ALERT – Action Leveraging Evidence to reduce perinatal Mortality and morbidity in Sub-Saharan Africa

Tanzania, officially known as the United Republic of Tanzania, is a country in East Africa. In 2015-2016 the total fertility rate for Tanzania was 5.2 children per woman. (1) Whilst there has been an increase in the rate of institutional birth since 2004-2005 (47%), the rate in 2015-2016 remained relatively low at 63%. (1) Similarly, the rate of skilled birth attendance in Tanzania for 2015-2016 was estimated at 64%. (1) Women face a 1 in 36 lifetime risk of maternal death in Tanzania (2), where the maternal mortality rate (MMR) has declined by 39% from 2000 when the rate was 854 per 100,000 livebirths, to 524 per 100,000 in 2017. (2) The neonatal mortality rate (NMR) in 2019 was estimated to be 20 per 1,000 livebirths. (3)

1. Ministry of Health, Community Development, Gender, Elderly and Children (MoHCDGEC) [Tanzania Mainland], Ministry of Health (MoH) [Zanzibar], National Bureau of Statistics (NBS), Office of the Chief Government Statistician (OCGS) and ICF. Tanzania Demographic and Health Survey and Malaria Indicator Survey 2015-16. Dar es Salaam, MOGCDGEC, MoH, NBS, OCGS and ICF, 2016.
2. WHO, UNICEF, UNFPA, et al. Trends in maternal mortality: 2000 to 2017: estimates by WHO, UNICEF, UNFPA, The World Bank Group and the United Nations Population Division. Geneva: World Health Organization, 2019.
3. United Nations Inter-agency Group for Child Mortality Estimation. Levels and Trends in Child Mortality: Report 2020, Estimates developed by the United Nations Inter-agency Group for Child Mortality Estimation. New York, 2020.