Adolescence is a crucial time for the health and future of an individual and ultimately of entire societies. Key to ensuring the development of healthy societies is the availability of quality health services that reflect adolescents’ concerns and needs. In spite of this, there is an alarming gap in health service provision to adolescents in both wealthy and poor nations.

To address the issue, WHO, in partnership with other UN and bilateral agencies, international NGOs and health service providers from over 20 developing countries, will hold a 3 day meeting in Geneva, at WHO Headquarters, from 7-9 March. The meeting will seek to develop a global action agenda to facilitate better quality and more 'friendly' health services for adolescents, taking into account the economic and socio-cultural constraints that exist in many parts of the world.

"Improving the health choices and opportunities of adolescents essentially means contributing to the health and energy of societies," says Gro Harlem Brundtland, WHO’s Director General. "This requires a scaling up of health systems world-wide to deal with urgent social issues and place health at the centre of development."

Studies carried out by WHO and other UN partners point to the fact that this difficult passage in life is often marked by a reticence, on the part of health workers, educators and other 'adolescent-serving' adults to deal with the crucial choices that adolescents face in connection with sexuality, mental health, substance use and violence.

The health and development of adolescents in the developing world is further hindered by poverty and lack of opportunities. In the least developed countries, only 13% of girls and 22% of boys enrol for secondary education. In some of the developing world 8 out of 10 unemployed people are under 24. One of the alarming results is the high incidence of maternal mortality in girls under 18, which is 2 to 5 times higher than in women from 18 to 25.

On the other hand, surveys prepared for the WHO meeting by health experts in 4 industrialized countries show that wealth is not enough to ensure adequate adolescent health services. Australian, Canadian, Swedish and US case studies show that health services are either unfriendly to adolescents’ needs, do not provide the confidentiality the young clients demand, or simply do not address some of the problems adolescents grapple with on a daily basis. As a consequence, many adolescents do not use the health services made available to them.

Parents, teachers, health workers and other community members have important contributions to make to promoting and safeguarding adolescent health. The role of health services in helping ill adolescents to recover good health is well recognized. In addition, they have an important contribution to make in helping adolescents stay well through the provision of information and preventive services. Promising approaches have been put in place in many countries to make it easier for adolescents to access the health services they need. The challenge will be to apply 'best practices' as widely as possible in all regions.