UN set to launch $40 million plan to restore health services in East Timor
13 April -- The United Nations mission in East Timor today reported that a $40 million plan to restore health services in the territory had been finalized following a three-week assessment effort by an international team of experts.
The three-year programme, which will be carried out by the UN Transitional Administration in East Timor (UNTAET), will focus on restoring access to basic services, developing health legislation and instituting management systems.
The assessment mission was led by the World Bank and included representatives from AusAID, the European Union and the Gulbenkian Foundation from Portugal. It worked in close consultation with UNTAET's Interim Health Authority, the institutional entity that will evolve into the country's Department of Health.
The entire programme - of which the first 12 months will cost an estimated $12 million - is to be funded by the International Development Association and UNTAET trust funds.
In other news, the first instalment from a $21 million "community empowerment project" was handed over today to eight villages in the Liquica district. The money, which is being channelled through a World Bank Trust Fund, will be used for projects identified by newly selected village councils. Worth up to $5,600, the projects are geared to build roads to isolated villages, repair water pipelines and reconstruct community centres.
Immediately following this first disbursement, the communities will select one man and one woman from the village councils to represent them at the sub-district level, a move that will enable them to start a second cycle of larger projects.
"This proves that the people have the ability to organize themselves and take decisions beneficial to their community," said Patrick Burgess, the Liquica District Administrator, congratulating the people of Bazartete, one of the recipient villages.
Independence leader Xanana Gusmao and the head of the World Bank Office in Dili, Sarah Cliffe, also sent their congratulations and called on the villagers to insist on transparency in implementing their projects. "Do not allow the fertile ground for collusion, corruption and nepotism to develop," said Mr. Gusmao.
