The Friendship Agreement Principles

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Step 6: The people of the Sub-District and the Administrator will welcome the Mayor or members of the group. It is likely that there will be some kind of community ceremony. During this period a Memorandum of Understanding is signed between the Mayor and the Sub-District Administrator to seal the Friendship. This MOU will need to contain the basic vision, purpose, goals and values of the Agreement. The MOU needs to be written in Portuguese, English, Tetun and possibly the main local language. It is important on this first visit to meet with the people in the relevant District and Sub-District Administration as well.. Working with and alongside the local authority is important as "doing your own thing" can cause tensions and problems.

Step 7: When financially possible arrangements are made for the Sub-District Administrator or other community members to pay a visit to their Friendship community. Again, some kind of community ceremony and welcoming celebration would be appropriate.

Step 8: Once the relationship is formalised, ask your partner community to establish an elected commission with representatives from the community and the local authority. A commission of between 8 and 10 people is recommended. Try to encourage your community to have as many women as they have men on their commission so that you can hear from all sectors of the community. Then begins the process of developing a strategic plan for the Agreement and beginning to discuss the aims and objectives of the Agreement. Now it is time to do a needs assessment in co-operation with the Timorese community to gauge how the relationship can best progress ( see sections on developing a strategic plan and needs assessment) . At this stage it is sensible to negotiate a few key issues: How often are visits going to take place? How to build community support and involvement for the Agreement? What are the main expectations and visions?

revisit first five steps?

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