The Stanford Value Chain Innovation Initiative conducted a multidisciplinary, 2.5-year district-level, randomized study which found that systematic management of motorcycles used by health workers to reach far-flung rural villages improved health ministry system performance in Zambia. You can download the study at Riders for Health Stanford research brief.
The study, which looked at the effect of fleet management by the U.K.-based social enterprise Riders for Health, showed that providing full management of motorcycles, conducting regular preventive maintenance, and training health workers resulted in improvements in fleet logistics, health reach, and health delivery.
As one Stanford anthropologist noted, after the Riders program, "The major change was that [the health worker's] clinic 'reclaimed' its catchment area."
Innovations such as the Riders for Health model have the ability to strengthen health value chains in developing countries.
It's nice to see supply chain as a solution for world problems…
A VC in Vacationland 
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