Knowledge, Attitudes and Skills for Timor-Leste's Development:

An Opportunity for Dialogue Biennial Conference co-organized by Universidade National Timor Loro Sae and Victoria University, Melbourne, Australia, to be held in Dili, July 4th and 5th 2011

History
y In 2005 Victoria University held a conference in

Melbourne on the topic Co-operating with TimorLeste, a number of Timorese Ministers attended, including the Prime Minister. The Vice-Rector (International) of the University, Dr Aurelio Guterres also attended and at the end of the conference participants voted to hold another conference in Dili. Resistance Coalition to convent a conference on Strategic Planning for East Timor, before the referendum. The two key organizers of that conference were Joao Cancio Freitas, then a PdD student at Victoria University and Emilia Pires, then a Melbourne resident.

y Victoria University had previously worked with the

History (continued)
y Due to internal circumstances in Timor-Leste it

was 2009 before the next conference took place, held at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs on July. Its theme was Transforming Timor-Leste for Sustainable Development, Human Rights and Peace, the main UNTL participants in the planning committee were from the Department of Community Development, but academics from all faculties played a role in chairing the seven parallel streams. y Three Ministers spoke, many workshops took place, nearly 300 people attended, most of them UNTL students. Many of the presentations can be found at http://www.scribd.com/Transforming%20TimorLeste

Aims and Objectives

Aims and Objectives of this Conference include y Enabling students to see and participate in dialogue about the country which goes beyond debate between political parties and helps them link their study with Timor-Lestes development challenges y Enabling UNTL staff to link with their counterparts at Victoria University and other overseas universities to assist with curriculum development in diverse areas. y To enable Timorese civil society to make alliances with various part of UNTL to discuss future research possibilities and other join activities.

2011 Conference
The seven streams for the conference - Agriculture and Rural Livelihoods - Education - Youth Transitions - Health - Financial Inclusion and Trade - Infrastructure and National Systems - Law and Justice

Practical Arrangements
The Conference has been planned largely by a joint committee of members from Melbourne and Dili, meetings have been held in both places and some joint meetings using Skype have been held. Victoria University has employed three students to work on various aspects of the conference administration. These are Apolinario Guterres (financial management), Gabriela Vaca (promotion) and Zulmira Fonseca (liaison and translation).

Suggested Outcomes
y The outcomes of the last conference were

recommendations to government presented to the Deputy Prime Minister at the end of the conference (text of these can be found on the scribd website for example http://www.scribd.com/doc/26833433/Financial -Inclusion-and-Trade-Recommendations y This time it is proposed that action plans or small projects are produced by the workshops and discussed and prioritized in the final plenary session, these could include proposals for joint research projects, students practical work, advocacy projects or media products, e.g. films, publications etc.

What is knowledge?
Don Clarks presentation of the relationship

Three domains of Education

from Benjamin Blooms Taxonomy of Educational Objectives

Cognitive domain (intellectual capability, ie., knowledge, or 'think') Affective domain (feelings, emotions and behaviour, ie., attitude, or 'feel') Psychomotor domain (manual and physical skills, ie., skills, or 'do')

Mode 2 Knowledge Mode 1 Knowledge

Mode 1 is knowledge of the discipline-based type, typically produced in universities. Written about in academic journals and taught in schools and universities, it is made up of systematized academic disciplines, propositions and theories, which are often tested without reference to the students imagination, or acquisition of Mode 2 knowledge. In colonised countries this knowledge usually comes from the outside. Mode 2 is socially distributed knowledge, the knowledge of application that is produced in workplaces outside the university sector, it is output driven, specific and transient. It uses methods that might not be seen as legitimate when measured against the traditional university criteria for knowledge production, but it is valuable in economic terms and vital for social and economic development. It includes indigenous knowledge.

Community Capital & Sustainability Pyramid

Maintained by: Charlotte Brunt | Authorised by: Anne Langworthy with permission from Maureen Hart (Guide to Sustainable Community Indicators (1999), Second Edition www.sustainable measures.com).

Agriculture and Rural Livelihoods

This stream has a great many issues to focus on What are the knowledge and skills needed to be a successful farmer and rural leader? What attitudes are holding back the development of prosperous farming? Not only what knowledge to farmers need to be successful, but what is the attitude of the rest of the community to their existing knowledge, a great deal of it gained by their own experience, experimentation and observations. Have farmers been deskilled during the Indonesian occupation?

Education
y The formal education system is looked on by

everybody to promote knowledge, good attitudes and skill development. But the community as a whole has a responsibility to discuss and debate what it expects out of the education system, what skills should young people learn? Should they forget their old farming skills when they move on into secondary education? Or should they build on them, to improve the quality of life in their district? send them off to the city for higher education or should it be to build skills to improve the quality of life in rural areas?

y Should schooling be to select a few people and

Youth Transitions
y Young people in all societies experience considerable

challenges as they transition from the schooling system to work or further education. In Timor-Leste they have even greater difficulty in deciding their career paths. Little information is available to them; y The emphasis on the Millennium Development Goals (basic education) means that little attention has been paid to senior secondary schooling or education for skills development. y Status and a number of other extraneous variable influence attitudes towards various career options often leading to poor choices.

Health
y HIV, Malaria and TB are diseases which require a high level of

community awareness to prevent and/or treat them, the media and the education system can play a key role in promoting strategies for getting rid of mosquitos, avoiding risky behaviour and properly carrying out TB Treatment. y Nutrition is another field where attitudes are all important, during the so-called Hungry Season, Timorese resort to eating their traditional diet of root crops and leafy green vegetables, actually more nutritious than the rice they cannot get during that season. Lack of nutritional knowledge also leads to deficiencies in protein, micronutrients and certain vitamins which are available in traditional diets.

Financial Inclusion and Trade

People living mainly in the subsistence sector in any country have difficulty in understanding the value of money and how it operates. Financial Inclusion programs teach people about saving, managing and investing their money they also include access to affordable savings accounts, credit facilities and financial advice. This stream will also discuss how more local trading networks can be created to improve the return to producers and improve the access of Timorese to the variety of products produced locally.

Infrastructure and National Systems

The ability of many people to improve their economic situation is limited by absence of good infrastructure systems. This includes not only hardware such as roads but software i.e. systems for maintaining them. Electricity, telephone and information communications technology (ICT) systems have become the subject of national debate, yet not much of it has led to the improvement of the systems. Difficulties of getting books, medical supplies, money and traded goods moving around the country due to lack of a working post office are felt by many sectors.

Law and Justice

y The Law provides a basic framework all other sectors

depend upon, it requires improved communications and understanding by all citizens in addition to further institution building and education of legal professionals. The strengthening of the Rule of Law also requires an understanding of Timor-Lestes particular history to create a system where all citizens feel they will be treated fairly.

ENJOY THE CONFERENECE !