Supporting Adolescents and Youth

Half of the world's people are under the age of 25. This includes the largest-ever generation of adolescents (1.2 billion people between the ages of 10 and 19), who are approaching adulthood in a rapidly changing world. The vast majority – 87 per cent – live in the developing world, in highly diverse economic and social situations, family structures, cultures and localities.

A common thread, however, runs through all of their lives: the aspiration for a better future. This aspiration is bolstered by the Millennium Development Goals agreed to by world leaders in 2000. Investment in young people is fundamental to achieving these goals.

Guided by the ICPD and related international agreements, UNFPA places a high priority on safeguarding young people's rights, promoting gender equality and equity and broadly supporting their successful transition to adulthood. The Fund places particular emphasis on reaching out to those who are living in poverty or in other harsh circumstances. It recognizes that opportunities for learning and for protecting the health of young people (including sexual and reproductive health) are crucial to their reaching their full potential. In the era of HIV/AIDS, this can also be a matter of life and death.

UNFPA is working with a wide range of partners and with young people themselves to encourage their healthy development through programmes that are participatory, rights-based, culturally sensitive and locally driven.

UNFPA's vision and approach

UNFPA's vision of a world fit for adolescents and youth is one in which their rights are promoted and protected. It is a world in which girls and boys have optimal opportunities to develop their full potential, to freely express themselves and have their views respected, and to live free of poverty, discrimination and violence. In such a world, young people would be enabled to make informed, voluntary and responsible life choices, including those regarding their sexual and reproductive health. UNFPA is committed to fulfilling this vision from a holistic, gender-sensitive and youth-centred approach.

UNFPA believes that for this vision to become a reality, change is required at multiple levels, from the individual to the community to the national level. The Fund recognizes that young people have a right to enjoy this period of their lives. In addition, with their creativity, adaptability and talents, young people are a precious resource, with a vital role to play in how the future unfolds.

In line with its vision, UNFPA's programmes:

• Address the inherent diversity of young people
• Promote gender equality and equity
• Affirm and safeguard the human rights of young people, including their rights to access sexual and reproductive health information, education, counselling and other services
• Foster youth participation
• Work from a holistic, comprehensive and interdisciplinary approach, recognizing that reproductive health issues are intimately linked with other concerns and realities facing young people
• Build partnerships among the various agencies, organizations, networks and coalitions working on behalf of, and with, youth
• Respond sensitively to the sociocultural context
• Use an evidenced-based approach and share knowledge to maximize results,
• Build in mechanisms for sustained progress

UNFPA considers that supporting the well-being of adolescents is imperative, on ethical grounds alone when one considers the complex challenges they often face and problems that may have been handed down to them. Investing in young people is also one of the most significant and cost-effective strategies for achieving global development goals. Supporting young people in achieving their full potential means improving prospects for their own — and their countries' — well-being.

The empowerment of young people is ingtegrally linked to promoting and safeguarding their human rights. A rights-based approach to development recognizes that people become empowered to act on their own behalf and claim their human rights as they gain access to relevant information, skills and opportunities. For adolescents, this implies progressive measures to remove barriers to the recognition of their needs and realities and the realization of their rights and capacities to participate in decisions affecting their lives.

Though they are often neglected and largely go unrecognized, the rights of young people are firmly established by national laws and international agreements. These instruments spell out a number of human rights that governments, families and society at large are responsible for fulfilling.

Between vision and reality

UNFPA's vision is not yet a reality. Poverty diminishes the lives of far too many girls and boys, who often forego schooling to find work to supplement family income. For too many adolescents, especially girls, adolescence can be a time of narrowing life opportunities and choices. Many adolescent girls face double-discrimination as a result of both their sex and age. Boys are often socialized to believe that dominant attitudes toward women and risk-taking are part of being a man.

Attitudes and behaviours related to gender relations, sexuality and reproductive rights and responsibilities are central to the fabric of life. Adolescence is a critical time for developing positive attitudes and behaviours in this arena. But the needs that young people have for information and services related to sexual and reproductive health are often neglected, and the gender disparities facing them are often overlooked. Continuing this neglect at a time when HIV/AIDS is infecting some 6,000 young people each day is unconscionable.

Today more than 1.2 billion adolescents are coming of age. Their success and happiness depend on their having access to the support, the role models, the education, the skills, the opportunities and the resources that can empower them to make responsible and healthy choices. Investing in the well-being and ensuring the participation of the world's largest generation of young people will improve their lives immediately and yield dividends for generations to come.

Read more about UNFPA directions in programming for adolescents and youth.

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