Four-year-old Rodrick and his family in Tanzania. Action Against Hunger helped Rodrick recover from malnutrition.

Tanzania

In recent decades peace and stability has enabled economic growth, but despite progress malnutrition is still common.

Malnutrition remains a major public health issue in Tanzania. The country has one of the highest rates of malnutrition compared to the rest of Africa, with 450,000 children fighting life-threatening hunger.

In total, 58% of Tanzanian children and 45% of women are anaemic.

The main drivers of malnutrition include poor care and feeding practices, as well as a lack of access to safe water and sanitation. There is also a shortage of healthcare workers skilled in nutrition. Supplies needed to detect and treat malnutrition run out frequently, and health services are often inaccessible to communities in need.

Country facts

  • 56m

    Tanzania has a population of more than 50 million people.

  • 159

    Tanzania ranks 159th out of 189 countries in the Human Development Index.

  • 450,000

    450,000 Tanzanian children under five are fighting life-threatening hunger.

Changing behaviours: supporting mothers in TanzaniaMiriam and her son Samson in Mpwapwa, Tanzania. They've recovered from malnutrition thanks to the support of Action Against Hunger and players of the People's Postcode Lottery.

Changing behaviours: supporting mothers in Tanzania

We’ve empowered mums in Mpwapwa, a town in the centre of the country, to give their children the strongest start to life.

Read their stories

Action Against Hunger’s work in Tanzania

Our programmes in Tanzania aim to improve the treatment of malnutrition and improving nutrition at a regional level. We also provide nutrition advice for food security and livelihoods and water, sanitation and hygiene projects.

In Dodoma region, we focus on improving the treatment of life-threatening hunger by training healthcare workers and the screening of children for malnutrition by community health workers. Our food security and livelihoods programmes also include garden projects and cooking demonstrations.

In the Singida region, our projects involve behaviour change and increasing the uptake of maternal child health services by young mothers and children under five.

Our reach

  • 217,129

    We reached more than 200,000 people through our programmes in Tanzania in 2019.

  • 7

    We have 7 staff based in Dodoma region.

  • 203

    We've trained more than 200 community health workers to screen malnutrition.

Save lives todayAction Against Hunger helped four-year-old Rodrick to recover from malnutrition.

Save lives today

Help more vulnerable communities in Tanzania tackle hunger.

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