LocationsBuilding Peace Together: UNDP Timor-Leste Launches Phase II of Social Cohesion Project
May 11, 2026
When a renovated multi-purpose court opened in a community in Timor-Leste last year, it was more than a construction project. It was a gathering place — a physical symbol of what happens when people sit together, listen to one another, and decide that peace is worth building. That court, and everything it represents, is at the heart of UNDP’s Social Cohesion Project.
In 2025, the project's first phase reached over 1,300 people directly — more than 46% of them women — across communities, schools, and institutions. Community members and local authorities activitly participated in joint problem-solving initiatives. Young people, including students with disabilities, learned negotiation, conflict resolution, and leadership skills through an extracurricular programme that expanded to four secondary schools, engaging more than 400 students in total. Fifteen workshops brought together 184 participants to co-develop community guidelines on non-violent conflict resolution and human rights-based policing — not designed for communities, but with them.
Perhaps most tellingly, every participant in partnership-building trainings for the National Police (PNTL), the Ombudsman's office (PDHJ), and community representatives reported improved knowledge of rights-protective law enforcement and conflict-sensitive community coordination. The evidence from Phase I is clear: when communities are genuinely engaged, when women and youth have space to lead, and when institutions are willing to listen — things change.
That foundation is now the launchpad for Phase II.
Building on What Works
Phase II of the Social Cohesion Project deepens and scales the approaches that proved most effective, extending the project's reach to rural communities in two new sukus at the municipal level, which were selected through a deliberate, participatory process. At the Second Project Board Meeting held on 8 May 2026 — bringing together the Ministry of Interior, the g7+ Secretariat, PNTL directorates, education authorities, the Ombudsman's office, and the Presidents of the Municipal Authorities of Baucau and Viqueque — the 2026 Annual Workplan was formally adopted. Suku Samalari in Baucau Municipality and Suku Uma-Quik in Viqueque Municipality were confirmed as the sites for community-level implementation.
The work ahead is structured around three interconnected pillars?: strengthening community security strategies through inclusive dialogue and peacebuilding mechanisms, with a target of at least 40% women and meaningful youth participation; empowering women and young people through civic education, with a goal of 50% women and 60% youth in target communities; and institutionalizing and scaling peace-consolidation tools so that what is learned is not lost when a project ends.
What 2026 Will Look Like
This year, the project will co-lead two high-level policy dialogues with the g7+ Secretariat, focusing on locally led youth engagement for social cohesion and on gender-responsive approaches to preventing violence. These dialogues will bridge what happens at community level with national policy conversations — turning grassroots evidence into institutional change.
At community level, gender-responsive dialogues on peace and social cohesion will continue, alongside technical workshops to strengthen the civic education content developed in Phase I. Staff and focal points of the Ministry of Interior will receive Training of Trainers sessions on the Civic Education Manual, which has been developed and validated by the Ministry of Interior through consultations with diverse stakeholders, including youth and women. This approach will ensure that knowledge is effectively disseminated and extended beyond the project's direct reach.
Reaching even further, a national civic education outreach campaign — including a six-episode podcast targeting youth and women — will be produced and disseminated through the Democracy Bus platform. And the peace consolidation toolkit developed through Phase I will be formally validated and institutionalized, with gender principles integrated throughout.
Why It Matters
Social cohesion is not an abstract concept in Timor-Leste. It is built in neighbourhoods, in schools, in the relationships between communities and the institutions meant to serve them. The Social Cohesion Project is grounded in the belief that lasting peace is not delivered from above — it is grown from within, by people who have the tools, the knowledge, and the space to shape their own communities.
Phase II is that next step.
