Improved Health for Timor-Leste's People

Health Partners

USAID works with two main partners to improve the health of the Timorese people, with special emphases on maternal and child health and lessening the burden of priority infectious diseases.

TAIS (Timor-Leste Assistencia Integradu Saúde)

BASICS and Immunizations Basics have joined forces in Timor-Leste to establish TAIS (Timor-Leste Assistencia Integradu Saúde or Integrated Health Assistance Timor-Leste) to improve services at the sub-district and community levels. Core interventions in the integrated management of childhood illnesses (IMCI) include malaria, pneumonia, and diarrheal disease prevention, control, and treatment; nutrition; and complete immunization for vaccine-preventable childhood diseases, all consistent with the top health priorities and policies of the Democratic Republic of Timor-Leste.

TAIS works to strengthen and improve the delivery of these interventions through existing Government health facilities in a way that ensures ownership, sustainability, and capacity building. With NGO partners like the Catholic Relief Services and CARE, TAIS assists the Ministry of Health to strengthen essential preventive services, as well as clinical and community IMCI, particularly addressing access, use, and quality of services along a continuum of care from the household to the health facility.


Health Alliance International

In 2004, Health Alliance International (HAI) was awarded a four-year grant from USAID’s Bureau for Global Health to support Timor-Leste’s Ministry of Health in strengthening its national program to improve maternal and newborn care in seven districts. In December, 2005, HAI received funding for a three-year program to integrate promotion of child spacing into its existing program. HAI’s programs are designed to improve health and reduce mortality for mothers and their newborns in Timor-Leste.

At the service delivery level, activities developed and implemented with the Ministry of Health and other partners include:

• Training and supporting newly appointed district-based Maternal and Child Health coordinators to provide integrated and supportive supervision to ensure quality of care provided by midwives,

• Developing and conducting skills-based training for midwives in postnatal/newborn care services,

• Supporting operations research projects in areas of key concern to the Ministry of Health, such as community-based, birth-friendly facilities.