Last update: Nov 2007

High levels of skilled attendance coverage in the developing world

Skilled attendance at delivery is critical to reducing maternal deaths. Nearly 60 per cent of births in the developing world are attended by skilled health personnel. The highest levels are found in CEE/CIS (95 per cent) and East Asia and the Pacific (87 per cent). South Asia and Sub-Saharan Africa lag behind other regions with less than half of births (41 per cent and 43 per cent, respectively) attended by skilled personnel. These two regions are also home to the greatest number of maternal deaths.

It is important to note that many countries, particularly in middle- and high-income countries, a large number of births also occur in health facilities, and thus are attended by skilled health personnel. For example, most deliveries in CEE/CIS (89 per cent) and in Latin America and the Caribbean (86 per cent) occur in health facilities. In Sub-Saharan Africa and South Asia, however, only around one-third of deliveries occur in health facilities (36 per cent of deliveries in both regions).

Source: UNICEF global databases.

Skilled attendance coverage has increased in every region since 1995

Trend analysis for skilled attendance at delivery is based on a subset of 80 developing countries with available data for around the period 1995 and 2005. Overall, these 80 countries account for 81 per cent of live births in the developing world.

Since 1995 every region of the developing world has made progress in increasing coverage. Across the developing world, the proportion of births attended by skilled health personnel increased from 54 per cent in 1995 to 61 per cent in 2005, based on this subset of countries with trend data. The greatest progress was achieved in the Middle East and North Africa and South Asia. Despite this progress, South Asia is the region with the lowest coverage of births attended by skilled health personnel, followed by Sub-Saharan Africa, where little progress was made during the past decade.

Source: UNICEF global databases, 2007; trend analysis is based on a subset of 80 countries with available trend data for around 1995 and around 2005.