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

Uganda is a landlocked country in East-Central Africa. The total fertility rate for Uganda was 5.4 children per woman in 2016. (1) The rate of in institutional birth in Uganda increased from 37% in 2000-01 to 73% in 2016, with births attended by a skilled birth attendant increasing from 37% to 74% of births over the same time period. (1) The maternal mortality rate (MMR) decreased in response to the increase in institutional births/skilled birth attendance, from 578 per 100,000 livebirths in 2000, to 375 per 100,000 in 2019. (2) Nonetheless, women in Uganda face a 1 in 49 lifetime risk of maternal death. (2) Similarly, forty two percent of under-5 mortality occurs during the neonatal period (1) with the Neonatal Mortality Rate (NMR) in 2019 reported as 20 in 1,000 livebirths. (3)

1. Uganda Bureau of Statistics (UBOS) and ICF. Uganda Demographic and Health Survey 2016. Kampala: UBOS 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.