In a new paper led by early-career researchers Dr Yiséché S. C. Hounménou, and Mr Elias Martinien Avahoundjè from Cerrhud and supported by researchers from the Institute of Tropical Medicine in Antwerp, we assessed geographical accessibility to facility-based childbirth care in Grand Nokoué metropolitan area in Benin.

We found that:

- Travel time was relatively short under average travel conditions  (8 minutes) but increased substantially for women needing public hospital care traveling at slowest speeds (106 minutes).

- Women from the poorest household wealth quintile travelled, on average, five times longer than those in the richest quintile to the nearest hospital

- Travel time was shorter in large and medium settlements thanin peripheral areas containing small settlements, low density, and almost uninhabited areas.

- Targeting peri-urban areas and the poorest with longer travel time will reduce existing inequities.

The paper was published in the Journal of Urban Health and it available here on an open access basis.

This study is part of the UrbanMat Grand Nokoué metropolitan area (Bénin) project.

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