Development Ratings

Riders for Health’s humanitarian vision is that reliable transport is available to support the delivery of health care and development in Africa for the maximum time at the minimum cost. Riders aims to influence the transport management policy of governments, multi-lateral agencies and charitable foundations. In addition, it advocates on the general problem of transport in Africa undermining development. Riders for Health has been acknowledged for its work in the Africa Commission Report and was awarded the 2005 Global Council Award.

Riders for Health’s ambitious goal is that reliable transport is available, often motorcycles, for the complete delivery of health services throughout Africa by 2015. For 2006 to 2009, the aim has been for a further 10 million people in Africa have reliable access to essential services with its contribution. This involves doubling the number of vehicles managed in Africa, building fundraising and core function capacity, establishing further country programmes, and embedding the model in development organisation thinking and practice.

A remarkable zero-breakdown vehicle performance is achieved through preventive maintenance, under the Transport Resource Management (TRM) system. Ministry-employed health workers carry out daily maintenance routines, and Riders’ in-field technicians and logisticians carry out regular maintenance and parts replacement. Alternatively, Riders offers another approach, Interval Servicing (IS), at systematically calculated intervals. Riders only uses vehicles that are robust so that maintenance and performance can be predicted. Using a price-per-distance equation, the exact running expenses can be calculated. This ensures that the cost of ministry health service delivery can be precisely budgeted. Motorcycles are more practical on rough terrain and cheaper to run than four-wheeled vehicles. It currently costs 10p/mile for a health worker to reach 20,000 people regularly on a self-maintained, Riders-managed motorcycle.

Riders for Health has existing national TRM systems in Zimbabwe and the Gambia, and has launched a programme in Lesotho. (A programme planned for Mozambique is on hold due to lack of ministry funding.) The government commits to providing health workers with reliable transportation, and the ministry pays Riders the servicing costs. TRM can be provided to NGOs and INGOs, as all development initiatives need reliable, cost-effective transport. It serviced the multi-agency UN House in Abuja, Nigeria, until mid-2006, when the polio programme came to an end. It has now set up a workshop in Enugu (formerly Biafra) to service NGOs working in this high disease prevalence area. Problems with the financial strength of this operation are being worked on. Riders advises a US NGO in Kenya that services 90,000 Maasai and other transient groups.

Riders is partly run on a business model. Although just 37% of 2007 income was from contracted services, mainly due to the inflation problems in Zimbabwe, the 2006 figure was 60%. Charitable income pays for set up and other fixed core costs to support the variable running costs of the country contracts. Riders runs a vehicle management academy in Harare, Zimbabwe. The academy trains mainly African delegates in safety, riding skills, maintenance and fleet management. A motorcycle leasing model is being piloted in the Gambia

Riders also designed the Yamaha-based Uhuru motorcycle and sidecar, with a stretcher and safe-motherhood chair for women having problems with their labour. Made in Zimbabwe, the motorcycles are owned by each community. When not in emergency use, they have an adaptation for use as a water pump for crop irrigation. They can be used to transport goods to market, with these commercial applications paying the running costs.