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The city of Louga, Senegal, represents one of 11 African cities participating in the Earth Institute at Columbia University’s Millennium Cities Initiative (MCI). Complementing the already established Millennium Villages Project, the objectives of MCI are to help underserved sub-Saharan cities achieve the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs), attract foreign direct investment and design an urban development strategy that will result in economic growth and social sector improvements. With a population of just under 100,000, Louga is the smallest of the Millennium Cities; however, as a regional capital with strong economic ties to its rural surroundings, Louga epitomizes the situation in many sub-Saharan cities, serving, therefore, as an excellent and extremely telling model for the MCI.

The specific goal of this needs assessment was to examine the status of the healthcare system in Louga and to gather the information …