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

Health Access Connect (HAC) is addressing a long-standing challenge: how to bring healthcare to remote villages—without relying on ongoing foreign aid. Under the Medicycles model, HAC organizes government health care workers to use motorcycles to reach isolated communities and deliver monthly mobile outreach clinics. These outreach clinics provide essential medicines and primary care and are sustained by local ownership: each patient pays just $0.53 per visit to cover the transportation costs. Building on over 10 years of experience, 120,000 patient visits across 150+ remote communities, and a five-year MOU with Uganda’s Ministry of Health, HAC is expanding service to 64 additional villages, reaching tens of thousands more people with lifesaving care. The project will rigorously evaluate a) whether mobile outreach clinics can improve health outcomes in remote communities and b) whether small community contributions can make this model financially and operationally sustainable over time. With global aid budgets shrinking, this model offers a critical alternative to traditional, aid-dependent health outreaches. The team will also be analyzing digital healthcare data to identify underserved areas across the country and target outreach clinic services based on that assessment. Backed by $240,000 in research co-funding from J-PAL’s GEA Initiative and $50,000 in implementation funding from The Foreign Aid Bridge Fund, HAC has received an additional $542,314 to implement and evaluate this approach. This work will generate evidence on how governments and communities can partner to deliver essential care at scale even in the hardest-to-reach places.