Fair Futures for 250 women & girls in Timor-Leste

ETWA believes that creating Fair Futures for Women and Girls in Timor-Leste requires a long-term commitment to people-centred development. This is why ETWA’s current focus is working closely with the LO’UD Cooperative, a small organisation whose members live in isolated communities on the eastern tip of the island. ETWA and LO’UD are working together on Fo-Ba-Malu (Giving to Each Other), a design and business collabotation initiative, which includes a collection of beautiful, naturally dyed textiles and a range of unique products that embody social, cultural, economic and environmental sustainability.

On a national level, outcomes of nation-wide research undertaken by ETWA members in Timor-Leste between 2011 and 2012 into the economics of textiles demonstrated that broader sector change is needed to establish more sustainable production environments for women and their organisations. In response, ETWA began to think about how our work with LO’UD can influence this broader change. This is how the Fair Futures for Women and Girls project developed. Fair Futures for Women and Girls in Timor-Leste aims to embed international fair trade standards into the production environment in Timor-Leste to empower the thousands of women who rely on hand-weaving as their main livelihood. This will take time and strategic action, and cooperation with a range of stakeholders. However a powerful inspiration is the demonstration effect, the belief that evidence inspires others to put theories and actions to work.

Working to further strengthen LO’UD’s capacity and the Fo-Ba-Malu brand locally and nationally over the coming years will demonstrate that creating sustainable and just production environments for women is possible. Through the next phase of Fo-Ba-Malu, a myriad of business and production tools will be developed, tested and perfected with LO’UD then made available to other weaving groups across the nation.

The ETWA Timor-Leste Working Group has undertaken a range of activities in support of LO'UD since January 2013. These include training sessions via Skype and email and developing a series of production support tools and resources. The training has occurred simultaneously during LO’UD’s establishment phase and while they have managed orders for other clients. The training and tools provided to the LO’UD team via email and Skype have seen noteworthy improvements in organizational processes and production management and align to LO’UD’s capacity and their learning journey. LO’UD has begun to embed more efficient processes into their management practices and have become more aware of the intricate steps required to administer both their organisation and production processes. LO’UD staff have identified that further in-depth training and ongoing support is required.

The flexible approach and delivery of the training has allowed us to respond to both organizational and production issues as they have emerged and it has also highlighted areas and gaps where the LO’UD team needs immediate assistance.

A more detailed report of activities undertaken to date in commitment the Fair Futures vision can be downloaded through ETWA’s Global Giving Portal. http://www.globalgiving.org/projects/fair-women-girls-timor-leste/