East Timor: UN mission sets up national development agency
27 October -- The United Nations Transitional Administration in East Timor (UNTAET) has established a national development agency, with the goal of leaving behind a viable planning organization after the UN's withdrawal from the newly independent territory.
The new National Planning and Development Agency brings together five UNTAET units - Donor Coordination, Gender Affairs, Environment Protection, Economic Planning and Project Assessment, and Census and Statistics - and will be responsible for monitoring and evaluating the national programme for reconstruction and capacity building.
The agency is headed by an East Timorese, Emilia Pires, who returned to the territory last year to work with the East Timor Development Agency. Prior to that, Ms. Pires had been working in public service in Australia, where she had been living since 1975.
