Skip to content

Program

Nabilan: Ending Violence Against Women and Children  

Reducing Timor Leste’s high rates of violence against women and girls requires comprehensive programming. We help communities, service providers, and institutions prevent violence and improve care for women and children.

download the factsheet
Community members in Timor-Leste take part in public outreach as part of the Nabilan program working to end violence against women and children and build safer, more supportive communities.

Timor-Leste has some of the highest rates of violence against women and children globally, driven by entrenched inequality and harmful social norms.  

Nabilan is a partnership between the Governments of Australia and Timor-Leste that engages individuals, communities, civil society organizations, and government institutions to prevent violence by promoting equality and positive social norms. It also strengthens local service providers to ensure women and children experiencing violence can access consistent, high-quality care and support. 

Women in discussion during the NeNaMu 2024 workshop

Impact

Expanded access to survivor support

Nabilan strengthened core violence response services outside the formal health sector, supporting more than 17,000 survivors through protection, counseling, legal assistance, and referral services.

Shifted harmful norms in communities

Prevention initiatives reached more than 25,000 parents, community members, young people, healthcare graduates, and civil society actors with messages on equality, safety, and respectful relationships.

Built safer frontline practice

Government officials, service providers, nonprofit staff, and development practitioners improved skills in violence prevention, survivor support, child protection, counseling, and safe service delivery.

Professionalized social service support

Dozens of social service workers from 25 organizations earned a nationally recognized qualification, strengthening the workforce serving vulnerable populations.

approach

Nabilan combines violence prevention, survivor support, systems strengthening, and leadership development through a locally led and evidence-based approach.  

The program integrates trauma-informed practice, behavior change, organizational strengthening, and movement building to address the drivers of violence at individual, family, community, and institutional levels. Recognized internationally for its integrated model, Nabilan adapts proven prevention and response approaches to the Timorese context through long-term partnerships, local leadership, and sustained investment in institutional capacity.