Summary Paper: Country Case Studies of the Role of ICTs in Post-Conflict Reconstruction Timor Leste

Chanuka Wattegama 1.0. Background: The Democratic Republic of Timor-Leste (popularly known as East Timor), the eastern part of the island Timor in Pacific ocean, was colonized in mid 1600s. It remained a Portuguese colony till 1975, and declared independence on November 28, that year. Nine days later it was invaded and occupied by Indonesian forces. Incorporated to Indonesia as its 27th province, Timor Leste underwent an unsuccessful campaign of pacification over the next two decades. Number of lives lost during this period as a result of conflict is estimated from 100,000 250,000. In August 1999, in a UN-supervised referendum, an overwhelming majority of the people of Timor-Leste voted for independence from Indonesia. From then till the multinational peace keeping forces arrived the following month the conflict intensified, with Indonesia backed anti-independence Timor militants carrying out a large-scale, scorched-earth campaign. This resulted in loss of another 1,400 lives. More than 300,000 were forcibly pushed to Western Timor as refugees. Most of the country's infrastructure, including homes, irrigation systems, water supply systems, telecommunication systems and schools, and nearly the entire electrical grid were destroyed. Timor Leste gained independence officially in 2002, but few more years passed before it reached normalcy. For a prolonged period the law and order was maintained by the assistance of UN and international forces. The last major incident was in 2008, when a rebel group staged an unsuccessful attack against the president and prime minister. Since then the country is gradually moving ahead both in terms of political stability and development. (CIA Factbook, 2012) Timor Leste still remains one of the poorest countries in the world with a per capita GDP of USD 731 in PPP terms and 37% of its population living below USD 1.25 per day. Adult literacy rate is just over 50% and mean years of schooling (of adults) is 2.8. As shown in Figure 1, its human development indices are far below those for the world, and only slightly above those of low human development countries. (UNDP, 2011)

Figure 1: Timor Lestes Human Development indices benchmarked

Source: UNDP, 2011 2.0. Approach The study intends to explore the role of Information and Communication Technologies (ICTs) in the postconflict reconstruction of Timor Leste from four angles, namely economic growth, human development, reconciliation and governance (Figure2): Figure2: The illustration of the proposed approach

2.1. ICTs for growth: Timor Leste shows an impressive growth for the last three years (6.1% in 2010; 12.9% in 2009 and 11% in 2008) compared to most poor countries, but it should be taken with a pinch of salt. This is not uncommon in the immediate aftermath of a conflict. The international attention brings adequate funds for development programs and rebuilding infrastructure. The reconstruction activities amplify the growth figures. The challenge however is to sustain that growth over a longer period, during which the country has to stand on its own rather than depending on international support forever. Telecommunication plays no small role in economic growth, especially in small island nations like Timor Leste. (Its connection to Indonesia will not help much.) Perhaps the only option available for a tiny country, with a population of one million, little natural resources and no established industries to develop its services sector. This calls for strong telecom links with the outside world, which Timor Leste does not seem to have now. Timor Telecom, which began its operations in 2003 is the only telecom services provider. The monopoly behavior has resulted in exorbitant prices for the telecom facilities.1 It calls for liberalization of the telecom sector, with empowering Communication Regulatory Authority (ARCOM) the regulator. 2.2. ICTs for Human Development: As shown above, Timor Lestes human development record is not impressive, especially in terms of poverty alleviation, health and education. The efforts of economic development should also be accompanied with those to improve social and economic conditions. The study will use UNs MGD framework to explore the role of ICTs in improving human development conditions of Timor Leste, especially along the path set by the previous study the author has been a part of.2 2.3. ICTs for Reconciliation: Post conflict political stability shouldnt be taken for granted. That happened only through a planned attempt to bring the hostile communities together to work for common national goals. Both the new (digital) and traditional (analog) media have a role in this. The study will explore the role of Internet, email, social media3 and more important radio and TV in recovery efforts. 2.4. ICTs for Governance: To distinguish the term governance from government: "governance" is what a "government" does. The World Bank defines governance as the exercise of political authority and the use of institutional resources to manage society's problems and affairs. (World Bank, 1991) The study will explore how far ICTs have been used for this purpose. Ideally, it should be an analysis of the success of e-government efforts -the use of technologies to facilitate the operation of government
1 2

This study plans to assess the quality and prices of the telecom services. Available at http://www.apdip.net/projects/rhdr/RHDR-Report.pdf 3 The preliminary research shows relatively high number of Facebook accounts and groups for a developing country.

and the disbursement of government information and services. However, it is difficult to imagine Timor Lestes systems have developed to a stage that can be internationally benchmarked. So it will be more an exercise studying how it can be done in future. 3.0. Methodology: The study will largely be qualitative analysis. It does not plan to use the quantitative survey techniques, as the country has not maturated to that level. The other quantitative studies, of course, will be used as secondary sources. The approach is mainly twofold: a literature review and a series of face to face interviews (Skype interviews, if face to face is not possible). The identified interviewees4: Interviewees (organization/individuals) World Bank County Director and project officers UNDP Resident Representative and officers Ministry of Infrastructure, TL Ministry of Economy and Development, TL Ministry of Education, TL Ministry of Health, TL Ministry of Tourism, Commerce and Industry, TL Timor Telecom Researcher: Able Pires da Silva Related areas Economic Development, Trade, Governance Human Development, Governance Infrastructure Development (mainly Telecom) Economic Development, Trade Use of ICTs in education USE of ICTs in healthcare Economic Development, Trade Telecommunication Developments Telecommunication Developments

This is a broad and dynamic list. It will change with time.

4.0. The way forward The objective of this study is not limited to exploring the role of ICTs in rebuilding Timor Leste in the ten years of its post conflict history. If it were so, it would be of little use, given that the first few postindependence years were uneventful and the country has yet to reach basic standards in all four areas above. So the study takes the liberty of analyzing how ICTs should be ideally used in the development process may be within next 5-10 years. It aims to present specific recommendations.5 Specifically, the need for telecom liberalization is felt. The study intends to explore how the regulator can be empowered and competition is introduced to beat the monopolistic telecom prices. In terms of human development and governance, the possibilities of replicating the elsewhere successful models will be explored. With the approval of infoDev, it can even lead to a report to be submitted to Timor Leste government though World Bank. References: Central Intelligence Agency, USA (2012) The World Factbook, Timor Leste, https://www.cia.gov/library/publications/the-world-factbook/geos/tt.html (Accessed January 18, 2012) UNDP (2011), Timor-Leste Country Profile: Human Development Indicators, http://hdrstats.undp.org/en/countries/profiles/TLS.html (Accessed January 18, 2012) World Bank (1991) World Bank, Managing Development - The Governance Dimension, 1991, Washington D.C. http://wwwwds.worldbank.org/external/default/WDSContentServer/WDSP/IB/2006/03/07/000090341_200603071 04630/Rendered/PDF/34899.pdf (Accessed January 18, 2012)

The author has previous experience in a similar exercise when he responded to a request by Timor Leste government to Sri Lankan government on e-government initiatives, in 2005.