[TimorLesteStudies] AusAID Office of Development Effectiveness East Timor Country Supplement

[Bu Wilson]

http://www.ode.ausaid.gov.au/publications/pdf/vaw_cs_east_timor.pdf 


East Timor Country Supplement
Extract:  Background to the report
This paper is a supplement to Violence against Women in Melanesia and East
Timor:
Building on Regional and Global Promising Approaches, which addresses the
issue
of violence against women in the region.. The main report describes all
promising
approaches identified by the team from across the region, and proposes,
through a
series of recommendations, an action plan relevant for all countries
studied. This
supplement provides more country-specific information on East Timor,
permitting a
more nuanced approach to proposed solutions. The regional report and the
East Timor
report, when read together, provide a comprehensive picture of promising
approaches
for addressing violence against women, recommendations relevant for all
countries
and specific direction for where to focus efforts in East Timor.
The process began in 2007, when the Australian Agency for International
Development's (AusAID) Office of Development Effectiveness identified
violence
against women as a major barrier to development in the region, with serious
effects
not only on the health and welfare of the women experiencing violence, but
on their
families, communities, and countries (AusAID Office of Development
Effectiveness
2007). Following a review of international lessons learned, visits of four
to nine days
were carried out by the international evaluation team to each of the five
countries
in the region (East Timor, Fiji, Papua New Guinea (PNG), Solomon Islands,
and
Vanuatu) during September and October 2007.
Interviews and focus group discussions using a set of participatory
exercises were
carried out with policymakers, service providers, users of the services,
civil society
groups, and community members. These were continued by locally recruited
researchers, except in East Timor, where the shortage of qualified
individuals meant
none were available. This was not seen as a serious disadvantage in East
Timor
because of the remarkable body of recent research on the topic available
from the
Judicial System Monitoring Programme (JSMP) and other agencies. Selection of
the
potentially promising practices to be reviewed was made in collaboration
with AusAID
Post personnel and local activists.
In all, 29 persons representing 21 organisations were interviewed in East
Timor, and
an additional 54 people were involved in focus groups. (Annex 1 lists
organisations
consulted.1) Regional recommendations on the four theme areas (access to
justice,
support services for survivors, prevention, and multisectoral coordination)
were
developed during a workshop in Port Moresby in March 2008, involving the
local
researchers and representatives of the advisory groups from all countries.2

This is not a situational analysis, nor is it a comprehensive or complete
listing of
all the good things happening in East Timor. Many inspiring examples of work
are
underway in all parts of the country on violence against women, but only
those
brought to the team's attention could be covered. The study examined lessons
learned
and examples of promising interventions that could be scaled up, or applied
in other
countries. It focused as much as possible on women's own experience of
violence, and
what does or does not help them in terms of protection and prevention.

Bu Wilson
Regulatory  Institutions Network (RegNet) Research School of Pacific and
Asian Studies
College of Asia and the Pacific,
Australian National University 
Canberra   ACT   0200 
AUSTRALIA 

T: 02 6125 3194
F: 02 6125 1507
M: 0407 087 086
E: Bu.Wilson at anu.edu.au



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