Technical consultation on indicators of adolescent health

Overview

As we enter the era of the Sustainable Development Goals and the allied Global Strategy for Women’s, Children’s and Adolescents’ Health (the Global Strategy), there have never been as many adolescents as there are now, and the potential dynamism they could provide for future global development is enormous. But to realise that potential, adolescents must survive and thrive, entering the adult workforce and, for many, their future roles as parents healthy and well educated.

Yet, progress in the health of adolescents has been far slower than in child health over the first 15 years of the millennium. Initiatives such as the new Global Strategy aim to change that. Global, Regional, National and sub-National indicators will be essential both to set priorities and targets and to monitor progress towards those targets. The technical consultation on indicators of adolescent health, held in WHO, Geneva in late 2014 brought together adolescent health experts from within WHO, other UN organizations and others, and aimed to reach consensus on a core list of indicators for measuring and reporting on adolescent health, and to explore the mechanisms for validating and/or testing new indicators for the core list agreed at the meeting.

The meeting participants reached consensus on a core list of 20 indicators, with 7 additional indicators recommended for countries with either a high burden of HIV or cannabis use. Three further indicators were suggested for inclusion, but would require further development.

The meeting report should be of considerable interest to policy makers, programme managers, funders, academics, civil society organizations, and adolescents themselves.