Strengthening data on adolescent health and well-being

Improving data collection, analysis, reporting and use is key to developing adolescent health programmes and policies that better suit the needs of adolescents. While much data are available on many adolescent health and well-being issues, important gaps still exist. Further, adolescent health and well-being data collection efforts and indicators used are often not standardized or consistently used across countries and populations, limiting the comparability, sharing and use of the data.

WHO developed the Maternal, Newborn, Child and Adolescent Health and Ageing Data Portal, the first comprehensive compilation of data on demographics, mortality, morbidity, risk factors, coverage and policies on maternal, newborn, child and adolescent health and ageing. It helps to identify and fill gaps and supports global and national monitoring and data use.

Key UN activities centre around improving the measurement of adolescent health and well-being and harmonizing data collection and reporting, including through focusing on a key set of priority indicators. These are done in collaboration with the Global Action for Measurement of Adolescent Health (GAMA) Advisory Group, established by WHO in collaboration with UNFPA, UNICEF, UN Women, UNAIDS, and the World Bank Group (the UN H6+ partnership).