Adolescents and Youth

Print Send by mail

Giving young people top priority

UNFPA’s focus on adolescents and youth is based on the recognition that young people, particularly those living in poverty, have been virtually ignored in policies and programmes. And that this period of their lives is a critical transition between childhood and taking on adult responsibilities.

Yet, of the 1.8 billion young people in the world today, about half survive on less than $2 a day, while more than 100 million adolescents do not attend school. Sixteen million adolescent girls become mothers every year. Almost 40 per cent of the 6,800 new HIV infections each day are among young people.

UNFPA recognizes that young people are diverse. The needs of a 12 year-old girl are very different from those of a 24 year-old male. Effective policies and programmes for adolescents and youth take this diversity into account.

UNFPA’s Framework for Action on Adolescents and Youth articulates the organization’s multisectoral strategy to promote the comprehensive development of young people worldwide. Its four pillars include:

addressing population, youth, and poverty issues at the policy level
expanding access to gender-sensitive, life skills–based sexual and reproductive health including HIV education in schools and community settings;
promoting a core package of health and sexual and reproductive health/HIV services
encouraging young people’s leadership and participation within the context of sector-wide approaches, poverty reduction strategies and health sector reforms.

The framework also calls for upholding the rights of young people, and especially for marginalized groups and adolescent girls.

Publications

Fact Sheets

Multimedia

International Year of Youth

Initiatives and Partnerships

14 May 2013

Protecting the Rights, Unleashing the Potential of Indigenous Girls in Rural Guatemala

CHITIXL, Guatemala --- "In my village girls do not have access to information nor education," said Sonia Delfina Cho Tún from the Chitixl community in the lush northern highlands of the country. "There isn´t a local high school. We only get to study to sixth grade. Mostly girls marry at age 15, not knowing what their future holds for them and their children. "Parents force them because they say that when they reach age 20 and are single, they can no longer find a husband and are left to grow old alone." more

08 May 2013

In Fiji, UNFPA Chief Stresses Women's Empowerment, Girls Education

SUVA, Fiji — If alarming rates of violence against women are to be effectively addressed, the status of women needs to be elevated. UNFPA Executive Director Dr. Babatunde Osotimehin emphasized the fundamental, often unacknowledged, contributions of women – to families, communities and economies – during the launch of the Pacific Regional ICPD Review report. The persistence of alarming rates of gender-based violence is one of the critical issues in the region. more

08 May 2013

Towards Increased Services for Survivors of Sexual Violence in Syria

NIZIP, Turkey — More has to be done to ensure the health and wellbeing of women and children affected by the Syrian conflict, said Dr. Babatunde Osotimehin, Executive Director of the UNFPA, on a recent visit to Turkey's Nizip refugee camp, about 40km east of the southern city of Gaziantep. One of Turkey's newest camps, Nizip houses some 10,000 refugees, or "guests" as the government prefers to call them, in white canvas tents and containers arrayed in neat numbered rows along the rocky, sun-bleached banks of the Euphrates. more