Assessing the implementation and impact of Timor-Leste’s

cash payment schemes

Dr Joanne Wallis

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The cash payment schemes• Pensions for veterans of the resistance and

their survivors• Recovery packages for IDPs from 2006 crisis• Reintegration payment to the ‘petitioners’• Support allowance to the elderly and disabled• Bolsa de Mãe payment to vulnerable and low-

income female-headed households

Implementation of the schemes

• Administrative challenges:– Identification of recipients– Difficult to make payments– Quickly changing rules– Alleged collusion and abuse of authority– Insufficient oversight

• But, also examples of innovative practicality and efforts to improve system

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Impact of the schemes

• Role in peacebuilding

• But, unintended consequences:– Politicisation and appeasement– Dependence and expectation of payments– Do they best serve goals of poverty reduction,

social protection and development?– Create a significant economic burden for the

state

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Are the schemes a good investment?

• Some payments are wasted– But, some are invested

• Need to compare to alternatives: – Does infrastructure or social housing deliver more

benefits?– Cash payments are a simple way to deliver an

economic benefit

• The schemes might need to be better targeted:– Based on need, rather than category of social group

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