The twenty century has witnessed the integration of the socio-cultural settings of the rnsociety in to the modern health care system implemented both in the developed and rndeveloping countries of the world. In developing countries in general and in Ethiopia in rnparticular, the situation in health care has become so complex that medical or biological rnterms alone cannot effectively assess it. When health care providers ignore the rnpsychological and socio-cultural factors, the care of patients is limited; because biology rnrepresents only part of the consequences of a malady. Hence, inquiry in to the socio cultural settings of a society is vital for understanding the various features of the rncommunity such as, their views of health, disease, illness, and sickness and the rnindigenous medical beliefs and practices of the community that, they employ to prevent rnand treat health related problems. Similarly, such an investigation would also help to rnrecogni ze the socio-cultural aspects that are challenges in the provision of services as rnwell as aspects that need to be taken in to account in the provision of services. Therefore, rnthis thesis primarily emphasizes on the socio-cultural settings of the Somali pastoral and rnagro-pastoral community in Jijiga zone, that need to be considered in the provision of rnmodern health care services. rnBoth qualitative and quantitative research methods were employed for the collection of rnthe data. In-depth interviews, focus group discussion and observations were the rnqualitative research methods that were used in the study. Where as survey was the rnquantitative research method employed to support the data collected through qualitative rnresearch methods in this study. rnThe findings of the study revealed that, the socio-cultural aspects of the community in the rnstudy area are challenging the provision of modern health care services and impacting the rnhealth seeking behavior of the community. The community's social and cultural aspects rnat the same time are linked to the most common diseases in the area. People of the area rnassociate the causation of diseases both to the personalistic and natural factors; but the rnmajority of diseases are believed to be caused by the personalistic (supernatural forces). rnHence, for the treatments of many diseases home remedy and traditional medicines (use rnof ma'alin) are preferred than modern medicine. Mostly, when such treatment options rnfai led to cure the disease, the cause is associated with the blood and a laboratory test is rndemanded from the modern health care institutions. rnGenerally, the study portrayed that, the urban, curative oriented health care program rnimplemented in the study area has exacerbated the ill-health status of the community; rnbecause the focus is on curing while the causes of many diseases are related with the rnsocial and cultural aspects that are possible to be prevented through health education rntaking their cultural settings in to account. In addition, the study revealed that, the large rnnumber of male physicians who are unfamiliar to the community's culture and Somali rnwomen health extension workers who are afraid of men member of the community, and rnthe failure of the modern health centers to incorporate traditional birth attendants who are rnproviding safe deliveries to the majority of mothers in the study area are some of the rnserious challenges hindering the provision of modern health care services in the area.