ABSTRACT
Concern continues to mount for the nearly universal inadequacy of health services coverage in the rural areas of less developed countries where the majority of the world's most impoverished families reside. A variety of projects have been launched to improve the combined coverage of health, nutrition, and family planning services to women and children in a manner that is locally appropriate, effective, and generally affordable to the populations served and their governments. A comparative review of project experience will be conducted under five headings: project aims and design; project organization and management; services provided; personnel selection, training, and utilization; and data acquisition, processing, and analysis. To be feasible for general coverage, comprehensive care must be carefully selective both in specific service components included and in high-risk populations targeted. Much more objective assessment is needed in matching service components, consequent skills needed, resulting training requirements, and pre-requisites of trainees.
