Situation
- Problem: Half of the world’s population—including a billion people living in remote communities—lack healthcare access, mainly due to distance.
- Solution: Partner with governments to build community health systems, with professionalised community health workers in rural and remote areas.
- Impact: Supporting over 17,000 health workers, reaching 20 million people in rural Ethiopia, Liberia, Malawi, and Sierra Leone with primary care.
- Annual Budget: $27.3 million.
Funding model at scale
Last Mile Health is working to close the health access gap by equipping community health workers to provide essential services in remote rural areas of Ethiopia, Liberia, Malawi, and Sierra Leone.
How do they do it?
Last Mile Health works within government health systems, aligning with existing community health worker programmes, integrating community health workers into national supply chains and data systems, and standardising training and supervision. By doing so, they embed new approaches within government structures.
A key focus of their strategy is advocating for fair pay and the professionalisation of community health workers, who are often treated as unpaid volunteers. These workers face challenging conditions, leading to high turnover and inconsistent service. Last Mile Health leverages their evidence and partnerships to encourage governments to provide adequate recruitment, training, supplies, supervision, and salaries, ultimately improving health outcomes.
They also provide technical support to Health Ministries, helping build community health systems and policy expertise. While Last Mile Health plays a significant ongoing support role to Ministries of Health, it receives no direct government funding; 80% of its budget is covered by philanthropy and 20% by institutional funding.
“I don’t lean into the idea that each institution needs to have a unique value proposition. Due to the scale of the problem that we’re trying to solve, we need a community of committed and supported practitioners and implementers, rather than to develop a never-seen-before programme” – Lisha McCormick, CEO