The World Health Organization (WHO) is releasing the second edition of its biennial report, “Towards a brighter and healthier future: how WHO is improving the health and promoting well-being of the world's adolescents.” The document summarises WHO's response at three levels – headquarters, regional and country offices – to meet the multifaceted needs of an estimated 1.3 billion adolescents (aged 10-19) around the world.
“This report highlights many examples of how WHO is working to improve adolescent health and well-being,” said Dr Anshu Banerjee, Director of WHO's Maternal, Child and Aging Division. “This is being done through collaboration and coordination of new efforts with development partners and stakeholders, developing norms and standards, guiding policies and setting ambitious targets.”
A major milestone in improving adolescent health
WHO has launched several important initiatives aimed at engaging young people and supporting their participation in global health priorities, including the establishment of Youth Councils, Briefing Centres, the World Model WHO, the Youth Chronicle Programme, the World Forum for Youth and the 1.8 Billion Youth Transformative Campaign. Regional initiatives such as the Pan American Health Organization's Youth for Health Group and the Southeast Asia Youth Network have also been strengthened.
WHO has published the second edition of Global Accelerating Action for Adolescent Health (AA-HA!), which provides updated data on adolescent health and outlines a new list of key indicators for measuring adolescent health. With the guidance of AA-HA!, more governments are investing in comprehensive, evidence-based adolescent health and well-being programs developed in close consultation with adolescents. WHO has developed a policy to protect children from the harmful effects of food marketing. The policy recommends that countries implement comprehensive mandatory policies to protect children from the marketing of foods and non-alcoholic beverages high in saturated fats, trans fats, free sugars and salt. It also published a technical report on reducing alcohol harms by regulating cross-border alcohol marketing, advertising and promotion, highlighting the importance of marketing strategies and of controlling or banning alcohol marketing to reduce alcohol harms. Good nutrition during childhood and adolescence is the basis for many health and well-being benefits. Central to the fight against obesity are policy measures to improve the dietary habits of children and adolescents. The WHO policy brief “Nudges to promote healthy eating in schools” reviewed evidence on the feasibility of applying small, subtle changes to influence food choices in schools. The brief suggests five steps to implement a nudge approach through the engagement of school stakeholders and provides several case studies with examples.
“These are just some of our activities over the past two years. This report provides further information on our joint efforts across the organisation,” Dr Banerjee said. “It shows how much more we can achieve by working together towards our common goal of promoting, providing, protecting, empowering and delivering on the health and wellbeing of adolescents.”
The next 10 years
Adolescents today are healthier and have more opportunities to reach their full potential than decades ago, but the scale and scope of global threats to adolescent well-being – including conflict, the climate crisis and other humanitarian emergencies – exacerbated by the COVID-19 pandemic, now put decades of progress at grave risk.
“We are committed to strengthening the culture of partnership with civil society, youth, the private sector and parliaments in health and other priority areas,” Dr Banerjee said. “Building on WHO's initiatives such as the Youth Council and Civil Society Commission, we can accelerate our work with a focus on human rights, accountability and community engagement. Stronger mechanisms will be created to engage civil society, community organisations and youth groups in our work.”
