Program Coordinator of the women's political organization Caucus, Paula Corte Real said they do not have programs to prepare women to participate in the village chief election to be held in 2014.
SEPI hasn't set a target for female participation in the upcoming village elections, but expects women's participation will increase.
While there's no specific program for them, she said she was optimistic that the number of women would increase in the election for community leaders next year.
"We believe this because in the first period there were seven female leaders from the 442 villages and in 2009 for the second period this number increased to 11 women who were village chiefs, so this is significant as the participation of women is starting to improve," said Coordinator Corte Real in Mascarenhas, Dili.
She said at the sub-village level there are currently 26 women leading sub-villages, therefore they believe the participation of women will be better in the next election.
Coordinator Corte Real added that while they don't have training programs, some other women's organizations had started training to encourage women to participate in the community leader elections. "Now we are more focused on the municipal elections," she said.
She said they would continue to search for funding to support and encourage women to participate in the village and municipal elections in 2014.
On the other hand, the Secretary of State for the Promotion of Equality Idelta Maria Rodrigues said they hadn't set a target for women's participation in the village elections but she said women's participation was starting to get better.
According to her the participation of women is very important for overall development, therefore SEPI will analyse and observe the local and municipal elections so women can express their creative thoughts to contribute to the development process.
"I think it is very important to increase the number of women participating in policy at the national, district and rural level," Secretary of State Rodrigues said.