Adolescence

The big picture

© UNICEF/HQ99-0223/Pirozzi

David Mohete, 12, stands in front of a brightly coloured mural painted by children at the Afrika Cultural Centre in the city of Johannesburg. (South Africa)

Nearly half of the world’s population, almost 3 billion people, are under the age of 25.  Among the total population of adolescents, 1.3 billion are in developing countries and over 500 million of them are adolescent girls. 

Adolescence is a period of transition between childhood into adulthood and for analytic purposes can be segmented into three stages: early (10-13 years of age), middle (14-16), and late (17-19) adolescents. This is a critical time in life because the experiences, knowledge and skills acquired in adolescence have important implications for an individual’s prospects in adulthood. UNICEF places particular attention to reaching the most disadvantaged and marginalized adolescents, protecting their rights in every situation including conflict, post-conflict and emergencies.

UNICEF’s mandate to implement the Convention on the Rights of the Child necessitates that all children under 18 are included in its programming.  UNICEF’s organizational priorities identify adolescents as a cross-cutting issue, impacting critical areas of UNICEF’s work.  Adolescents play a central role in contributing to young child survival programmes, halting the spread of HIV/AIDS, helping to create a protective environment against violence, exploitation and abuse, and macro policy development to increase social investment in issues that affect children and adolescents. 

UNICEF is committed to building partnerships that promote meaningful participation of children and adolescents in programmes and decision-making processes that affect their lives.

Participation
UNICEF has a long-standing commitment to ethical and meaningful participation of children as a guiding principle of all it's work. Participation enables adolescents to make a significant contribution to their families, communities and society as a whole.  Much progr“A world fit for children is one in which…all children, including adolescents, have ample opportunity to develop their individual capacities in a safe and supportive environment.”
– World Fit For Children ess has already been made in recent years towards encouraging and institutionalizing the participation of adolescents beyond the occasional meeting or media event.  In addition, many country and regional offices have begunto work with adolescents on a day-to-day basis, as well as support the development of national and regional youth organizations and networks.  

As the world’s leading agency on children, UNICEF has organized and participated in various high level and highly visible events involving meaningful child participation, including:

• Junior 8 Summits  
  July 2008 Chitose, Japan
  June 2007 Wismar, Germany
  July 2006 St. Petersburg, Russia
  July 2005 Dumblane, Scotland
• World Congress III against the Sexual Exploitation of Children and Adolescents, November 2008, Brazil
• WFFC+5 Children's forum, December 2007, New YorkUN Youth Leadership Summit, November 2006, New York
• Religions for Peace Youth Assembly, April 2006, Hiroshima

Partnerships
UNICEF works with and for adolescents to involve them as partners in policy and programme development.  In doing this, UNICEF seeks to ensure that the views of girls and boys are taken into account in the design, planning, implementation and evaluation of policies and programmes that affect their lives in accordance with their evolving capacities, including during conflict and crises. 

Achieving sustainable change requires collaborative efforts and partnerships among UN Agencies, governments, private sector, international agencies, non-governmental organizations (NGOs), community groups and youth organization and networks.  These strategic alliances will promote sustained and scaled-up investments to increase coverage of evidence-based programming interventions with and for the development of adolescents as a central strategy to achieve the global targets of the Millennium agenda.