Sustainable Development Goals
The Project
The Cooperativa de Credito Union Initiative Haburas Comunidade, through the group Friends of Vemasse, has requested an Agribusiness Specialist to work with the Credit Union to deliver its mission to educate the local community on pathways to livelihood sustainability.
The Credit Union aims to:
- Empower young people and male and female farmers by fostering collaboration and the sharing of experiences. Through this collective approach, farmers will strengthen their productivity and efficiency. By gaining practical agribusiness knowledge, skills, and innovative practices—including creative approaches to marketing their produce—they will discover new ways to add value to what they grow, and explore diverse opportunities to support their families and communities.
- Foster collaboration and connectedness among farmers, local government and private businesses by exploring together ways of working to boost diverse and sustainable agriculture-based economic activities in Vemasse. This includes exploring opportunities for agritourism to build resilience against climate-related production shocks.
- Promote and support knowledge transfer through training and mentoring, led by Palms Volunteer, to ensure skills reach local communities.
The Location
Timor-Leste is one of Australia’s nearest neighbours and the poorest country in our region but has much to offer in terms of beauty and adventure. Despite nearly 400 years of neglect during the Portuguese colonial period, Japanese invasion and Indonesia’s occupation from 1975 -2001, Timor Leste is now a new vibrant democracy enjoying its independence. Governance systems are being established and rebuilding of infrastructure destroyed by Indonesian backed militias in 1999 – 2000 is happening.
Timor Leste is a young nation where 59 percent of the population is under 25 years of age. Among the many challenges facing the government are how to ensure all children receive an education from primary to high school, and that employment opportunities are available once leaving high school or university.
Vemasse, Timor Leste, is an administrative post of Baucau municipality. It consists of 7 sucos (villages) and 24 aldeias (hamlets) and has a population of approximately 11,000 inhabitants. Vemasse suco lies along the main costal road from the capital Dili to Baucau. [1]
[1] https://mfov.org.au/timor-leste-and-vemasse
The Challenge
Agribusiness in Timor-Leste communities is focused on shifting from subsistence to income-generating farming through initiatives that increase productivity, diversify crops, and build local capacity. Key areas include sustainable intensification of crops like coffee and horticulture, developing livestock and aquaculture sectors, and improving market access for farmers, often through partnerships with local NGOs. However, challenges remain in areas like land and water management, skills gaps, and climate vulnerability, which many development projects are working to address. [1]
Growing Agribusiness in Timor Leste has faced challenges[2] such as:
- Land and infrastructure: Issues with freshwater procurement, irrigation management, and the lack of real estate agents for finding land are persistent problems.
- Skills and training: A skills gap exists in the workforce, and there is a need for more quality education and training for farmers.
- Climate change: Timor-Leste is vulnerable to extreme weather events such as droughts and floods, which threaten agricultural productivity.
- Regulatory landscape: Businesses may face difficulties with regulations, including language barriers for licenses and a lack of regulatory guidance for infrastructure.
Given this situation, the Credit Union is committed to educating the communities on pathways to economic sustainability. The Friends of Vemasse has been created to focus on strategies that will support farmers (men, youth, women) develop skills to support sustainable livelihood utilising agricultural assets currently produced in Vemasse communities such as rice and livestock.
This initiative will be complemented by introducing Basic English and Computing lessons to youth and women to maximise chances of creating sustainable livelihood sources.
By introducing agribusiness, English and computing skills, the Credit Union intends to address lack of viable livelihood sources among the farmers and unemployed and out-of-school youth in the communities.
[1] https://www.dfat.gov.au/sites/default/files/tomak-supply-chain-participant-eoi-form-mercy-corps.pdf
[2] https://export.business.gov.au/find-export-markets/shortlist/advanced_technology/agtech/tls
About You
Palms participants for this placement will need to demonstrate the following qualifications, skills, and attributes:
- Formal education in Agribusiness, Agriculture, or Rural Development.
- Experience in budgeting, marketing, and enterprise development.
- Ability to guide farmers in accessing markets, improving productivity, and diversifying income.
- Experience in crop and livestock management, value chain analysis, and agribusiness operations.
- Understanding of climate-smart and sustainable farming practices.
- Skills in developing, implementing, and reviewing agricultural initiatives.
- Training expertise across design, delivery, implementation, and assessment.
- Ability to work collaboratively within a team in community contexts and with various stakeholders.
- A commitment to teamwork, coaching, and mentoring others.
- Patience, adaptability and flexibility in responding to diverse challenges.
- Cultural sensitivity and openness to engaging within a different cultural context.
- The ability to cope with cultural isolation and different living standards
- Commitment to serve in Vemasse for a minimum of 12 months, working with limited resources and facilities.
- Willingness to engage their Australian community in promoting the work of the host organisation and their role.
How You Will Help
First you must be willing to learn from the local community.
Over the first several weeks you are asked not to change anything or suggest a change to operations. During that period you will take the time to learn language and cultural mores from a local counterpart willing to mentor you. You will also start a register of the strengths of the current personnel and the assets in the community/country that might be used to achieve the goals of the assignment.
You need to commit to clarifying why things are done the way they are rather than presuming from your own cultural lens to outline what is missing. So, you need to ask questions to enable you to learn from your hosts, rather than in ignorance make suggestions about how things can improve. Palms training will prepare you for this approach.
From then onward, you will apply your expertise in the following areas:
- Knowledge Transfer & Training
- Design, implement and assess workshops on sustainable farming and agribusiness management.
- Share practical agribusiness knowledge, including crop management, livestock care, and sustainable farming practices.
- Introduce modern techniques such as precision farming, digital tools, and climate-smart methods.
- Business & Market Guidance
- Support record-keeping, budgeting, and financial literacy for farm enterprises.
- Support farmers in understanding value chains, pricing, and market opportunities.
- Provide advice on marketing strategies, including the use of technology and social media to sell produce.
- Resilience & Sustainability
- Guide communities in adopting practices that reduce environmental impact and build resilience against droughts or climate shocks.
- Promote diversification of livelihoods, such as agritourism or value-added products.
- Help farmers access government programs, grants, or cooperative opportunities.
- Mentoring & Coaching
- Offer one-on-one or group mentoring sessions to provide tailored advice.
- Act as a trusted advisor, listening to challenges and helping mentees set action plans.
- Help youth, women, and men farmers build confidence and leadership skills.
- Encourage innovation and problem-solving to adapt to changing agricultural challenges.
- Community Engagement
- Strengthen collaboration among farmers, local leaders, and organisations.
- Encourage peer-to-peer learning and collective problem-solving to foster trust and respect.
- Document the project progress and impact by collecting evidence and stories of change from the trained facilitators and participants.