Timor-Leste Women Health Information
Reported, January 6, 2012
The country specific needs of Timor-Leste are obviously unique. Always one of the poorest regions in Indonesia before the referendum, the country continues to face the need for extensive rebuilding and rehabilitation, while at the same time establishing its political, economic and social structures for longer term development. Even before the disturbances the territory lagged behind the rest of Indonesia in most social indicators, and 30 percent of the population lived below the poverty line – twice the national average.
During the post-elections disturbances, over 70 percent of basic infrastructure was destroyed, including health infrastructure. The institutions of the state suffered total collapse, and a strong cadre of East Timorese public sector managers is not yet in place. There was thus an urgent need for reconstruction and rehabilitation of many health facilities – though not all, given the overcapacity in the previous system. More specifically, the country needed to establish a health authority, and to institute procedures for recruitment, deployment and training of staff, and for restoration of basic services. A transitional strategy was developed under which NGOs became lead service providers in the district, and carried out services according to district health plans agreed with the transitional government.
There is now a recognized need to align expenditure more clearly with effectiveness criteria (i.e. achieving greater health improvements with the given resources) as well as equity objectives, and to improve the overall efficiency of public spending. This task is complicated by uncertainty about future fiscal scenarios – related to both oil revenues and external financing – which raises important questions about bottlenecks for scaling up (or down) of government spending in the health sector.
To help combat high maternal mortality rates in Timor-Leste, the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA) has supplied equipment to assist in child delivery to a hospital in the capital of the fledgling nation.
The equipment was handed over to the Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology of the Guido Valadares National Hospital on 28 January.
Pornchai Suchitta, UNFPA Representative, voiced hope that the equipment will help to save lives.
UNFPA has been working with the hospital since 2000 to build the capacity of the obstetrics and gynecology staff to tackle the high maternal mortality rate and other issues related to womens health in the country.
According to a joint study by UNFPA, the World Health Organization (WHO), the UN Childrens Fund (UNICEF) and the World Bank, nearly 200 women died in Timor-Leste in 2005 while or shortly after giving birth.
