Investments in adolescent health and well-being can transform the lives of young people and generate significant economic returns, yielding a triple dividend: health benefits for adolescents, for the adults they will become and for the next generation.

Why is adolescent health and well-being a focus area for 2018-2020?

Adolescence is a critical phase in the development of the physical, cognitive, emotional, social and economic capacities that are the foundation of adult and societal health and well-being. Although adolescents are often seen as the healthiest cohort, in reality far too many of today’s 1.2 billion adolescents (aged 10-19 years) risk not achieving their full potential. Each year, over one million adolescents die from preventable causes, tens of millions suffer injuries and hundreds of millions develop harmful behaviours with short- and long-term impacts.

The second decade of life is often fraught with challenges that can impede the rights of adolescents to become educated, healthy, informed, skilled and fully empowered as active citizens. Under the double burden of gender and age discrimination, millions of adolescent girls are kept at the fringes of society, suffering female genital mutilation, forced marriage, intimate partner violence and other human rights abuses.

It is imperative that recent attention to adolescent health and well-being continues to build at all levels. Young people can bring about unprecedented societal and economic progress. They can drive positive changes in their communities and at national, regional and global levels by participating meaningfully in decision making and by holding governments and other decision-makers accountable for the delivery of promises, policies and programmes that affect their lives. However, they can only transform the world if they survive and thrive.

What needs to be done?

Meeting the specific needs of adolescents requires continued and sustained investments in delivering an integrated set of policies and programmes. All adolescents need access to comprehensive health services, high-quality education and gainful employment opportunities, in an environment free of violence and discrimination.

Multistakeholder and multisectoral approaches are vital: adolescent health and well-being depend on collaboration between those responsible for health, education, water and sanitation, transportation, social protection and criminal justice, among many others.

Young people have a right to participate on equal terms with other stakeholders on matters that affect their lives. Meaningful adolescent and youth engagement is essential to maximize their potential contributions.

How is PMNCH making a difference?

Led by its Adolescent and Youth Constituency, PMNCH serves as the platform for meaningful youth engagement, mobilizing advocates at global, regional and national levels to increase political commitment to and financing for multisectoral, rights-based national plans for adolescents.

PMNCH synthesizes and disseminates available and emerging data and evidence relating to adolescent health and well-being. PMNCH is also catalysing and empowering social change by strengthening the accountability and advocacy capacities of young leaders and youth-led organizations, coalitions and networks. At the global level, PMNCH is working with partners to integrate monitoring of adolescent health and well-being into existing accountability frameworks, in order to streamline the reporting of progress and to reduce duplication of efforts.