In Tanzania, chronic undernutrition isat 35 percent among children under five. This makes thecountry home to the third highest population of childrenwith chronic undernutrition in Sub-Saharan Africa, justafter Ethiopia and the Democratic Republic of Congo. Thisbrief provides an overview of the trends in undernutrition,as indicated by stunted growth, over time and by subgroupsof gender, age in months, rurality, geography, and poverty.It also provides a geo-spatial stunting map which shows 1kmx 1km pixel-level estimations of stunting rates. Using theUNICEF Synergies Approach (1990) and drawing on existingscientific literature, the brief then outlines the theorybehind different pathways to chronic undernutrition throughinadequate food, care, environment, and health services.Further econometric analysis has been conducted on the DHS2016 data using Shapley decomposition, to identify therelative contributions of various determinants includingwater supply, sanitation, and hygiene (WASH) variables indetermining stunting rates, and hence chronic undernutritionin the Tanzania. The relative contributions of other factorssuch as poverty, the child’s characteristics, mother’scharacteristics and location are also highlighted. Finally,it provides operational and policy implications along thelines of multisectoral and nutrition-sensitive approachesfor intervention design to reduce stunting in Tanzania.
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