The event took place on Thursday, 7th November, 2019 at Youyi Building in Freetown.
Introducing the background of the report to other development partners and journalists, Dr. Francis Smart from the Ministry of Health, said even though the ministry is the custodian of health issues in Sierra Leone as enshrined in the 1991 Constitution, all statistical and other information regarding health issues should be gathered in collaboration with Statistics SL as per constitutional mandate.
He added that the partnership between the two institutions is timely and relevant. He went on to state that the Demographic and Health Survey is conducted every five years and that, the 2019 report is the 3rd DHS done in the country.
According to him the first and second were conducted in 2008 and 2013 respectively, adding that although the current report was planned for 2018, actual data collection took place earlier in 2019 due to change of management at Starts SL.
He maintained that the key findings included decrease in infant mortality rates from 92 deaths per 1,000 live births in 2013 to75 deaths per 1,000 live births in 2019; decline in fertility rates and improvement in nutrition indicators such as less stunting, less wasting, and less underweight.
He said: “Details of maternal and other child health care indicators also suggest improvement. Details of other indicators including maternal and child health are found in this Key Indicator Report (KIR).”
Chairman of Stats SL, Moses L.J. Williams, informed the gathering that the 2019 DHS report is an indication of the complete transformation that took place in the institution, adding that the report is credible because it was done by professionals.
He explained to his audience that before he took over Stats SL, surveys were conducted through paper based processes wherein the enumerators used manual means of collecting data, but that his management has now transformed data collection process to using electronic based methods.
