Adolescents2030

Young people and experts across the world agree that adolescent well-being is achieved when “adolescents thrive and are able to achieve their full potential.” This includes having good health (both physical and mental health), access to good nutrition and education, employability, connectedness, resilience, safety and security, and protection from violence.

Academics, researchers, policymakers, programme implementers and young people have summarized key policy and programming issues that must be addressed in order to promote adolescent health and well-being through a series of fifteen background papers.

To advance the adolescent well-being framework in policies and programmes, key partners are working towards a Global Forum for Adolescents in 2023.

• placing adolescents at the forefront of the 1.8 billion campaign;
• strengthening national platforms for increased and equitable adolescent engagement; and
• empowering young people to demand their rights and to hold national systems and institutions to account.

• developing and adopting a framework for adolescent well-being to ensure cohesive programming and measurement;
• prioritizing disaggregated and high-quality data collection about adolescents to guide action and define who they are and what they want and need; and
• strengthening partnerships at all levels to ensure linkages between the adolescent well-being agenda and broader efforts to address young people’s livelihoods, education and skills, as well as productivity.

• increasing the level and effectiveness of domestic and donor spending on adolescent well-being, in line with commitments made to Universal Health Coverage and those made beyond the health sector
• prioritizing adolescent well-being in resolutions submitted at the annual UN General Assembly and the World Health Assembly;
• mobilizing efforts towards a first Global Forum for Adolescents in 2023. in line with Achieving the objectives of 'Youth2030: The United Nations Youth Strategy’' and the agenda to accelerate progress on the SDGs in the Decade of Action 2020-2030.

There are now 1.8 billion adolescents and youth worldwide and this number will continue increasing until 2050. Nearly nine out of 10 adolescents live in low- and middle-income countries. Their health and well-being, now and into their adult lives, depends on their level of education, skills development, employability and access to high-quality health services. Adolescents also need a supportive environment that helps them to stay healthy and empowered, that encourages them to embrace gender equality norms and to claim their rights.

Investment in adolescents delivers the “triple dividend”. This means that by improving the health and well-being of adolescents now, enhancing it throughout the life course and contributing to the health and well-being of future generations there can be impacts not only today but into the future and for the generations to come Additionally, a thriving adolescent population fuels economic growth helping to increase productivity, decrease health expenditure and reduce inequities across generations.

Every adolescent has the right to a safe environment – including the right to food, water, housing as well as physical security – and also the right to claim education, skills and competencies. As it stands, this is not the case.

Every adolescent should also have a positive self-esteem, a sense of agency and be able to make meaningful choices. This includes the capacity for self-expression and self-direction appropriate to their evolving capacities and stage of development. Every adolescent should have the capability to be socially, culturally and civically active and be equipped to contribute to change and development in their own lives and communities.

Vital areas include:

• Identity: an adolescent’s feeling of comfortable in their own self and with their identity(s), including physical, cultural, social and sexual identity;
• Purpose: every adolescent having a sense of purpose, a desire to succeed and optimism about the future;
• Resilience: every adolescent being equipped to handle adversities both now and in the future, in a way that is appropriate to a young person’s evolving capacities and stage of development; and
• Fulfilment: an adolescent’s feeling that they are fulfilling their potential now and will be able to do so in the future.

Adolescents are entitled to information and services that meet all their needs, including that pertaining to noncommunicable diseases, injuries, healthy eating and nutrition, mental well-being, the risks of tobacco and other substance abuse, benefits of physical activity, social support and the cultivation of healthy relationships. Provision of these should be consistent with adolescents’ evolving capacities, and free of stigma and discrimination whilst also upholding their sexual and reproductive health and rights.

Adolescents currently face multiple barriers in accessing the knowledge, information, healthcare services and commodities they need. Most of their health and well-being issues are preventable or treatable, but appropriate care and services for adolescents are often either inadequate or absent. In addition, many service providers do not fully understand their needs. Age-specific challenges can be exacerbated by gender, ethnicity, religion, disability, location, education level, poverty, marital status, sexual orientation and gender identity, and migratory status, among other factors.

While deaths in children under five halved during the Millennium Development Goals’ period, reduction in adolescent mortality has stalled. Each year, there are over 1.1 million adolescent deaths. Major contributors include road traffic injuries, suicide, interpersonal violence, HIV/AIDS and diarrhoeal diseases as well as ‘maternal conditions’ as a contributor to mortality for adolescent girls.

Achieving the SDGs including UHC (SDG target 3.8), requires keeping adolescents informed and healthy, so they can survive and thrive both now and into adulthood, as recognized in the UN’s Strategy for Women’s, Children’s and Adolescents’ Health. However, to fulfil the promises of the SDGs, further support and commitment are required to deliver for adolescents, especially those most at risk of being left behind.