Timor-Leste

N-PEACE (Engage for Peace) Peace March in Timor-Leste

March 29th, 2012

Marchers en route to Peace Park

Hundreds of youth and womens’ organizations gathered in downtown Dili to march for peace. The event was part of the N-Peace campaign on Women Peace and Security supported by UNDP and AusAID under the N-Peace initiative through partnership with Search for Common Ground Timor-Leste (SFCG-TL), and UNFPA.  It was hailed as a success by organizers, participants, and onlookers alike.

Although organizers had initially hoped for about 300 participants, it is estimated that between 500-600 youth from the university in Dili, women’s groups and religious institutions participated. The one-kilometer march, ending at Peace Park and accompanied by singing, dancing, and speeches, promoted peaceful and cooperative relations among Timorese peoples.

Just weeks away from the second round of 2012 presidential elections, the march could not have come at a more critical time: in 2006 and 2007, pre-and-post election violence plunged Timor-Leste into turmoil.

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SFCG began work in Timor-Leste in April 2010 with an initial focus on youth, conflict and media through a Youth Radio for Peace Building project, funded by USAID. The program aims to transform the way youth in Timor-Leste deal with conflict, and improve their development prospects through skills building, media and outreach activities, and enhanced mechanisms for collaboration. In the first year of this two-year project, SFCG, in cooperation with its primary project partner, the Timor-Leste Media Development Center (TLMDC), will work with community radio partners to produce a 24-episode weekly radio magazine – Babadok Rabenta! (the "Drums of Peace") – using stories produced by young radio reporters in each of Timor-Leste's 13 districts. These magazine shows, each focused on different topics or themes, will air on each community radio station, as well as Radio Timor-Leste (RTL), and will be followed by one hour talk shows hosted by local radio presenters who have been trained in "Common Ground" talk show techniques.

In the second year, the project will shift to produce a weekly radio drama focused on youth issues, reconciliation, conflict and peacebuilding, based largely on the themes, issues and topics explored during the first part of the program. At the end of the program, the responses to talk shows (calls, SMS), feedback from programming focus groups, and two youth forums conducted with youth leaders nationwide will be compiled into Youth View reports, measuring, with accurate indicators, youth responses to each topic in the series in each district. Combined with thorough data analysis, these reports will demonstrate which issues are most important and controversial to the youth in each area, thereby essentially taking the "pulse" of the youth population of Timor-Leste.

The project will directly involve Timorese youth from all 13 districts who will participate in all aspects of the radio production, as well as a number of stakeholders, including the government, who will benefit from information about the needs of youth, which they can consider in strategizing Timor's development and peace building. The Timorese society will also benefit through listening and involvement in the radio programs, and interactive discussion and feedback.