RURAL HEALTH DELIVERY IN NIGERIA: AN EXPLORATION OF THE DEMOGRAPHIC IMPACT OF TRAINING POLICY

Provision of adequate rural health care is a persistent policy problem for all countries. It is especially critical for the developing nations where substantial disadvantaged rural ethnic groups are found. Effective delivery of these services require the ability to solve a variety of policy decision problems. Research has demonstrated the usefulness of operations research/management science (OR/MS) models and methodologies in the analysis and solutions of such problems. However, these approaches are often limited in the developing regions by data and computational requirements of the models.;This study explored the training policy of the traditional birth attendants (TBAs) and its impacts on demographic dynamics. Within the limitations of available data, the findings suggest that the TBAs' training policy is essentially a reasonable one. It is hoped that with some changes such as the addition of maternal and child health services; especially family planning, the issue of the divergence between the birth and death rates will begin to be addressed. The findings also suggest that there is a need for the collection of precise and accurate demographic data.