Poor economic management in East Timor has resulted in hunger, poverty, unemployment and social instability.

Hunger refers to the shortage of food, which is the most fundamental need of human life. Hunger is also a general indicator of a people's backwardness. The solution requires the development of a broad-based economic development strategy.

Poverty refers to the condition of those human beings who are deprived of what they require to live with dignity. There are various dimensions to poverty – economic, cultural and legal.

The most alarming consequence of economic recession in developed countries is unemployment. In underdeveloped countries like East Timor, this is the lack of economic means. Unemployment causes humiliation and depression, leading to drug use, delinquency, family crisis and despair. It causes psychosomatic illnesses, psychological changes and personality disorders. Job creation is the key to addressing all social issues (John Paul II).

Hunger, poverty and unemployment contribute to dehumanization. This often results in social instability, which is one of the major human costs of an economic crisis. The social life of any country cannot function without economic stability.

How are these economic and social ills to be overcome? They have to be tackled by a free and unified people. The core moral solution entails reconstructing human solidarity, both in theory and in practice, given that true economic development must be guided by the criterion of solidarity. In the words of Vatican Council II: ‘The economic activity regulated by its own methods and laws has … exercised itself within the limits of moral order to fulfil God's designs of human beings’ (GS, 64).

Economic activity affects all human activities.

Today, more than ever, there are strong reasons to increase our efforts to raise agricultural and industrial production, as well as the level of services, in order to meet the needs and growing aspirations of an expanding human population.