Multistakeholder Consultations on Programming to Promote Adolescent Well-Being

Overview

Many of the 1.2 billion adolescents (aged 10–19 years) around the world experience multiple challenges to their well-being. These include inadequate access to good nutrition, health services, education and mental health support, and lack of a safe and supportive environment.

In 2017, the Global Accelerated Action for the Health of Adolescents (AA-HA!) Guidance affirmed that adolescent-responsive health systems are key to achieving universal health coverage. In 2019, the publication Adolescent Health: the Missing Population in Universal Health Coverage demonstrated the importance of giving adolescents greater priority in efforts to achieve universal health coverage and argued that policy-makers need to take urgent action in the areas of service delivery, financing and governance. Later that year, the Call to Action for Adolescents was launched. By December 2021, it had been endorsed by many civil society organizations, United Nations (UN) agencies and 12 national governments, with more countries expected to be added periodically. Youth-led networks around the world are mobilizing their communities to join the #Adolescents2030 campaign, which aims to increase political support for the Call to Action for Adolescents leading up to and following the Global Forum for Adolescents in 2023.