According to the United Nations International Children's Emergency Fund (UNICEF) in June 2017, the maternal mortality rate in Senegal remains critical at five deaths per day, and the pediatric/neonatal death rate improved from 145 deaths per 1000 live births in 2000 to 54 deaths per 1000 live births in 2014. The pediatric death rate even though still high has decreased by 60% since 2000, and now in Senegal, one child per 20 dies before age five which amounts to 74 children per day. 45 % of the pediatric deaths are from malnutrition.
The neonatal population accounts for a lot of those deaths with 19 deaths per 1000 live births (37%) from mainly prematurity, neonatal hypoxia, infections, and others.