Covalima Community Centre

Covalima Community Centre (CCC) support women’s groups with a focus on livelihoods strengthening and – increasingly – leadership; and are becoming more involved in advocacy work at district level. CCC’ vision is to build a community in which everyone has the opportunity to develop their capacities so that they can contribute to the social and economic development of the District of Covalima, Timor-Leste.

Covalima Community Centre AND IWDA

IWDA has partnered with CCC since 2009. Currently, IWDA resources ALFeLa to implement the ‘Rural Women’s Development Project’ through funding from the Australian Government’s Australian NGO Cooperation Program (ANCP). The project supports several CCC’s women’s leadership and gender equality training initiative, CCC’s network of women’s livelihood groups, and community outreach and advocacy.

A 2025 evaluation found strong evidence that the RWDP has been an effective program with significant achievements across all outcome areas (women’s leadership, women’s economic empowerment, awareness of gender-based violence, disaster preparedness and climate change adaptation, and CCC’s organizational capacity).

Quick Facts

  • In the 2023 local elections, CCC supported the re-election of 1 female village chief and 13 female sub-village chiefs (increased from 8 sub-village chiefs in the previous election) in the Covalima Municipality.
  • CCC have provided women’s groups with seed funding, training and help to identify and connect to markets to develop their income-generation opportunities, and many have increased their incomes producing and selling vegetables, virgin oils, baskets and tais cloths.
  • CCC is the only organisation supporting the Prevention Pillar of Timor-Leste’s National Action Plan against Gender-Based Violence in Covalima Municipality, through training and awareness raising.
  • CCC leads LGTBQIA+ inclusion in the rural municipality of Covalima – with an organisational policy, staff training, strong LGTBQIA+ participation in community activities, and research initiatives currently underway.