News Story

GlobalHealth@UNSW and the UNSW School of Public Health and Community Medicine, with support from the Asia Pacific Futures Research Network, invites you to Sydney in October 2008 to attend the Timor-Leste Health and Development Research Forum. The Forum is designed to present an opportunity for upcoming and established scholars with an interest in health and development in Timor-Leste to network and share ideas in an environment conducive to professional collaboration. The Forum will bring together diverse academic communities to reflect on current health, development and social science research in Timor-Leste. One major strand within this year’s Forum will focus on exploring the cultural determinants and other influences on health care seeking in Timor-Leste. Early insights from the Timor-Leste Health Care Seeking Behaviour Study, led by a team from the University of New South Wales, in collaboration with the Timor-Leste Ministry of Health, Timor-Leste National Statistics Directorate and Fundacaun Alola, and funded by AusAID, will be presented for discussion. The rest of the Program will be based around papers offered by participants, reflecting research across a range of health, development and social science domains.

The objectives of the Forum are to:
• Facilitate inter-disciplinary and inter-institutional exchange around health and development research, with a particular emphasis on culture and health;
• Facilitate conversation and dialogue between academic, government and non-government sectors working in health and development in Timor-Leste; and
• Debate research challenges across the disciplines of public health, development studies, international relations, social policy, anthropology, economics and politics.

Abstracts are invited for oral presentations relating to the overall themes of the forum within the following topics:
• Culture and Health
• Post-Conflict Health System Development
• Psychosocial and Mental Health in Fragile States
• Community Participation in Development
• Disability in Post-Conflict Areas
• Health and Development Policy and Planning
• Research for Development

Please note there are no costs involved in Forum registration and participation. A limited number of scholarships to facilitate travel are available and will be directed primarily at PhD students or recent postgraduates seeking to present research. Timorese students currently in Australia are especially encouraged. Places are limited and will be prioritised for those who have submitted papers.