Niger is a landlocked country located in West Africa and has Libya, Chad, Nigeria, Benin, Mali, Burkina Faso, and Algeria as its neighboring countries. Niger was French territory that got its independence in 1960 and its official language is French. Niger has an area of 1.267 million square kilometres, nevertheless, 80% of its land area spreads through the Sahara Desert.
, Niger has a population of 25,308,477. Niger is one of the poorest countries in the world with 2/3 of the population living below the poverty line.
Niger has been facing armed violence over the last three years and this violence has resulted to people's inability to access health services. Thus, the health care system in Niger is one of the lowest ranked countries on the Human Development Index with financial, human-resource and geographical challenges. This violence has worsened these challenges in the provision of healthcare. Public health in Niger suffers from a chronic lack of resources and a small number of health providers relative to population. Some medicines are in short supply or unavailable.
In Niger, development in the areas of health and economics have been lackadaisical and challenging. Niger always ranks at or close to the bottom of the United Nations Development Program’s Human Development Index. Food insecurity and infectious diseases in Niger have contributed to some of the apical mortality and malnourished rates globally and also has the highest fertility rate in the world. Increased population growth has threatened to further overpower Niger's healthcare structure and its most susceptible communities.
The Human Rights Measurement Initiative finds that Niger is fulfilling 73.8% of what it should be fulfilling for the right to health based on its level of income. When looking at the right to health with respect to children, Niger achieves 94.8% of what is expected based on its current income. In regards to the right to health amongst the adult population, the country achieves 100.0% of what is expected based on the nation's level of income. Niger falls into the "very bad" category when evaluating the right to reproductive health because the nation is fulfilling only 26.7% of what the nation is expected to achieve based on the resources (income) it has available.
Health infrastructure
Globally, Niger has one of the poorest economies and thus, experiences constant periods of severe droughts that abate its food resources. This has negatively impacted on the health of the population. Furthermore, Niger's history of political uncertainty and corruption have added to the country’s poor standard of social, health, and welfare conditions.
There are government hospitals in Niamey (with three main hospitals in Niamey, including the National Hospital of Niamey and the Hôpital National De Lamordé), Maradi, Tahoua, Zinder and other large cities, with smaller medical clinics in most towns. In 2015, Niamey has the highest number of doctors in Niger accounting for about 598 doctors, that is, 63.35% and the districts Zinder, Maradi, Tahoua, and Tillabéri has an estimate of 89.51% of doctors. Therefore, a total number of 944 doctors were estimated in 2015.
Medical facilities are limited in both supplies and staff, with a small government healthcare system supplemented by private, charitable, religious, and Non-government organisation operated clinics and public health programs (such as Galmi Hospital near Birnin Konni and Maradi).
Government hospitals, as well as public health programmes, fall under the control of the Nigerian Ministry of Health. A number of private for profit clinics ("Cabinets Médical Privé") operate in Niamey and other cities. The total expenditure on health per capita in 2005 was Intl $25. In 2003, 89.2 percent of individual expenditures on healthcare were "out-of-pocket" (paid by the patient).
Health indicators
Fertility rate
In Niger, the total fertility rate 7.0 live births per woman. The figure below shows the trends of fertility rate in from 1990 to 2100 in Niger, Western Sub-Saharan Africa and globally.This comparison shows that Niger is far behind the global rate.