1 < 5%
2 5%-9.9%
3 10%-14.9%
4 > 15%
5 No data
1 More than 1 in 20
2 1 in 20 to 1 to 49
3 1 in 50 to 1 in 499
4 1 in 500 to 1 in 1,999
5 1 in 2,000 to 1 in 4,999
6 Less than 1 in 5,000
7 No Data

Government Expenditure on Health in Africa

What does it mean ?

This indicator shows the level of government health expenditure relative to other government expenditures in a country. Government expenditure on health includes recurrent and capital spending by the government to improve the health status of the population and health services through public budgets, external borrowing, grants/donations and social or compulsory health insurance funds.

Why does it matter ?

Universal health coverage cannot be achieved without sufficient funds being allocated to the financing of health systems. This indicator informs us of the priority a government gives to funding health expenditures compared to other public expenditures in a country. How much a government should allocate to health expenditure depends on different factors and contexts. In 2001, Heads of State in African Union countries pledged to allocate at least 15% of their total government expenditure to health.

How is it collected ?

The preferred source of data for this indicator is a National Health Account, which is an internationally agreed method for collecting information about all financial flows related to health in a country. Where a recent National Health Account is not available, the WHO's health financing team collects similar information using technical contacts in-country and publicly available documents.

World Health Statistics 2014. http://apps.who.int/nha/database

Lifetime Risk of Maternal Mortality

What does it mean ?

The Lifetime Risk of Maternal Mortality is the probability that a 15 year- old girl will die eventually from a maternal cause (any cause related to pregnancy, during childbirth, pregnancy or within 42 days of childbirth), assuming that current levels of fertility and mortality do not change during her lifetime. In high fertility societies the risk is higher because on average women go through the risk associated with pregnancy and childbirth many times in their life.

Why does it matter ?

Problems during pregnancy and childbirth are a leading cause of death and disability of women of reproductive age (15-49 years) in low income countries. This indicator acts as a marker of how likely it is to face death related to pregnancy and childbirth and reflects the ability of a country's healthcare system to provide safe care during pregnancy and childbirth.

How is it collected ?

In high income countries the data for Lifetime Risk of Maternal Mortality are from national registers of deaths to women, with maternal death as the cause. Also required in the calculation is the probability of becoming pregnant (fertility rates by age).To calculate LTR, the cumulative probability over a whole life time of becoming pregnant and dying from the pregnancy is there for calculated by summing over all reproductive ages the probabilities of becoming pregnant and dying of maternal causes

LTR 2017 - World Bank. 2020. Lifetime risk of maternal death (1 in: rate varies by country). https://data.worldbank.org/indicator/SH.MMR.RISK [Accessed 9 March 2020]