From Planning to Delivery: Municipalities Improve Annual Action Plans

Municipal Annual Action Plans (AAPs) play an important role in guiding how local governments identify their priorities and resource needs.

Since 2022, the Australian Government through PARTISIPA has been working alongside municipal authorities and government partners to strengthen planning and budgeting processes across Timor-Leste.

The aim has been simple: help municipalities develop clearer, more realistic plans that respond to community needs and align with their responsibilities.

Over the past several years, PARTISIPA has supported closer coordination between the Ministry of State Administration (MSA), the Ministry of Finance (MoF) and municipal authorities.

This support has helped municipalities better understand their mandates, improve planning and budgeting skills, and make greater use of indicators and baseline data to inform decision-making.

The process has also created more opportunities for citizen engagement and improved coordination between different municipal services.

In 2025, support for the development of Municipal Annual Action Plans for 2026 placed greater emphasis on community participation, priority setting and coordination.

PARTISIPA worked with municipalities to strengthen planning discussions and make better use of consultation mechanisms, including Municipal Coordination Councils and budget review processes.

Local Governance Advisers also worked closely with roads and water teams to improve data collection and cost estimates for priority infrastructure investments.

Later in the year, additional support helped Municipal Presidents prepare for budget review discussions and strengthen alignment between municipal proposals and national priorities.

The results are already being seen. The quality of Municipal Annual Action Plans improved in 2025, with higher numbers of projects approved for implementation in 2026, particularly in Aileu, Ainaro, Bobonaro, Covalima and Viqueque – all of which more than doubles their number of approved projects!

Stakeholders highlighted the value of improved coordination between planning, finance and procurement teams, as well as support to navigate planning and budgeting processes where national guidance was unclear.

These improvements are helping municipalities develop plans that are more realistic, better coordinated and more responsive to local needs.

While progress has been made, some challenges remain.

These experiences reinforce the importance of continuing to strengthen links between municipal planning, budgeting and national public financial management systems.