Improving access to eye health services in rural Timor-Leste

Improving access to eye health services in rural Timor-Leste.

CONTEXT Delivering eye health services to people in rural areas, especially in fragile, post-conflict countries, is a major challenge. This article reports on the implementation and evaluation of an innovative district-based outreach service. The main project partners were the Timor-Leste Ministry of Health and an international non-government organization, with assistance from a local non-gover...

The tyranny of distance: maternity waiting homes and access to birthing facilities in rural Timor-Leste.

OBJECTIVE To examine the impact of maternity waiting homes on the use of facility-based birthing services for women in two remote districts of Timor-Leste. METHODS A before-and-after study design was used to compare the number of facility-based births in women who lived at different distances (0-5, 6-25, 26-50 and > 50 km) from the health centre before and after implementation of maternity wa...

Tracking violence in Timor - Leste

Opportunities in oral health policy for Timor-Leste.

Timor-Leste faces an urgent set of challenges in oral health. The impact of oral diseases in terms of reduced quality of life and cost of treatment is considerable. This paper reviews progress on policy recommendations since the National Oral Health Survey in 2002, the first such national survey. Few proposals have been implemented to date, owing to (i) lack of local support for the recommendat...

Using Causal Loop Diagramming to Explore the Drivers of the Sustained Functionality of Rural Water Services in Timor-Leste

It is recognized that international water sector development work has issues with a lack of sustained positive outcomes. A large driver of this outcome is how NGOs work with communities to implement and then manage water services. Many NGOs tend to focus their efforts on improving their reach and organisational growth by continually engaging in new projects. This behaviour is largely driven by ...