Purpose: this paper studies the feasibility of a participatory approach in providing health-care services. It focuses on a concrete case study in rural Congo - Brazzaville (the village Moubangou, district of Kimongo). It assesses the real possibilities for rural households to participate in this scheme by analysing what determines whether, and, if so, how, they become eligible for (pre-) financing health-care. The scheme can be figured as a triangle in which government, local populations and NGOs are involved in improving the local/national health conditions of the population. Methodology: data are from the Recensement Général de la Population et de l’Habitat (2007), Enquête Congolaise auprès des Ménages (2005) and from other fonts to describe the health situation in the country. Original data are from a recent questionnaire in an empirical perspective. The questionnaire is completed and qualitatively supported by different focus groups. An experimental approach is applied in order to estimate formally the key determinants on the probability of acting collectively to solve questions related to health-care in the rural context.