SDGs: Why Tanzania is on right track
DAR ES SALAAM: President Samia Suluhu Hassan has said Tanzania is on the right track in achieving Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) as she called upon the development partners to support the country to attain its targets in the health sector.
The Head of State made the plea to the stakeholders at the Julius Nyerere International Conference Center (JNICC) in Dar es Salaam on Saturday when she launched the 2022 Tanzania Demographic and Health Survey and Malaria Indicator Survey (2022 TDHS-MIS).
Citing the report, President Samia said Tanzania has made improvements by cutting down maternal deaths and stunting rates.
“The journey to meeting the SDG goals in the health sectors is very much possible…we humbly request you to hold our hands to that journey to reach 2030 with a better standard of the achievement of those goals. Hold our hands let us move together to 2030 accomplishment of SDG goals,” the President noted.
Elaborating, she said that maternal deaths in the country have decreased from 530 deaths per one hundred thousand live births in 2015/16 to 104 deaths in 2022.
However, the Head of State said that even though the report shows that the rate of stunting among children under the age of five has decreased from 34 per cent in 2015/16 to 30 per cent in 2022 and that of child pregnancies from 27 per cent in 2015/16 to 22 per cent in 2022 there is a lot to be done by parents and guardians in keeping children and youth safe.
According to the President, the report indicates that 300 children out of 1,000 children in the community have stunting which is still not a good sign while mentioning regions with high levels of stunting as Njombe 50 per cent, Rukwa (50 percent) and Geita (39 percent).