Approaches to Address Delays Related to Transportation Challenges

Background: The lack of low-cost and efficient transport services for health has been considered one of the barriers to improve access to healthcare services in developing countries, particularly in rural areas where transport is scarce and communities have to travel long distances to access healthcare services. Since 2007, Transaid has been working in Northern Nigeria and Zambia to implement emergency transport schemes in the context of Community Health Worker mobilization programs. In both countries, the schemes have had considerable success in improving emergency access to healthcare services, particularly during maternal and neonatal emergencies.

Strategic approach (Methods): The authors use project information, particularly Monitoring and Evaluation data, to analyze the contribution and impact of the ETS projects. Other information sources include baseline information, DHS data and academic literature on transport and health.

Findings: Both projects are strong examples of the importance of community management for the sustainability and adoption of the schemes. In addition, the ETS projects benefitted immensely from a close relationship with Community Health Workers. Overall, the establishment of the ETS had a significant impact on the reduction of the time of travel and cost of transport during emergencies.

Conclusion: The emergency transport schemes in Nigeria and Zambia show that it is possible to develop low-cost and efficient solutions to improve the access of rural communities to healthcare services, thus addressing the transport-related delays that contribute to low utilization rates of healthcare services.