.png?sfvrsn=6d0e27cd_1 "Partnership for Change - v7 (1)")
Working together for their health, well-being, and agency
A thriving adolescent population leads to a flourishing society. While significant progress has been made for their health and well-being in the region, adolescents and youth in Latin America continue to face multifarious challenges including disproportionate burden of poverty among youth, adolescent pregnancies, mental health, violence, employment and education – to name a few. Only 59.4% of youth aged 20 have completed secondary education, while almost one in every five youth looking for a job are unable to find one. Homicides continue to be the leading cause of death for young males in Latin America and the Caribbean.
The onset of COVID-19 has exacerbated challenges faced by adolescents and youth, and the lack of global attention on adolescent health and wellbeing could potentially reverse progress made in the last few decades.
In response, PMNCH, the largest global alliance of more than 1,000 organizations working to improve and protect women’s, children’s and adolescents’ health, along with young people, governments, United Nations agencies, non-governmental organisations, and academic institutions has led partners in a Call to Action on Adolescents and is galvanizing support for its three priority areas: 1) Engaging and empowering adolescents; 2) Going beyond the health sector, launching a powerful intergovernmental, multisectoral response; and 3) Strengthening political commitment and funding through a global forum on adolescents. This Call to Action has been co-created by young people themselves with support from UN agencies and governments.
As the region recovers from the after-effects of COVID-19, Latin American and Caribbean countries must invest in the health and well-being of their adolescents and youth to ensure they can significantly and meaningfully contribute to the economic and social development of their families, communities, and nations, to achieve the 2030 SDG targets, as articulated in the Global Consensus Statement on Meaningful and Adolescent Youth Engagement.
The virtual panel will aim to create momentum from governments, adolescents and youth networks, UN organizations, and the private sector to support a focus on adolescents and youth in the 2023 SDG reviews to assess progress made in the last seven years since the SDGs were agreed upon. The panel will also deliberate and identify areas that require further political and financial investments and ways in which multi-sectorial coordination and collaboration can be increased to for adolescent and youth well-being and inclusion.
Furthermore, based on the discussions, it is envisaged that the panel speakers and participants would agree on a draft set of key messages that the Latin America and Caribbean Regional Forum for Sustainable Development 8 could convey to the High-Level Political Forum in July. The messages would specifically focus on the need to ensure that countries in the LAC conduct a review of the SDGs with regards to the progress and impact they have had on the lives of adolescents and youth in the region.
Helga Fogstad, PMNCH Executive Director, spoke at the opening session.