This report was written as part of abroader Health Sector Review in Timor-Leste currently beingundertaken by the World Bank. Timor-Leste struggles with aburden of disease since independence. Poor health is relatedto environmental sanitation, poverty, food security, ashortage of doctors, and the difficulty of reaching somerural communities. Some problems are specific toTimor-Leste: violence during the Indonesian occupation, thedestruction of the health care sector, and a situation ofmedical pluralism in which long-established practices oftraditional healers co-exist with recent biomedicalservices. One obstacle the health sector faces is client lowutilization of health services. The 2003 Demographic andHealth Survey (DHS) reports that about a fifth of poorhouseholds have never used the health care facility closestto their house. While it is clear that many households areunwilling or unable to access health care, the reasons forthese barriers are poorly understood. One aim of this reportis to help fill this gap in knowledge by providingcontextual information on health seeking behavior. A secondaim is to shed light on human resource challenges in thehealth sector.
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