All
references
are
from
the
report
Timor-Leste:
Poverty
in
a
New
Nation:
An
Analysis
for
Action,
Asian
Development
Bank
et
al.
Dili,
May
2003.
PDF copy of the report (2.2 Mbyte)
East
Timor
is
among
the
poorest
countries
in
East
Asia.
(xiii)
Population
is
830,000.
(xv)
Percentage
of
population
under
the
age
of
14
=
49%
(xv)
Life
expectancy
is
in
the
range
of
57
years.
(p.75)
Food
insecurity
is
widespread.
(p.99)
Poverty,
affecting
two
in
five
persons,
is
predominantly
rural,
and
higher
in
the
West
than
the
East.
(vii)
In
2001,
the
population
felt
vastly
more
empowered
compared
to
Indonesian
times,
and
the
majority
of
the
least
well-off
had
higher
economic
status.
(viii)
The
burden
of
disease
is
largely
due
to
communicable
diseases
such
as
malaria,
tuberculosis,
respiratory
tract
infections
and
childhood
infections.
(p.75)
One
in
two
people
live
without
safe
drinking
water
and
three
in
five
without
sanitation
facilities.
(p.75)
Malnutrition
(measured
by
the
proportion
of
underweight
children,
based
on
weight
for
age)
is
a
serious
problem
in
(Timor
Lorosa'e),
with
over
four
in
ten
children
under
the
age
of
five
being
moderately
or
severely
malnourished
in
2002.
Wasting,
as
measured
by
weight
for
height,
is
used
as
an
indicator
of
short-term
access
to
adequate
food,
and
is
therefore
affected
by
seasonal
food
availability.
Over
one
in
ten
children
are
moderately
or
severely
wasted.
Stunting,
which
is
measured
by
height
for
age,
is
an
indicator
of
longer-term
nutritional
deficiency
over
multiple
seasons.
One
in
two
children
are
moderately
or
severely
stunted.
This
evidence
points
to
a
widespread
prevalence
of
chronic
malnutrition.
(p.
77)
School
reconstruction
and
increased
enrolments
are
the
main
achievements
since
then.
(xi)
Developing
a
policy
framework,
large
school
population,
high
adult
illiteracy,
low
internal
efficiency
and
low
primary
school
enrolment
are
the
main
challenges.
(xi)
Youth
illiteracy
rate
(%
of
population
aged
15-24)
=
23%
(xv)
Adult
illiteracy
rate
(%
of
population
aged
15
and
older)
=
52%
(xv)
Within
each
age
group,
the
rich
are
more
likely
to
have
attended
school.
The
older
the
generation
and
the
poorer
they
were,
the
least
opportunity
they
had
for
education.
As
a
consequence,
adult
illiteracy
rates
are
high.
The
implications
are
that
the
pool
of
well-educated
persons
who
could
be
recruited
to
teach
in
the
schools
is
very
small,
posing
a
constraint
to
efforts
to
improve
education
quality.
(p.
67)
About
half
of
the
students
do
not
have
a
complete
set
of
textbooks.
(p.73)
About
81
percent
of
students
have
a
desk
to
work
on
and
a
chair
to
sit
on
but
20
percent
do
not.
(p.73)
The
average
student-teacher
ratio
is
62
for
public
primary
school
in
2000/2001,
with
a
wide
range
from
17
(in
a
school
in
Dili)
to
243
(for
a
school
in
Turiscai
sub-district
of
Manufahi).
(p.73)
