It is difficult to be sanguine about Timor-Leste’s progress towards achieving the localized Millennium Development Goals (MDGs). The share of people living under the national poverty line increased from 36 per cent in 2001 to 50 per cent in 2007. The maternal mortality ratio remains unacceptably high. About half of the children are underweight. In Dili, the capital, 58 per cent of the youth have no jobs (Government of Timor Leste and UN, 2009). Can Timor-Leste scale-up MDG-related investments? (…)