Timor-Leste Sets Its Sights on a Merit-based Health Workforce

Government officials in Timor-Leste know that well-trained, motivated personnel are essential to providing high-quality, accessible health care. That’s why they are laser focused on recruiting, deploying, and retaining highly qualified health workers to rebuild the country’s health system workforce. 

The USAID Local Health System Sustainability Project (LHSS) is on the ground supporting the effort. In 2022, LHSS partnered with the National Directorate of Human Resources to develop a policy manual standardizing the recruitment process for all health workers. The first of its kind in Timor-Leste, the manual will be used to attract and allocate skilled providers, managers, and administrators where they are needed most.  

“We anticipate this foundational recruitment management tool will bring the country an important step closer to achieving the government’s goal of universal health coverage,” said Mr. Augusto Joaquim Pinto, national director of Human Resources at the Ministry of Health.   

Roots of Service Delivery Gaps 

The new manual will help address certain workforce-related challenges that have made it hard for the government to deliver health care services evenly across the country. These challenges include a lack of standardized hiring practices and insufficient numbers of skilled providers for the 70 percent of the population living in rural areas.   

Everyone involved feels the pain of these issues. Qualified applicants face ill-defined career pathways into the public health system, leading some to choose alternative professions. Overstretched health workers contend with longstanding vacancies, contributing to low morale and premature departures of experienced staff. And highly qualified female applicants, especially those from rural areas, have experienced inequities when vying for health care leadership and management positions. 

Together, these factors have resulted in serious service delivery gaps for communities seeking essential health services, especially among minority groups and hard-to-reach populations across the country. 

Attracting the Very Best  

Timorese officials are counting on the manual’s merit-based hiring and deployment practices to cascade positive change throughout the country’s health workforce system.  

The manual will guide hiring managers to follow standardized recruitment protocols and clarify roles and responsibilities for all involved. This more efficient hiring process will minimize processing bottlenecks, reduce deployment timelines, and help fill longstanding vacancies more quickly.  

Most importantly, evaluating applicants according to their qualifications, skills, and potential for future development – irrespective of their background, gender, or social standing – will level the playing field and help attract the very best candidates. 

“By way of the recruitment manual for health workers, LHSS is helping build a dedicated corps of highly skilled health care professionals capable of expanding quality services to all corners of Timor-Leste,” said Director Pinto.