Case Of Timor-Leste Research Articles

Simplified and High Accessibility Approach for the Rapid Assessment of Deforestation in Developing Countries: A Case of Timor-Leste

Forests are essential for sustaining ecosystems, regulating the climate, and providing economic benefits to human society. However, activities such as commercial practices, fuelwood collection, and land use changes have resulted in severe forest degradation and deforestation. Timor-Leste, a small island nation, faces environmental sustainability challenges due to land use changes, limited infrastructure, and agricultural practices. This study proposes a simplified and highly accessible approach to assess deforestation (SHAD) nationally using limited human and non-human resources such as experts, software, and hardware facilities. To assess deforestation in developing countries, we utilize open-source software (Dryad), employ the U-Net deep learning algorithm, and utilize open-source data generated from the Google Earth Engine platform to construct a time-series land cover classification model for Timor-Leste. In addition, we utilize the open-source land cover map as label data and satellite imagery as model training inputs, and our model demonstrates satisfactory performance in classifying time-series land cover. Next, we classify the land cover in Timor-Leste for 2016 and 2021, and verified that the forest classification achieved high accuracy ranging from 0.79 to 0.89. Thereafter, we produced a deforestation map by comparing the two land cover maps. The estimated deforestation rate was 1.9% annually with a primary concentration in the northwestern municipalities of Timor-Leste with dense population and human activities. This study demonstrates the potential of the SHAD approach to assess deforestation nationwide, particularly in countries with limited scientific experts and infrastructure. We anticipate that our study will support the development of management strategies for ecosystem sustainability, climate adaptation, and the conservation of economic benefits in various fields.

The Diplomacy of Small States: Exploring Opportunities and Limitations in the Case of Timor-Leste

This article examines the diplomacy of small states, focusing on the case of TimorLeste. It analyzes the foreign policy strategies of small states, which encompass bilateral and multilateral diplomacy, engagement in international organizations and global governance, and the utilization of public diplomacy. These diplomatic tools enable small states to pursue their foreign policy objectives despite their limited resources, while also fostering cooperative relationships with larger powers. Diplomacy is regarded as a universal mechanism through which small states like Timor-Leste can integrate into the global international relations system.Given the inherent limitations of small states in contesting with major and middle powers, they seek to enhance their international influence through collective actions, such as forming or joining coalitions in international organizations or intergovernmental forums. Additionally, small states employ public diplomacy to draw attention to their issues and needs, thereby reducing their reliance on greater powers and forging more advantageous collaborations with other states. Strategies such as imitation and balancing, participation in coalitions, promotion of international initiatives, provision of expertise, and adherence to the principles of international law are utilized to cultivate a positive image of small states as responsible actors in international relations and reliable partners.The article concludes that Timor-Leste has been successful in maintaining bilateral and multilateral relations and actively participating in international organizations. However, it faces systemic challenges in effectively employing public diplomacy mechanisms. These challenges can be attributed to underdeveloped national public institutions and the enduring influence of greater powers, which affect not only Timor-Leste but also the wider region.

Women’s Political Participation in Post-conflict Settings: The Case of Timor-Leste

ABSTRACT Tackling gender gaps in political representation is a key pillar of peace building and development interventions in conflict-affected environments, which has been addressed using special measures (e.g., gender quotas and reserved seats). We argue that although this is a necessary first step, these interventions privilege descriptive or quantitative indicators that may not equate to the substantive participation of women. Instead, a focus on qualitative transformation of deeply entrenched inequitable social structures is required. Our argument is illustrated by the case study of Timor-Leste, where control of political institutions is held by a small group of privileged, male leaders, legitimised by a rigidly defined social hierarchy. We argue that any special measures need to be accompanied by social change that provides equality of opportunity for participants within political parties, political institutions and electoral systems. By providing this analysis the article aims to contribute to the discussion of the ways in which gendered structural limitations can be better identified and addressed to promote more effective participation by women in politics in post-conflict settings.

Indonesia Defense Diplomacy: Papua's Problem Perspective

This research is a lesson learned from the resolution of the Timor Leste conflict which is expected to be applied in efforts to resolve the Papua problem. On 30 August 1999 through a referendum held in East Timor. The 27th province of Indonesia was finally separated from Indonesia and obtained its official status as a member of the United Nations on May 20, 2002. Learning from the settlement approach in the Timor Leste case. So the Indonesian government must have more relevant policy formulations so that the same scenario does not repeat itself in solving the Papua problem. The qualitative method is used in this research, with a case study approach. The conclusion obtained is that the Government of Indonesia is obliged to realize policies that focus on the interests of the Papuan people as well as the Indonesian government's diplomatic efforts which firmly state that the Papua problem is a domestic problem whose intervention is a violation of Indonesian law and sovereignty and to end the pressure of internationalization on Papuan cases.

Combination of WRF Model and LSTM Network for Solar Radiation Forecasting—Timor Leste Case Study

A study of a combination of Weather Research and Forecasting (WRF) model and Long Short Term Memory (LSTM) network for location in Dili Timor Leste is introduced in this paper. One calendar year’s results of solar radiation from January to December 2014 are used as input data to estimate future forecasting of solar radiation using the LSTM network for three months period. The WRF model version 3.9.1 is used to simulate one year’s solar radiation in horizontal resolution low scale for nesting domain 1 × 1 km. It is done by applying 6-hourly interval 1o × 1o NCEP FNL analysis data used as Global Forecast System (GFS). LSTM network is applied for forecasting in numerous learning problems for solar radiation forecasting. LSTM network uses two-layer LSTM architecture of 512 hidden neurons coupled with a dense output layer with linear as the model activation to predict with time steps are configured to 50 and the number of features is 1. The maximum epoch is set to 325 with batch size 300 and the validation split is 0.09. The results demonstrate that the combination of these two methods can successfully predict solar radiation where four error metrics of mean bias error (MBE), root mean square error (RMSE), normalized MBE (nMBE), and normalized RMSE (nRMSE) perform small error distribution and percentage in three months prediction where the error percentage is obtained below the 20% for nMBE and nRMSE. Meanwhile, the error distribution of RMSE is obtained below 200 W/m2 and maximum bias error is 0.07. Finally, the values of MBE, RMSE, nMBE, and nRMSE conclude that the good performance of the combination of two methods in this study can be applied to simulate any other weather variable for local necessary.

Evolution of Phonology in Language: Case of Timor Leste

Evolution of Phonology in Language: Case of Timor Leste

Aflatoxin levels in maize and peanut and blood in women and children: The case of Timor-Leste

Aflatoxins are toxic fungal metabolites produced by Aspergillus sp. with carcinogenic properties that are a common food contaminant of many crops including maize and peanuts. In Timor-Leste malnutrition and children’s stunting are frequent and maize and peanuts are staple foods. This study aimed to provide information on aflatoxin exposure nationally. The study measured levels of aflatoxin in locally-produced maize and peanuts (296 samples) and of aflatoxin-albumin conjugate in blood samples of women and young children (514 and 620 respectively) across all municipalities. The average concentration of aflatoxin in the grain samples was low with most maize (88%) and peanut (92%) samples - lower than European Commission tolerated aflatoxin level. Although aflatoxin–albumin conjugate was detected in more than 80% of blood samples, the average concentration in children and adults of 0.64 and 0.98 pg mg−1 alb, respectively, is much lower than in other similar rural-based countries. Although low in concentration, blood aflatoxin levels and aflatoxin contamination levels in maize across municipalities were correlated significantly for mothers (R2 = 37%, n = 495) but not for children (R2 = 10%). It is unlikely that the consumption of aflatoxin contaminated grain is a causative factor in the current level of malnutrition and stunting affecting Timor-Leste children.

On the Spatial-temporal Diffusion of Community Based Policing from Japan to Peninsula Southeast Asia: The Case of Timor-Leste

ABSTRACTThis article traces the legacies and variances of ‘community based policing’ in Timor-Leste, and inquires about historical trajectories and cross-cultural sociopolitical influences which forged and determined the idea of policing in Timor-Leste. By drawing on diffusion theory, the article investigates the changing interpretations and transformations of ‘community based policing’ from the Imperial Japanese koban policing, to its Indonesian babinsa- and bimpolda-variant through to the current Timorese ofisial polísia suku approach. It delivers a historically based explanation for the difficulties and challenges of implementing an approach to ‘community based policing’ in Timor-Leste during UNTAET and following missions of the United Nations.

Determinants of health care utilisation: the case of Timor-Leste.

BackgroundHealth financing and delivery reforms designed to achieve universal health coverage (UHC) need to be informed by an understanding of factors that both promote access to health care and undermine it. This study examines the level of health care utilisation in Timor-Leste and the factors that drive it.MethodsData from a nationally representative cross-sectional survey of health care utilisation in 1712 households were used to develop multilevel models exploring how need and predisposing and enabling factors explain health care utilisation at both primary and secondary care facilities.ResultsNeed was found to be the key driver in seeking both primary care and hospital services. Rural households were less likely to go to hospital (odds ratio 0.7) than urban households. The poorest quintile was also less likely to use more expensive hospital services than other socio-economic groups.ConclusionsUnderstanding the determinants of seeking health care in Timor-Leste is of considerable policy significance, because health care is free at the point of use. Our findings indicate that the public resources for health care are subsidising the rich more than the poor. Health care reforms in Timor-Leste need to reduce the ‘other’ costs of health care, such as distance barriers, to address these inequities.

Providing useful climate information to subsistence farmers: The case of Timor-Leste

Providing information about weather patterns and climate variability directly to farmers has the potential to improve productivity by allowing farmers to make better and more informed decisions regarding their farming practices. For this to succeed, we need to know what the most appropriate and useful information is, how best to transfer it and how to overcome barriers to its transfer. This study fills the gap in our understanding through focus on the small island nation of Timor-Leste, where improving agricultural productivity and overall food security is a key challenge. This is compounded by a rapidly expanding population, poor agricultural conditions, a reliance on small-scale subsistence farming and the impacts of climate change such as increased temperature and altered rainfall patterns. Drawing from six focus groups (n = 29 farmers) in four districts, coupled with stakeholder interviews (n = 6), this study identified seasonal outlooks to be most desired by farmers, followed by shorter-term (daily, weekly) forecasts. Radio was considered as the most effective method to reach smallholder and subsistence farmers, although face-to-face communication was also highly valued by farmers. Language difficulties and low literacy levels, economic circumstances, some general misconceptions about climate change, and limited trust in community leaders were the main barriers to information transfer. If climate information is to be provided to farmers, it is essential that quality and accurate information is delivered, and those involved in liaising and communicating directly with farmers have the education and training to understand and accurately pass on this information.

A Detour in the Local Turn: Roadblocks in Timor-Leste’s Post-Conflict Peacebuilding

Liberal missteps have paved the way for the local turn in post-conflict peacebuilding. However, localized peacebuilding does not always produce peaceful outcomes. Several scholars have previously demonstrated that unresolved tensions from international-local encounters result in a negative hybrid peace in which political and social hierarchies are preserved and conflict and violence persist. To add to existing analyses on the local turn in peacebuilding, this article analyzes some of the causes and consequences of negative hybrid peace using the case of Timor-Leste. Exclusive and superficial local involvement, political cleavages within the local leadership, and unresolved tensions from international-local encounters were roadblocks in Timor-Leste’s post-conflict peacebuilding. These characteristics prelude a return to a status quo dominated by the local elite and plagued with governance and socio-economic issues.

Beyond Democratic Tolerance: Witch Killings in Timor-Leste

Newly democratising states experience challenges in reconciling “traditional” or “customary” dispute resolution practices with newly established state-based legal systems based on the rule of law. For Timor-Leste, these tensions are pronounced in continuing debates concerning the killing or injuring of women accused of witchcraft. Defences of extrajudicial punishments tend to conflate democracy with local support and fail to deal with the key institutions of democratic systems, including the rule of law, political equality, and civil rights. In Timor-Leste's case, where equality and social rights were incorporated into the Constitution as fundamental governmental obligations, localised extrajudicial punishments threaten internal and external state legitimacy and highlight the difficulties of ensuring the primacy of state-based institutions. Extrajudicial punishments challenge Timor-Leste's capacity to consolidate new liberal democratic political institutions.

Introduction: Consolidating peace: The case of Timor-Leste

Abstract

The role of international NGOs in health systems strengthening: the case of Timor-Leste.

Achieving the United Nations Millennium Development Goals for health will require that programs supporting health in developing countries focus on strengthening national health care systems. However, the dominant neoliberal model of development mandates reduced public spending on health and other social services, often resulting in increased funding for nongovernmental organizations (NGOs) at the expense of support for government systems. East Timor, later Timor-Leste, is an example of a post-crisis country where international NGO efforts were initially critical to providing relief efforts to a traumatized population. Those groups were not prepared to help develop and support a standardized Timorese national health plan, however, and the cost of their support was unsustainable in the long term. In response, local authorities designed and implemented a post-crisis NGO phase-over plan that addressed risks to service disruption and monitored the process. Since then, some NGOs have worked collaboratively with the Ministry of Health to support specific efforts and initiatives under a framework provided by the ministry. Timor-Leste has shown that ministries of health can facilitate an effective transition of NGO support from crisis to development if they are allowed to plan and manage the process.

Toward a Participatory Model of Peace Education: The Case of Timor-Leste

This paper examines the effectiveness of participatory learning in post-conflict environments. It is a case study of post-conflict peace education in Timor-Leste. Using a set of qualitative methods, the study reveals the barriers as well as advantages in adopting participatory models of learning in peace education. It argues that the benefits of adopting participatory learning outweigh the risks. Thus providing an account of the effectiveness of participatory learning as post-conflict peace education in Timor-Leste.

Cohabitation in New Post-Conflict Democracies: The Case of Timor-Leste

One of the most well-known and longstanding arguments against semi-presidential systems is the problem of cohabitation, or the situation where the president and the prime minister are from opposing political groups and where the president's party is not represented in the cabinet. People believe that cohabitation exaggerates tension between the president and the prime minister, leading to conflict and democratic instability. However, recent work questions the relation between cohabitation and democratic instability. These contradictory findings call for a more nuanced approach to the analysis of cohabitation on the consolidation of young democracies. This article tests the effect of cohabitation on the performance of Timor-Leste's nascent democracy. It finds institutional conflict during cohabitation. It also finds that while most institutional conflicts were regulated disagreement between the president and the prime minister over defence policy escalated into serious political instability. The Timor-Leste case suggests that not all conflicts will cause political instability but rather a certain type of institutional conflict. In this new post-conflict state, institutional conflict over defence policy during cohabitation seriously destabilised Timor-Leste's fledging democracy.

Contesting International Norms of Transitional Justice: The Case of Timor Leste

A discussion of the interplay of different concepts of justice and reconciliation in United Nations peace operations in Timor Leste and in the Timorese political leadership. Drawing on research into norm diffusion and concepts of localization and norm contestation to understand how societies deal with their violent past under the auspices of international actors in UN peace operations, the analysis challenges the UN’s functionalistic concept of transitional justice as a precondition to state- and nationbuilding in post-conflict societies. As the case of Timor Leste demonstrates, the Timorese leadership has been successful in promoting its own concept of justice and reconciliation, leading to a localized version of state- and nationbuilding that openly contests international approaches.

Short- and Long-Term Impact of Violence on Education: The Case of Timor Leste

This paper analyzes the impact of the wave of violence that occurred in Timor Leste in 1999 on education outcomes. We examine the short-term impact of the violence on school attendance in 2001 and its longer-term impact on primary school completion of the same cohorts of children observed again in 2007. We compare the educational impact of the 1999 violence with the impact of other periods of high-intensity violence during the 25 years of Indonesian occupation. The short-term effects of the conflict are mixed. In the longer term, we find evidence of a substantial loss of human capital among boys in Timor Leste who were exposed to peaks of violence during the 25-year long conflict. The evidence suggests that this result may be due to household trade offs between education and economic welfare. JEL Codes: I20, J13, O12, O15 The developmental consequences of violence and conflict are far reaching, affecting millions of men, women, and children (World Bank 2011). The objective of this paper is to examine one important channel linking violent conflict and development outcomes: the education of children living in contexts of conflict and violence. The paper focuses on the case of Timor Leste, particularly the last wave of violence in 1999 during the withdrawal of Indonesian troops from the territory. We analyze the short-term impact of the 1999 violence on primary school attendance in 2001 and its longer-term impact on primary school completion in 2007. In addition, we separately examine the impact of early periods of high-intensity violence (HVI) during the 25 years of Indonesian occupation and the effects of the entire conflict on primary school completion in 2007 to compare the average impact of the overall conflict period with the educational impact of singular peaks of violence. This is a

Good Governance and Building a Civil Service in a Fragile State: The Case of Timor Leste

Newly independent Timor Leste provides a unique case study of the difficulties of developing a civil service in a fragile state. We show the UN and other bodies have attempted to develop a reasonably traditional Weberian legal/rational type civil service, but that many difficulties remain.

Using Computer-Aided Content Analysis to Map a Research Domain

Content analysis is a powerful tool for investigating attitudes expressed in naturally occurring language data. It is a useful tool to help researchers develop an understanding of a specific research field through identifying how particular issues or topics have been conceptualized or where fieldwork can be limited or prohibitive. This is especially true for research on postconflict reconstruction, where large-scale quantitative surveying or metareviews of the literature can be prohibitive. The present study provides a case study of how a particular content analysis software program—Leximancer—was used to map factors associated with institutional legitimacy in postconflict societies. The case of Timor-Leste is used as an example. We examine texts at three levels of discourse: at the academic, official, and primary levels. Results indicate differing perspectives on legitimacy at each level of discourse. This article offers a snapshot of a potential method for understanding how particular topics are conceptualized within a specific research field and can thus help in the development of evaluation methods or data collection instruments.