Testing Community-Led Outreach Clinics to Improve Health in Rural Areas

Access to high quality healthcare is a critical driver of human capital and a cornerstone of broader individual and societal well-being.

In Uganda, rural access to health care and to essential medicines remains a persistent challenge; although 86% of Ugandans live in rural areas, only 15-20% of the countrys doctors work in those same areas, which contributes to poorer health outcomes among rural populations.

Aside from a few irregular, one-day mobile clinics or sponsored medical missions, there are few resources in place for delivering healthcare on a regular basis to people in remote areas.

We partnered with Health Access Connect (HAC), a Ugandan-based NGO that coordinates monthly, financially self-sustainable outreach visits by clinical staff from government health facilities to rural communities that are located at least 5 km away from public health facilities.

Through a cluster-randomized trial in 64 health facilities and 128 villages, this study will evaluate the impact of HACs community-based outreach activities on the demand, quality, and utilization of health services, household health outcomes, child schooling and human capital, and household labor market incomes.