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WHO and partners launch new guidance on designing digital health interventions with and for young people.
Digital tools are an increasingly popular approach to improving health worldwide – particularly among adolescents and young people, who are accessing the internet at earlier stages of life.
Youth-centred digital health interventions is a new framework developed by WHO, HRP, UNESCO, UNICEF and UNFPA. It provides guidance on effective planning, development and implementation of digital solutions with and for young people to address the many health challenges they may face as they grow into adulthood.
Meaningful youth engagement at every step
The 2019 WHO Guideline for recommendations on digital interventions for health system strengthening advises that digital health interventions adapt the way they transmit information to specific audiences in order to improve the health and well-being of the people they were designed to reach.
This is critical when working with young people, who still encounter considerable resistance to being viewed as equal and valuable partners in programme design and delivery. This is true even when it comes to programmes, strategies, policies, funding mechanisms and organizations that directly affect their lives.
The new framework includes a list of “do’s and don’ts” for engaging young people in the process of digital health design and delivery, based on consultation with young social media influencers, health content and intervention developers, health advocates, educators, and current or future health professionals.
“Young people are the experts on their own health needs, the technologies they use and how they access information,” said Dr Lianne Gonsalves, technical officer in the WHO Department of Sexual and Reproductive Health and Research, who led the development of this guidance.
“Youth-centred digital interventions is a pathway to collaboration: trusting young people, learning from them and paying them for their work. As well as being essential for successful solutions, meaningful youth engagement empowers young people to evolve from beneficiaries, to partners, to leaders.”