The Road Not Taken
By Ngwarati Mashonga
In September, 2009 British Prime Minister Gordon Brown pledged to a fund that would provide free health care to 10 million people in some of the world's poorest countries. This is an impressive ambition, and removing fees would undoubtedly remove one of the barriers that prevent people accessing health care. However, if a health worker could not travel to families in a rural village, it makes little difference how free treatment is.
A lack of reliable transportation currently constrains the performance of health delivery organizations across Africa. It is, of course, not the only constraint to access but it is a fundamental problem. Yet, without addressing the issues of reliable transportation, overcoming the other constraints will still not result in the complete health-care coverage that could play such a key role in the development of Africa.
