Assessing the Implementation and Impact of Timor-Leste’s Cash Payment Schemes

Abstract

In 2013, Timor-Leste ranked 134 out of 186 countries in the United Nations Development Programme’s Human Development Index (UNDP 2013). In 2012, 37.4 per cent of its 1.17 million citizens lived on less than US$1.25 per day, and 68.1 per cent of its population lived in what the UNDP defines as ‘multidimensional poverty’—that is, they experienced multiple deprivations at the individual level in health, education and standard of living (UNDP 2014). However, since 2005, Timor-Leste has had access to relatively large revenues from the Bayu-Undan and Kitan oil and gas fields. It may also receive additional future revenues from