Riders for Health uses research to generate evidence for partners, policymakers, and the global health community on the role of transport in development. Research is also a vital part of our process or continually improving our programmes.

Riders’ research goals are achieved through three channels: external evaluations of Riders’ programmes, publications, and presentation of research abstracts at conferences.

External evaluations

External evaluations of Riders’ programmes rigorously test the impact of our managed transport systems on operational, financial, and health indicators. 

• Riders is partnering with Stanford University to evaluate the effectiveness and efficiency of contracting out vehicle fleet management as an approach to strengthening the performance of health delivery organisations. The study will investigate whether Riders’ programmes result in improved vehicle maintenance, increased health worker productivity and coverage, and overall cost-effectiveness. The evaluation design is a quasi-experimental impact assessment, including an Interrupted Time Series design (with four experimental districts and four matched control districts). Evaluation results should be available in 2014-2015. See evaluation summary here.
• Riders is seeking to form additional research partnerships to evaluate other programmes such as Sample Transport (ST). Interested evaluation partners should contact us here.

Publications

Riders has collaborated with research institutions to develop academic publications and case studies that reach a large audience.

• Innovative Logistics in Extreme Conditions: The Case of Health Care Delivery in Gambia, Chapter 13, Handbook of Global Logistics: International Series in Operations Research & Management Science, 2013. 
• Connecting the Dots: A Pilot Program to Link Laboratory Services to Patients in a Rural Zambia Province, Alliance for Case Studies for Global Health, 2012.
• Innovative Logistics in Extreme Conditions: Lessons from Gambia, Supply Chain Management Review, 2011. 
• Fuelling Growth, Stanford Social Innovation Review, 2010.
• The difference transport makes to child mortality and preventative healthcare efforts: Riders for Health, Archives of Disease in Childhood, BMJ Journals, 2010.
• Riders for Health – A Fleet Leasing Model in the Gambia: A Case Study, Stanford University Global Supply Chain Management Forum, 2010.
• Riders for Health and the Lady in Glasses, Case Study by London Business School, 2009.

Presentation of research abstracts at conferences

Riders has presented programme monitoring and evaluation data at a number of global health and social enterprise conferences. 

• Improving primary health care access to laboratory-based TB diagnosis and HIV monitoring in Lesotho via Riders for Health’s Sample Transport System; 43rd Union World Conference on Lung Health; Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia; November 2012.
• Sample Transport: Reducing delays to accessing laboratory-based testing in Chadiza; Maternal and Newborn Health Conference of the Zambia UK Health Workforce Alliance; Lusaka, Zambia; November 2012.
• Mobilisation on motorcycles: Increasing access to laboratory-based testing and follow-up care for HIV and TB in rural communities in Lesotho; Directors' Joint Consultative Committee (DJCC) and Best Practices Forum Meeting of the East, Central, and Southern Africa Health Community (ECSA-HC); Arusha, Tanzania; August 2012.
• Five Innovative Transport Management Solutions to Increase Rural Access to Health Care in Africa; 2nd Africa Community Access Programme (AFCAP) Practitioners’ Conference; Maputo, Mozambique; July 2012.
• The Effect of Riders for Health’s Mobilisation Programmes on Outreach Health Worker Productivity in Kenya; 2nd Kenya Medical Research Institute (KEMRI) Annual Scientific and Health (KASH) Conference; Nairobi, Kenya; February 2012.
• Working in public-private partnerships with different stakeholders to achieve a sustainable impact; 2011 International Social Innovation Research Conference (ISIRC); London, United Kingdom; September 2011.
• Health system strengthening on motorcycles: Riders for Health sample transport system and its contribution to HIV management; 6th International AIDS Society (IAS) Conference on HIV Pathogenesis and Treatment; Rome, Italy; July 2011.