Working within institutions in fragile settings: strengthening national leadership through the embedded approach in Timor-Leste

This paper provides an overview of selected lessons learnt from the ILO’s involvement in fragile Timor-Leste. In particular it focuses on the embedded approach, also referred to as the working within approach, and its significance for the sustained engagement of the ILO in Timor-Leste.

The research was conducted in Timor-Leste between 30 October to 11 December 2013, commencing with a desk-review of ILO’s project documents, evaluations, publications, etc. About 20 semi-structured interviews were conducted with the ILO’s staff in Timor-Leste, government counterparts and one social partner representative in the period of October to December 2013. Given the constraints of time and scope, this paper is a mere stock tacking exercise and reflects primarily the impressions and perceptions of those interviewed. This paper does not aspire to present a comprehensive institutional perspective of the ILO.