Geographical Locations - East Timor

• (Statistical) Number of Inhabitants per Doctor:
• CIA World Factbook - East Timor

Organisations and Networks

UN and Multinational

• WHO Country Profile - Timor Leste
• WHO - Environmental Burden of Disease: Country Profile – Timor-Leste
• Asian Development Bank - Timor Leste
• UN - Timor Leste
• UNDP - Timor Leste
• UNFPA Population Indicators - Timor Leste
• UNHCR Timor Leste
• UNIFEM - East Timor Projects
• FAO - Country Profile: Timor-Leste
• IMF - Democratic Republic of Timor Leste and the IMF
• Timor-Leste and the World Bank
• United Nations Integrated Mission in Timor-Leste

Government

• Commission for Reception, Truth and Reconciliation in East Timor - The Commission is an independent statutory authority that will inquire into human rights violations committed on all sides, between April 1974 and October 1999, and facilitate community reconciliation with justice for those who committed less serious offenses.  The Commission has three main functions; truth seeking, community reconciliation, and reporting on its findings and making recommendations to government.
• Ministry of Labour and Community Reinsertion, Information Center
• Ministry of Health - Ministério da Saúde, Site in Portuguese
• Official Government Website

Non-Government

• Alola Foundation - The Alola foundation was established in 2001 by East Timor’s then First Lady, Kirsty Sword Gusmão. The organisation's initial focus was on raising awareness locally and internationally about the problem of sexual and gender-based violence experienced by the women and girls of East Timor. The Foundation has grown to respond to the needs of the East Timorese in the field of education, maternal and child health, and economic independence. The foundation works in direct partnership with local East Timorese women’s groups and promoting the interests of survivors of violence and their families.
• Ausaid Country Programs: East Timor
• Bairo Pite Clinic - the website of a primary health care clinic with health and other East Timor related links
• CARITAS Dili - The mission of Caritas Dili is to promote human development based on the social teachings of the Catholic Church and by doing so to serve those people in need. Its vision is to provide holistic service to Timorese people which enables them to maximise their human potential
• Health Alliance International - Programmes Timor-Leste - Recent HAI efforts in Timor-Leste include a Health Promotion Project in Venilale, begun in 2001, and a four year project to support the Timor-Leste Ministry of Health in strengthening its national program to improve Maternal and Newborn Care, begun in 2004. In December 2005 HAI began a project integrating Child Spacing Promotion with its existing Maternal and Newborn Care program.
• International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies: East Timor
• Judicial System Monitoring Programme - JSMP was established in April 2001 to monitor the processes of the Ad Hoc Human Rights Tribunal in Indonesia and the Special Panels for Serious Crimes in Timor Leste. JSMP very quickly extended court monitoring and judicial system analysis to include the operations of Timor Leste’s District Courts. JSMP also undertakes legislative analysis
• La'o Hamutuk - Timor-Leste Institute for Reconstruction Monitoring and Analysis
• Oxfam Community Aid Abroad: East Timor - Country Overview
• St Bakhita Centre - The St. Bakhita Centre at Eraulo offers the people of Timor Loro sae, without prejudice, an opportunity for developing skills, experience and services to benefit individuals and their communities.
• Timor Aid - Timor Aid is a non-governmental organisation. Its staff, supported by a multinational team of technical experts, is currently shifting from emergency into long-term development work, with programs in Health, Capacity Building, and Income Generation. In addition to the main office in Dili, Timor Aid has field offices in five districts: Viqueque; Manufahi; Ainaro; Covalima; and the Oecussi enclave.
• Timor Institute of Development Studies - The objective of TIDS is to promote research and teachings in various aspects of East Timor and of the region. The organisation's core activities are research and training in three broad areas, namely democracy and social change, economics and management, and agriculture and applied technology.
• WHO Health Action in Crisis: Situation Reports for Timor Crisis

Academic Institutions

• Centro Nacional de Investigação Científica
• Instituto Nacional de Linguistica Universidad Nacional Timor Lorosa'e
• National University of East Timor Library Project

National Policy and Related Documents

• Health Profile Democratic Republic of Timor Leste
  This document provides a background to the formation of the Ministry of Health, its organizational structure, current health problems in the country, including health care facilities available in the hospitals and district health centres. It also endeavours to document future health sector plans and proposed projections for the next few years. The National Development Plan gives salient features of the Government’s policy on health. This document is supposed to serve as an information booklet for the people who are interested in having a snapshot of the health sector in Timor-Leste.

Reports, Guidelines, and Projects

• Conflict and Development: Challenges in Responding to Sexual and Reproductive Health Needs in Timor-Leste
  In April and May 2006, internal conflict in Timor-Leste led to the displacement of approximately 150,000 people, around 15% of the population. The violence was most intense in Dili, the capital, where many residents were displaced into camps in the city or to the districts. Research utilising in-depth qualitative interviews, service statistics and document review was conducted from September 2006 to February 2007 to assess the health sector’s response to reproductive health needs during the crisis. The study revealed an emphasis on antenatal care and a maternity waiting camp for pregnant women, but the relative neglect of other areas of reproductive health. There remains a need for improved coordination, increased dialogue and advocacy around sensitive reproductive health issues as well as greater participation of the health sector in response to gender-based violence. Strengthening neglected areas and including all components of sexual and reproductive health in coordination structures will provide a stronger foundation through which to respond to any future crises in Timor-Leste. [author abstract] [Reproductive Health Matters, Volume 16, Issue 31, Pages 83-92 (May 2008)]
• East Timor in Transition: Health and Health Care
  This article by George Povey & Mary Anne Mercer was originally published in the International Journal of Health Services 32(3) 2002.
• Gender-Based Violence in Timor-Leste: A case study
  "Service statistics from 2004 indicate that gender-based violence cases made up more than half of the cases brought to the police and approximately one third of the cases in the court that year. Statistics from non-governmental organizations (NGOs) vary, with one NGO recording a decrease in gender-based violence cases since 2002, whereas another recorded an increase. Many victims seeking assistance were children under the age of 18, most of whom had been abused by family members. Consultation has shown that communities have a relatively comprehensive definition of domestic violence and that tolerance for the results of domestic violence is relatively high. Most people believe that the community has a role to play in responding to domestic violence, and they would support community-based punishments for perpetrators rather than incarceration."
• Impacts of HIV/AIDS 2005-2025 in Papua New Guinea, Indonesia and East Timor: Final Report of the HIV Epidemiological Modelling and Impact Study
  "The HIV Epidemiological Modelling and Impact (HEMI) Study was commissioned by the Australian Government for the Governments of Papua New Guinea (PNG), Indonesia and East Timor. The research was conducted by New South Global Pty Limited in 2005. An epidemiological model was developed to project the future course of the HIV epidemic over the period 2005–2025 in PNG, Indonesia and East Timor under three scenarios. ...Projections of HIV case numbers and deaths were used as a basis to estimate future social, economic and security impacts..."
• Initial Steps in Rebuilding the Health Sector in East Timor
  This study was supported by a grant to the National Academy of Sciences and the Mailman School of Public Health of Columbia University by the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation. It provides an overview of the state of the health system before, during, and after reconstruction and discusses achievements and failures in the rebuilding process, using an informative case study to draw conclusions for potential improvements to the process in other post-conflict settings.
• Malaria control in Timor-Leste during a period of political instability: what lessons can be learned?
  Background: Malaria is a major global health problem, often exacerbated by political instability, conflict, and forced migration. Objectives: To examine the impact of political upheaval and population displacement in Timor-Leste (2006) on malaria in the country. Method: Case study approach drawing on both qualitative and quantitative methods including document reviews, in-depth interviews, focus group discussions, site visits and analysis of routinely collected data. Findings: The conflict had its most profound impact on Dili, the capital city, in which tens of thousands of people were displaced from their homes. The conflict interrupted routine malaria service programs and training, but did not lead to an increase in malaria incidence. Interventions covering treatment, insecticide treated nets (ITN) distribution, vector control, surveillance and health promotion were promptly organized for internally displaced people (IDPs) and routine health services were maintained. Vector control interventions were focused on IDP camps in the city rather than on the whole community. The crisis contributed to policy change with the introduction of Rapid Diagnostic Tests and artemether-lumefantrine for treatment. Conclusions: Although the political crisis affected malaria programs there were no outbreaks of malaria. Emergency responses were quickly organized and beneficial long term changes in treatment and diagnosis were facilitated. [author abstract] [Conflict and Health 2009, 3: 11]
• Mapping the Pursuit of Gender Equality: Non-Government and International Agency Activity in Timor-Leste
  This August 2007 report by Anna Trembath and Damian Grenfell (published by the Globalism Institute, RMIT University, Australia; The Office for the Promotion of Equality, Prime Minister’s Office, Democratic Republic of Timor-Leste; and Irish Aid) is a baseline study of NGOs and agencies working in the area of gender in Timor-Leste. It is "one attempt to help to close the [information] gap in terms of access to information about the work non-government organizations (NGOs) and agencies are undertaking in regard to gender, and the approaches and philosophies that guide this work. It is hoped that this study will aid the circulation of organizational information both within Timor-Leste and beyond. The report maps the gender-related programs and approaches of NGOs and international agencies since national independence in 2002."
• Medical Aid for East Timor Project
• Millennium Indicators
  This site from the UN Millennium Indicators Statistical Database provides statistical information about Timor Leste measured against the framework of 8 goals, 18 targets and 48 indicators to monitor progress towards the Millennium Development goals adopted by a consensus of experts from the United Nations Secretariat and IMF, OECD and the World Bank.
• Obstacles to effective participation of women in adult education programs
  Starting 2002, the government, of East Timor together with agencies and non-government organizations, implemented literacy programs for the people, and further introduced affirmative actions to broaden women’s role from the private towards the public spheres through adult education. However, the glaring non-participation and non-involvement of women continues to be a major gap and challenge in these interventions. This UNESCO sponsored research explores the two-pronged question of “why are Timorese women not participating?” and “why literacy programs for women, and how are these implemented?’’ With these questions, the research also aims to encourage an assessment of the implementation of literacy programs in relation to women’s needs and situations.
• Reconstructing Tuberculosis Services after Major Conflict: Experiences and Lessons Learned in East Timor
  Tuberculosis (TB) is a major public health problem in developing countries. Following the disruption to health services in East Timor due to violent political conflict in 1999, the National Tuberculosis Control Program was established, with a local non-government organisation as the lead agency. Within a few months, the TB program was operational in all districts. Using the East Timor TB program as a case study, this article examines the enabling factors for the implementation of this type of communicable disease control program in a post-conflict setting. [PLOS Medicine 3(10), Oct. 2006]
• Rehabilitating the health system after conflict in East Timor: a shift from NGO to government leadership
  Efforts to rehabilitate health systems after periods of prolonged conflict have often been characterized by poor coordination of external actors – multilateral agencies, donors and non-governmental organizations (NGOs). This paper describes the process and analyses the roles of the different stakeholders in the establishment of a government-led district health system in East Timor, between 1999 and 2002, after decades of chronic conflict and Indonesian occupation. Future East Timorese policy-makers and health professionals began to mobilize in May 1999, in preparation for independence. During the emergency phase, from September 1999, when violence erupted, to March 2000, NGOs played a major role in the provision of relief to the population, coordinated by United Nations agencies. An Interim Health Authority, led by local Timorese, was established in March and the major donors began to shift funding from NGOs to the newly established Ministry of Health. A rapid phasing-out of NGOs, accompanied by a sequence of steps to build the capacity of Timorese to manage the new district health system, was implemented. Early evidence shows that health service utilization continued to grow during and after implementation. [author abstract] [Health Policy and Planning (2006) 21(3): 206-216]
• Timor-Leste - Health Sector Rehabilitation and Development Project
  This page provides documentation describing the implementation, completion and results of this World Bank Project
• Timor-Leste: Health sector resilience and performance in times of instability
  The purpose of this 2007 study by A.B. Zwi, J. Martins, N.J. Grove, K. Wayte, N. Martins, P. Kelly, and Timor-Leste Health Sector Resilience Study, was to document the broad impact of the turmoil and instability on the health sector. While some services functioned well, others faced considerable challenges and disruption. The research identified key lessons and insights surrounding successes and obstacles experienced when providing and coordinating health services during the period of instability.
• Timor-Leste: Like Stepping Stones in the River - Youth Perspectives on the Crisis in Timor-Leste
  This report (27MB), written by Natalie Grove et al - of Plan Timor-Leste - in May 2007, examines young people's perceptions of their experiences, documents the positive ways in which they are responding to displacement and identifies ways in which their resilience can be strengthened,

Educational Resources

• Burnet Institute - Centre for International Health - Timor Leste Conference 2005 conference papers - including health sector policies
• East Timor and Indonesia on the World Wide Web
  'East Timor and Indonesia on the World Wide Web' is provided by the East Timor and Indonesia Action Network (ETAN), a US based grassroots organisation working in solidarity with the peoples of East Timor and Indonesia. ETAN educates, organises, and advocates for justice for historic and ongoing crimes against humanity, war crimes, and human rights violations in East Timor and Indonesia. This page provides links to an extensive range of resources about East Timor. These include official government and UN sites, non-governmental organisations, East Timorese groups and external support groups as well as business, news, cultural, historical, development, reconstruction and human rights sites in a variety of formats.
• East Timor NGO Forum - National NGO Register 2004
• Index Mundi - East Timor
  The information on this site was extracted from the CIA World Factbook. It contains information on the geography, people, government, economy, communications, transportation and military of East Timor as well as links to other relevant sites.
• IPS: Health - East Timor "Hip-hop and Rock for Condoms Challenge Church"