UNICEF: The State of the World’s Children 2010: Adolescence – An age of opportunity
25 FEBRUARY | NEW YORK - Of 1.2 billion adolescents worldwide, more than a billion – 9 out of 10 – live in developing countries. Millions lack basic health care, quality education, adequate protection and opportunities for meaningful participation to shape their own lives. Without this support and these opportunities, adolescents will be less equipped to deal with the great challenges of our time, including climate change, high youth unemployment and humanitarian crises.
Concerted investments in early and middle childhood have resulted in progress towards development goals in child survival, primary schooling, gender parity in education, and access to safe water, routine immunization and critical medicines. But as children enter their second decade of life, these advances are being put at risk. Investing in adolescents will consolidate these gains, as well as provide adolescents with the skills, capacities and knowledge that will enable them to succeed in life as global citizens.
The State of the World’s Children 2011: Adolescence – An age of opportunity examines the challenges facing the world’s adolescents. In this report you will find:
- Perspectives of young people and adults on issues including the environment, poverty, violence, migration, indigenous people, gender, HIV and AIDS, the media and more.
- Policy recommendations in the following areas: improved data collection and analysis, creating a supportive environment for adolescent rights, fostering spaces for youth participation, investing in education and tackling poverty and inequity.
- Statistical tables on basic indicators – nutrition, health, HIV/AIDS, education, demographic and economic indicators, gender and child protection – as well as new tables on adolescents and equity, with the latest available data for 196 countries and territories.
The State of the World’s Children, produced annually, is UNICEF’s flagship publication, always devoted to issues of children. The focus on adolescents in this year’s report is as timely, in this second International Year of Youth.