Spatial Examination of Family Planning Provider Networks in Urban Nigeria

Hilary Schwandt, Johns Hopkins University and Western Washington University
Marc Boulay, Johns Hopkins University

The Nigerian Urban Reproductive Health Program (NURHI) aims to increase contraceptive use in four urban areas of Nigeria. Under the task of improving service delivery, NURHI has spearheaded the formation of a Family Planning Provider Network (FPPN) to improve referral patterns from non-clinical providers to clinical providers with the goal of increasing access to long acting and permanent family planning methods. This study examines the network structure of the FPPN in each city. Data were collected in November and December 2011 and the data are analyzed using Ucinet 6 software. Clinical providers, especially nurse-midwives, are well connected with each other and other clinical professions. Non-clinical providers are well connected with each other – but not with other non-clinical or clinical professionals. Those few clinicians and non-clinicians who bridge the clinical and non-clinical networks are key to NURHI’s goal of improving relationships between groups and increasing referrals for more effective family planning.