing of Timor-Leste's people and increasing their ability to contribute to the nation's development. PHD focuses on strengthening government systems to deliver higher-quality primary healthcare and basic education and to advance disability equity and gender equality. These investments contribute to achieving Timor-Leste's Strategic Development Plan 2011–2030. The program's overarching goal is that people in Timor-Leste are healthier, better educated and better able to contribute to Timor-Leste's development.

Health

PHD is supporting health system strengthening for Primary Health Care through: clinical workforce development and post graduate medical training (Family Medicine Program); health infrastructure upgrades and provision of essential equipment; clinical services (through UNFPA and Marie Stopes) in Family Planning and Maternal and Newborn care; basic financial management, budgeting and reporting skills at municipal health directorates; and advisory support and digital stock management (mSupply) for the central procurement and warehouse (INFPM).

In addition to the PHD program Australia continues to invest in programs to strengthen health systems in Timor-Leste, through:

• Direct Budget Support Program ($10 million, 2025-26), supporting Ministry of Health to design a performance-based finance program to drive system reform and positively impact Maternal and Child Health outcomes (including malnutrition).
• Partnerships for a Healthy Region (PHR) initiative ($620 million, 2023-2027) that aims to help build resilient and equitable health systems in the Pacific and Southeast Asia. The initiative focuses on persistent health challenges in the region including communicable and non-communicable diseases, and sexual and reproductive health and rights. PHR initiative currently funds 14 partners with activities planned in Timor-Leste. These include Australian research institutions, public and private sector partners, multilateral organisations, and NGOs implementing programs in a diverse range of areas including health workforce development, NCD screening detection and early treatment, emergency and outbreak response, laboratory strengthening, field epidemiology training, vector surveillance and control, and health information system strengthening.

Basic education

Our support to education in Timor-Leste seeks to improve the quality and inclusiveness of basic education, contributing to improved literacy and numeracy for all Timorese children. We work in partnership with the Government of Timor-Leste to strengthen the education system. We work closely with the Ministry to implement the Apoiu ba Lideransa, Mentoria no Aprendizajen (ALMA) program, which supports the professional development of school leaders and teachers and implementation of the National Basic Education Curriculum. The foundation of the ALMA program is local mentors, who are trained to provide additional support to school leaders and teachers, including supporting peer-based learning activities through the GTP (Grupo Traballo Professores or Peer Leader Group: Teachers) and GTL (Grupu Trabalho Lideransa or Peer Leader Group: School Leaders). In addition to training and mentoring school leaders, our education program has supported the rollout of the Eskola.tl platform, which helps school leaders access information, record details about their schools and report on their classroom observations.

ALMA has a specific emphasis on increasing the number of female leaders in rural schools and inclusive education.

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