Initial Steps in Rebuilding the Health Sector in East Timor

By Jim Tulloch, Fadia Saadah, Rui Maria de Araujo, Rui Paulo de Jesus, Sergio Lobo, Isabel Hemming, Jane Nassim, and Ian Morris.

Roundtable on the Demography of Forced Migration, Committee on Population, National Research Council of the National Academies and Program on Forced Migration and Health at the Mailman School of Public Health Columbia University.

In May 2002 Timor Leste (East Timor) emerged as a new nation after centuries of foreign rule and decades of struggle for independence. Its birth was a painful one; a United Nations-brokered Popular Consultation in August 1999, in which an overwhelming majority of the people opted for independence, was followed by several weeks of vengeful violence, looting, and destruction by pro-Indonesia militias. It left the territory and all of its essential services devastated. In this context, the United Nations Transitional Administration in East Timor (UNTAET), with the country's leaders and people and many other partners, set about restoring order and services, building a government structure, and preparing for independence. This paper summarizes the rehabilitation and development of the health sector from early 2000 to the end of 2001.