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In early 2013, Timor-Leste started to walk solely on its own feet, after the departure of the United Nations Integrated Mission in Timor-Leste and the International Stabilization Force. The year has proved to be broadly peaceful, signifying that the country has learned to live within its own resources. The level of political consensus has increased, as Timor-Leste engages in a process of generational turnover.

Timor-Leste entered 2018 with a political crisis that kept a minority government without the confidence of parliament. President Lú-Olo tried to resolve the situation by calling early elections, but the incumbency effect did not materialize, and the opposition won the polls. Timor-Leste celebrated an important treaty with Australia on their maritime borders in the Timor Sea.

Politically, the focus in Timor-Leste in 2019 shifted from infighting to crucial decision-making on petroleum exploitation. Contrary to international advice on risk management and the need to diversify the non-oil economy, a going-for-broke mindset with respect to a multi-billion-dollar onshore gas development appeared to have carried the day.

The year 2017 dawned in Timor-Leste with positive promises. Diplomatic efforts to secure a new maritime boundary and improve access to natural resources ended in a favorable deal. Elections let people have a voice on disputes of the previous year. But the returns took many by surprise, and instability returned to the arena.

Reports of the diplomatic row with Australia and anxiety over Prime Minister Xanana Gusmao's prospective resignation dominated 2014. Articles of a highly controversial Media Law were declared unconstitutional by the Court of Appeal in September. Timor-Leste hosted the 10th Summit of Heads of State and Governments of the Community of Portuguese Speaking Countries.

Timor-Leste in 2010 continued to stabilize following the political and social crisis of 2006–08. With strong economic growth and a calm security situation, the year was defined by twin national debates that will dominate the country's long-term future: how to manage its significant energy resources and how best to use the accruing wealth.

The impact of the Covid-19 pandemic on Timor-Leste in 2020 was great, and the ripple effects may be felt for years. Paradoxically, it was not that the population was directly impacted—indeed, the small half-island nation stands out with only a score or so of cases, and no deaths—but that the oil-dependent economy and the status of financial reserves took a major hit with the collapse of oil and stock prices. In the interest of managing the pandemic, the incumbent prime minister declared a state of emergency, withdrawing his earlier resignation and thus averting a political crisis. Still, as the new economic realities surrounding oil-related mega-infrastructure projects hit home, we see churn among the concerned ministers and technocrats, amid a major rethink of the way ahead, and with many of the choices invidious in the challenging new economic environment.

Cover -- Title -- Copyright -- Contents -- FIGURES, BOXES, AND MAPS -- FOREWORD -- ACKNOWLEDGMENTS -- ABBREVIATIONS -- TIMOR-LESTE TRANSPORT OPERATIONS -- Introduction -- ADB Assistance in Timor-Leste -- ADB Assistance in the Pacific region -- PROJECT PROFILES -- Road Network Development Sector Project -- Road Network Upgrading Project -- Road Network Upgrading Project (additional financing) -- Road Network Upgrading Sector Project -- Road Network Upgrading Sector Project (additional financing) -- Dili to Baucau Highway Project -- Baucau to viqueque Highway Project -- TECHNICAL ASSISTANCE FOR INSTITUTIONAL AND CAPACITY DEVELOPMENT -- Our roads Our Future-Supporting Local Governance and Community-Based Infrastructure works -- Road Sector Improvement Project -- Transport Sector Improvement -- Transport Sector restoration -- Infrastructure Management -- Supporting road Network Development -- Preparing the road Network Development Project -- SUSTAINABLE SOLUTIONS FOR ROAD PROJECTS -- Timor-Leste Bioengineering Case Studies -- Case Study 1: Road Network Development Project -- Case Study 2: Road Network Upgrading Project -- Case Study 3: Road Network Upgrading Project -- APPENDIXES -- 1 ADB's Ongoing and Pipeline Projects -- 2 ADB's Ongoing and Pipeline Technical Assistance Projects -- 3 ADB's Completed Loans, Grants, and Technical Assistance Projects -- 4 Top Contractors and Consultants -- 5 List of Linked Documents.

'"Social medicine", a concept notably developed in Latin America by Salvador Allende in the 1930s, links up a broader model and ethos of public health with processes of social transformation. In recent years that influence has spread to Timor Leste, through a very large Cuban health cooperation and training program. This paper considers to what extent an endogenous "social medicine" might be developing in Timor Leste. Such a development would require transition away from the existing model based on small, private clinics. The paper accepts Guzmán's observation that Latin American social medicine is a wider, more dynamic and participatory model than that presented from European epidemiology – the 'social determinants' approach – but asserts that there are different forms of social medicine, conditioned by distinct histories and cultures. If earlier Chilean social medicine was a key element of that country's radical social democracy, and Cuban social medicine expressed revolutionary solidarity and internationalism, what might be the character of an East Timorese social medicine? This paper traces the idea of 'social medicine' from Chile, through Cuban solidarity aid, to the synthesis emerging in Timor Leste. This is an interpretive history, making use of past analyses, contemporary information on the Cuba-Timor Leste health program and the East Timorese responses. It includes a number of interviews and direct observations of pedagogy and practice. It concludes that a transition to social medicine in Timor Leste has some advantages: the large scale of the new training program; a sympathetic culture; and potential leadership. Less certain is the exact form of East Timorese social medicine. However the ideas seem set to be absorbed into a domestic culture of community solidarity, inclusive Christianity, and an independent spirit.