Measuring Physical access to primary health care facilities in Gambella Region (Western Ethiopia)

Abstract. As part of the project “More equity and quality of health services in Gambella, Gambella Region”, financed by the Italian Agency for Development Cooperation (AICS) and implemented by the Italian NGO Doctors with Africa CUAMM (Padua, Italy) a geographic database of the distribution of health facilities of Gambella Region (western Ethiopia) was created. This data collection was carried out in two missions carried out in February 2018 and November-December 2019. It allowed a mapping of the access roads and the location of health facilities using Geomatic Approaches and related technologies (Remote Survey, Field Survey, GPS, GIS). The field work has allowed the investigation in 11 Waredas (i.e. districts) with the census of 3 primary hospitals, 26 health centres and 121 HPs and related road access by car or, in case of inaccessibility of vehicles, by foot or boat.The final result of this work is the availability of a detailed cartographic picture of the geographical distribution of Health Facilities (HFs) in order to support the modern decision-making tools to be adopted for the distribution of human and instrumental resources. As an example we describe a network analysis performed by ESRI™ Network Analyst which showed the importance of this approach to remodel a more efficient referral system.