Riders for health

: healthcare delivery solution in Lesotho : the need for reliable transport in African health systems

Abstract

The present dissertation, written in the form of a case study, aims to present Riders for Health, a British social enterprise whose mission is to create and manage transport systems in rural Africa. In December 2011, Riders for Health (Riders), was operating in seven African countries - the Gambia, Zimbabwe, Nigeria, Kenya, Zambia, Tanzania and Lesotho - employing more than 300 Africans, managing more than 1.600 vehicles and providing better access to healthcare services for up to 12 million Africans. We chose Riders' Lesotho programme to present an overview of the enterprise's innovative and sustainable business model.In the following pages we introduce the dissertation outline, then we provide the reader with an overview of the main literature about the development state of the African continent, health determinants, foreign aid effectiveness and social entrepreneurship. Afterwards, the case study focuses on Riders as a social enterprise, providing an overview of its general operations and business model. The country profile of Lesotho is also addressed in order to better understand Riders' approach which is extensively presented along the financing of its programme. Later, Riders' goals for 2015 are outlined and the case study finishes with a wrap-up of Riders' main drivers of success. Finally we provide teaching notes for in-class discussion about the case study, and conclude with final remarks and future research guidelines.

Date of Award	2012
Original language	English
Awarding Institution	Universidade Católica Portuguesa
Supervisor	Susana Frazão Ferreira Fernandes Pinheiro (Supervisor)