The impact of Riders' work in Africa
By managing vehicles on a reliable and cost-effective basis for ministries of health and other health-focused partners, Riders for Health enables them to reach millions of people in even the most isolated rural areas. Our transport management models are leading to clear health and social benefits for the populations we serve, as well as increasing health worker productivity.
Riders has a Monitoring and Evaluation Manager in each of the seven countries in which we have a programme and they work continuously to report the impact that we are having on health systems in rural Africa. 
As well as carrying out our own internal monitoring, it is important to have independent research to evaluate the impact of our work.
As part of a grant from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, Riders has been partnering with Stanford University in California since November 2008 to produce an external evaluation on the impact of Riders work on health care coverage.
The Stanford research team’s study in Southern Province, Zambia is monitoring four districts in which Riders for Health will be running a programme and four districts where we won’t work. Click here to download a short impact report for Zambia. To download Stanford’s external evaluation plan for Riders for Health, click here.
Health benefits
Outreach health workers in Africa address a wide range of health issues every day. Even mobilising one health worker can help in the fight against many diseases. Of the outreach health workers currently using Riders-managed motorcycles:
- 94% have roles which include work around HIV.
- 86% link with tuberculosis (TB) prevention and treatment.
- 88% are involved in preventive health care.
- 87% include health education as part of their work.
- 71% are involved in disease surveillance.
- 53% conduct spraying to prevent malaria.
To date, Riders for Health has improved access to health care services for 12.5 million people across sub-Saharan Africa.
‘It is unquestionable that most poor people in these remote villages would have not been easily helped if this motorbike would have not been provided by the Riders for Health.’ Dismas Omari, health worker, Tanzania Click here to download a short impact report for Tanzania.
Click here to find out more about how Riders is contributing to the fight against HIV/AIDS and TB.
Thanks to an innovative vehicle leasing model from Riders for Health, the Gambia is the first country in Africa to have complete transportation coverage for its national health care service.
Now that every health centre across the country has an ambulance or trekking vehicle, the number of outreach clinics being cancelled has reduced by 63%. Over a third of health centres are now scheduling more outreach clinics, often with maternal and child health services and immunisations.
Click here to download a short impact report for the Gambia. Click here to find out more about the role of Riders managed transport in promoting maternal, newborn and child health (MNCH).
Riders for Health have developed a specialist motorcycle courier system that ensures patient samples are transported in a safe and controlled manner between rural health centres and a designated laboratory for testing. Sample Transport (ST) is designed to reduce to delay in diagnosing diseases like HIV and TB because the time is takes for patients’ results to be returned has been dramatically reduced from 12 days to seven, on average.
At present, the Riders ST programme:
- Serves 255 health centres and 27 laboratories across Lesotho, Zambia and Zimbabwe.
- This means that, up to 2.5 million men, women and children now have access to laboratory testing services in rural areas.
In Lesotho, Sample Couriers now collectively transport over 2,800 samples and their results each week. Click here to download a short impact report for Lesotho.
Increased health worker productivity
Reliable transportation means that health workers can deliver a consistent service, enabling them to travel further and spend longer with their communities.
- A health worker mobilised by Riders can reach five times the number of people than before
- On average over 30,000 extra people across Africa receive health care services each week thanks to outreach health workers on motorcycles – that’s 1.5 million each year.
‘The motorbike has enabled me to reach out to so many people compared to before when I didn’t have the bike. I didn’t know how to ride but because of Riders for Health I am now a rider.’ Alice Bakhuya, Community Mobiliser, Kenya
A graph to show the average number of people reached every week, per outreach health worker in Kenya, before and after the Riders programme:
Click here to download a short impact report for Kenya.
Social benefits
Riders for Health’s transport management programmes are run entirely by nationals of the countries we work in. This means that the skills developed with us stay in country, providing employment and building local capacity. We currently employ over 300 local staff and many of the health workers and technicians we train are women - our Country Directors in the Gambia, Lesotho, Kenya and Zambia are all women.
‘[Riders] motorcycle has really changed my life as a woman in the community. 
I am now respected. Whenever they see me riding the motorcycle they turn to look at me and wonder that women too know how to ride motorcycles.’ Aisha Issa, community health worker, Kenya
Training is an integral part to building a sustainable solution. In Nigeria, Riders’ highly trained technicians run maintenance workshops across the country, servicing vehicles used by international and local health agencies. To download a short impact for Nigeria, click here.
At the International Academy of Vehicle Maintenance (IAVM) in Zimbabwe, Riders has trained 2,030 delegates since it opened in 2002. Equipping them with new skills to tackle the harsh African terrain and keep their motorcycle running day after day, health workers can reach many more families living in rural communities with vital health care. Click here to download a short impact report for Zimbabwe.
We would love to know what you think about our impact reports. Click here to fill out a quick questionnaire.