<html><head><meta http-equiv=Content-Type content="text/html; charset=utf-8"><META name="Author" content="Novell GroupWise WebAccess"></head><body style='font-family: Tahoma, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; '><div><font size="4" face="Arial">Gender Inequalities and Health Policy
in Timor-Leste<br><br></font></div>
<div><font color="#008000" face="Arial">Clíonadh O'Keeffe, PhD Candidate, Global
Women's Studies, </font></div>
<div><font color="#008000"><font face="Arial">School of Political Science and
Sociology, </font><font face="Arial">National University of Ireland,
</font></font></div>
<div><font color="#008000"><font face="Arial">Galway, </font><font face="Arial">will present a seminar for the Victoria University East
Timor </font></font></div>
<div><font color="#008000" face="Arial">Working Group and Timor-Leste Studies
Association <br>on Tuesday, 4th August 2009 4.30
pm</font></div>
<div><font color="#008000" face="Arial">at Victoria University, 300 Flinders Street,
Melbourne </font></div>
<div><font color="#008000" face="Arial">(please see notice on the ground floor for
the exact room) </font></div>
<div><font color="#008000" face="Arial">All welcome, particularly post-graduate
students working on</font></div>
<div><font color="#008000" face="Arial">Timor-Leste. Please RSVP if you
can to Helen Hill</font></div>
<div><font color="#008000" face="Arial"><a target="_blank" href="mailto:Helen.hill@vu.edu.au">Helen.hill@vu.edu.au</a></font></div>
<div> </div>
<div><font face="Arial">Abstract<br><br></font></div>
<div><font face="Arial">Progress in overcoming health inequalities experienced by
women in </font></div>
<div><font face="Arial">post conflict Timor-Leste has been undermined by the
failure of </font></div>
<div><font face="Arial">governance to attach sufficient weight to equality.
</font></div>
<div><font face="Arial">To address this, the paper proposes the "Right to Health"
framework </font></div>
<div><font face="Arial">which has marginalised groups, participation and
accountability as its </font></div>
<div><font face="Arial">principal concerns and demands for structures and
processes of </font></div>
<div><font face="Arial">accountability that are accessible, transparent, and that
empower </font></div>
<div><font face="Arial">citizens to participate in planning, implementation and
monitoring of </font></div>
<div><font face="Arial">their health care. The proposition is timely given the
current context of<br>governance reforms that 'will not only make service
delivery more </font></div>
<div><font face="Arial">effective, but also increase participation of all people
in government </font></div>
<div><font face="Arial">work' </font><font face="Arial">(Minister Leite 19/02/2009).
</font></div>
<div><font face="Arial">However building meaningful participation of </font><font face="Arial">all actors is an </font></div>
<div><font face="Arial">enormously difficult process, particularly in
post-conflict<br>environments. The paper teases out and highlights the potential
of </font></div>
<div><font face="Arial">the framework for East Timorese women*s participation in
local health </font></div>
<div><font face="Arial">governance specifically the proposed municipalities
structures at district level.<br><br><br>Clíonadh O' Keeffe was recently in
Timor-Leste to attend both the </font></div>
<div><font face="Arial">TLSA </font><font face="Arial">Conference 'Understanding
Timor-Leste' and the Victoria </font></div>
<div><font face="Arial">University - </font><font face="Arial">National University
of Timor-Loro Sa'e conference </font></div>
<div><font face="Arial">'Transforming </font><font face="Arial">Timor-Leste'</font></div>
<div><font face="Arial">She is a first year doctoral candidate in the School of
Political Science </font></div>
<div><font face="Arial">and Sociology, National University of Ireland, Galway. The
title of her </font></div>
<div><font face="Arial">research project is "Women's Health, Multilevel Governance
and<br>Human Rights in Post Conflict Timor Leste: A Case Study in </font></div>
<div><font face="Arial">Engendering Transition'. She is particularly interested in the impacts of
governance<br>reform on East Timorese women's sexual and reproductive health
</font></div>
<div><font face="Arial">rights </font><font face="Arial">(SRHR) and the extent to
which the current processes of </font></div>
<div><font face="Arial">decentralization </font><font face="Arial">taking place in
Timor Leste help or hinder the </font></div>
<div><font face="Arial">realization </font><font face="Arial">of those rights. She holds a Masters degree in Gender and Development from
the </font></div>
<div><font face="Arial">Institute of Development Studies (IDS) University of
Sussex, UK. </font></div>
<div><font face="Arial">Clíonadh worked in Timor-Leste in 2000-2002 and 2007
as a </font></div>
<div><font face="Arial">United Nations Volunteer with </font><font face="Arial">UNTAET, UNMIT </font><font face="Arial">and with Irish
Aid.</font></div><font face="Arial">
<div><br>She currently works as the coordinator of DERN, an Irish Aid
funded<br>Development Education and Research Network in the School of </div>
<div>Political Science and Sociology, National University of Ireland,
Galway.<br>Prior to joining NUIG she worked as a community development worker
</div>
<div>in the west of Ireland for almost ten years. The main focus of her work
</div>
<div>has been to support the realization of marginalized Traveller women*s
</div>
<div>right to health where she coordinated a rural health project and later a
</div>
<div>primary health care project within in a rights based non-governmental
</div>
<div>community organization.</div></font><br/><div style='clear: both;'></div><br/></body></html>