Country action

Kenya

Photo © 2023 WHO / Gary Chong Studios – Faris Syazwan:
Ismaziah, a community nurse and midwife, assesses the child’s health and runs through the standard medical protocol checklist.

Every Woman Every Newborn in Kenya

Download the full profile with additional key demographics, progress against milestones, and more.

This profile was developed in May 2023, using data from 2018-2023. 

National mortality targets

Maternal
mortality ratio

100 per 100,000 live births
by 2025

Stillbirth
rate

7 PER 1,000 total births
by 2023

Neonatal mortality rate

12 per 1,000 live births
by 2023

Progress to meet the national maternal, newborn mortality and stillbirth reduction targets

©UNICEF/WHO.Attribution needed

Progress to meet Every Woman Every Newborn Everywhere coverage targets

MNH Acceleration Plan highlights

  • Build or strengthen the capacity of health facilities to implement high-impact maternal and newborn health interventions. 
  • Map and review the available data at facility and community levels to prioritize interventions. 
  • Strengthen the collection of routine service delivery data and ensure it is utilized for continuous quality improvement and decision-making. 

©UNICEF/Quarmyne. Attribution needed

Quality of care in Kenya

Kenya is one of the 11 countries that set up the Network for Improving Quality of Care for Maternal, Newborn and Child Health (Quality of Care Network). Kenya’s successes in improving quality of care for maternal, newborn and child health are essential to help reduce maternal and newborn mortality and stillbirths. These include:

  • The adoption of the World Health Organization’s standards to improve quality of maternal and newborn care, small and sick newborns care, and children and young adolescents care in health facilities.
  • A focus on addressing post-partum haemorrhage, with the creation of a plan to improve the quality of post-partum haemorrhage prevention, identification, and management.

News and events

Resources

Compendium on respectful maternal and newborn care

The compendium supports efforts to end mistreatment and achieve respectful maternal and newborn care. It is published by WHO together with UNFPA, UNICEF and the United Nations’ Special Programme on Human Reproduction (HRP), with support from Jhpiego and the MOMENTUM Country and Global Leadership programme. 

Read more

Maternal and Newborn Health Fund Annual Impact Report 2024

UNFPA released the Maternal and Newborn Health Fund Annual Impact Report 2024. Since 2010, countries supported by the Maternal and Newborn Health Fund have reduced maternal mortality by 40%, nearly twice the global rate, contributing to avert an estimated 75,000 maternal deaths. The Maternal and Newborn Health Fund is UNFPA’s flagship initiative to expand equitable access to quality reproductive, maternal, and newborn healthcare.

Read more

Programme manager’s handbook for maternal, child and adolescent health

The World Health Organization maternal, newborn, child and adolescent health e-handbook is a new resource for Ministry of health programme managers. It offers  step-by-step guidance for implementing effective health programmes, from planning to monitoring and evaluation, with concise overviews of key activities and interventions along the life course.  

The e-handbook references WHO documents, to ensure that programme managers have access to evidence-based strategies and best practices tailored to various contexts.

This e-handbook contains a prioritised list of documents; for a full list of documents go to the resource library for maternal, newborn, child, adolescent health and ageing: https://uhcc.who.int/mca/

Read more