- To focus measurement on the most important adolescent health issues, the Global Action for Measurement of Adolescent health (GAMA) Advisory Group proposes 47 priority indicators. These indicators draw from and complement those included in the monitoring frameworks of the SDGs and the Global Strategy for Women’s, Children’s and Adolescents’ Health. Building on existing systems, countries should – as much as possible – collect and use the data on these indicators to monitor progress towards improving the health of their adolescents.
- An approach to measurement of adolescent well-being is being developed. The approach will be designed for use at global and country levels, encompassing multiple domains beyond health to provide a broad perspective of adolescent well-being.
- The rapid physical, emotional and social changes across the adolescent period pose special challenges for adolescent health and well-being programmes, making it essential to disaggregate data by age (five-year age groups) and sex.
- It is essential for adolescent health and well-being programmes to monitor the full range of indicators from inputs and processes through outputs, outcomes and impacts; these answer different questions and are useful for different purposes. Periodic evaluations of adolescent health and well-being programmes are essential and should build on routinely collected monitoring data.
- Over the last decade, WHO has conducted priority-setting exercises in areas of adolescent health. These exercises can help researchers and research funders to identify and prioritize areas that require particular attention.
- Monitoring, evaluation and research to improve the health and well-being of adolescents should draw on the opinions of adolescents themselves. Increasingly, youth-led participatory methods are being used, including engaging adolescents as active evaluators and in participatory research. Key principles for engaging adolescents in monitoring, evaluation and research include:
- balancing their participation with the safety of their engagement
- paying attention to the evolving capacity of adolescents to make informed decisions
- gender and equity considerations
- attention to disadvantaged, vulnerable or marginalized adolescents and,
- if possible, integrating adolescents into evidence-generation activities as advocates, data collectors, analysts and researchers.
This chapter provides an overview of monitoring, evaluation and research related to adolescent health. It describes global measurement frameworks and the Global Action for Measurement of Adolescent health (GAMA), data collection systems for adolescent health and well-being indicators and global databases where data are stored and displayed. The chapter also highlights the importance of disaggregation of health data, describes the monitoring and evaluation of adolescent health and well-being programmes at country level. Finally, it provides an overview of how research can be advances and how to involve adolescents in monitoring, evaluation and research.
What is new in this chapter?
- The set of priority indicators for measurement of adolescent health proposed by the GAMA Advisory Group
- A measurement approach for adolescent health and well-being under development
- Good practices and key principles for the meaningful inclusion of adolescents in monitoring, evaluation and research on adolescent health and well-being programmes.
