Adolescence
Adolescence Adolescence
AcknowledgementsThis report was produced with the invaluable guidance and contributions of many individuals, both inside and outsideof UNICEF. Important contributions for country panels were received from the following UNICEF field offices:Côte d’Ivoire, Ethiopia, Haiti, India, Jordan, Mexico, Philippines, Ukraine and the US Fund for UNICEF. Input wasalso received from UNICEF regional offices and the World Health Organization’s Adolescent Health and DevelopmentTeam. Special thanks also to UNICEF’s Adolescent Development and Participation Unit for their contributions,guidance and support. And thanks to adolescents from around the world who contributed quotations and othersubmissions for the print report and the website.The State of the World’s Children 2011 invited adult and adolescent contributors from a variety of stakeholdergroups to give their perspectives on the distinct challenges adolescents face today in protection, education, health andparticipation. Our gratitude is extended to the contributors presented in this report: His Excellency Mr. Anote Tong,President of the Republic of Kiribati; Her Royal Highness Princess Mathilde of Belgium; Her Highness Sheikha Mozahbint Nasser Al Missned; Emmanuel Adebayor; Saeda Almatari; Regynnah Awino; Meenakshi Dunga; Lara Dutta; MariaEitel; Brenda Garcia; Urs Gasser; Nyaradzayi Gumbonzvanda; Colin Maclay; Cian McLeod; Paolo Najera; John Palfrey;Aown Shahzad; and Maria Sharapova. These essays represent a selection of the full series of Perspectives available at.Special thanks also to Ayman Abulaban; Gloria Adutwum; Rita Azar; Gerrit Beger; Tina Bille; Soha Bsat Boustani;Marissa Buckanoff; Abubakar Dungus; Abdel Rahman Ghandour; Omar Gharzeddine; Shazia Hassan; Carmen Higa;Donna Hoerder; Aristide Horugavye; Oksana Leshchenko; Isabelle Marneffe; Francesca Montini; Jussi Ojutkangas;and Arturo Romboli for their assistance with the Perspectives essay series and Technology panels. Special thanks alsoto Meena Cabral de Mello of WHO’s Adolescent Health and Development Team for her assistance with the panel onadolescent mental health.EDITORIAL AND RESEARCHDavid Anthony, Editor; Chris Brazier, Principal Writer;Marilia Di Noia; Hirut Gebre-Egziabher; Anna Grojec;Carol Holmes; Tina Johnson; Robert Lehrman; CélineLittle; Charlotte Maitre; Meedan Mekonnen; KristinMoehlmann; Baishalee Nayak; Arati Rao; AnneSantiago; Shobana Shankar; Julia Szczuka; JordanTamagni; Judith YemanePRODUCTION AND DISTRIBUTIONJaclyn Tierney, Production Officer; Edward Ying, Jr.;Germain Ake; Fanuel Endalew; Eki Kairupan; FaridRashid; Elias SalemTRANSLATIONFrench edition: Marc ChalametSpanish edition: Carlos PerellónMEDIA AND OUTREACHChristopher de Bono; Kathryn Donovan; Erica Falkenstein;Janine Kandel; Céline Little; Lorna O’HanlonINTERNET BROADCAST AND IMAGE SECTIONStephen Cassidy; Matthew Cortellesi; Keith Musselman;Ellen Tolmie; Tanya TurkovichDESIGN AND PRE-PRESS PRODUCTIONPrographics, Inc.STATISTICAL TABLESTessa Wardlaw, Associate Director, Statistics andMonitoring Section, Division of Policy and Practice;Priscilla Akwara; David Brown; Danielle Burke;Xiaodong Cai; Claudia Cappa; Liliana Carvajal;Archana Dwivedi; Anne Genereaux; Rouslan Karimov;Rolf Luyendijk; Nyein Nyein Lwin; Colleen Murray;Holly Newby; Elizabeth Hom-Phathanothai;Khin Wityee Oo; Danzhen YouPROGRAMME, AND POLICY ANDCOMMUNICATION GUIDANCEUNICEF Programme Division, Division of Policy andPractice, Division of Communication, and InnocentiResearch Centre, with particular thanks to Saad Houry,Deputy Executive Director; Hilde Frafjord Johnson,Deputy Executive Director; Nicholas Alipui, Director,Programme Division; Richard Morgan, Director, Divisionof Policy and Practice; Khaled Mansour, Director,Division of Communication; Maniza Zaman, DeputyDirector, Programme Division; Dan Rohrmann, DeputyDirector, Programme Division; Susan Bissell, AssociateDirector, Programme Division; Rina Gill, AssociateDirector, Division of Policy and Practice; WivinaBelmonte, Deputy Director, Division of Communication;Catherine Langevin-Falcon; Naseem Awl; PaulaClaycomb; Beatrice Duncan; Vidar Ekehaug; MariaCristina Gallegos; Victor Karunan; and Mima Perisic.PRINTINGHatteras PressiiTHE STATE OF THE WORLD’S CHILDREN 2011
ForewordLast year, a young woman electrified a United Nationsconsultation on climate change in Bonn, simply by askingthe delegates, “How old will you be in 2050?”The audience applauded. The next day, hundreds ofdelegates wore T-shirts emblazoned with that question –including the Chair, who admitted that in 2050 he wouldbe 110, and not likely to see the results of our failure toact. The young woman’s message was clear: The kind ofworld she will live in someday relies both on those whoinherit it and on those who bequeath it to them.The State of the World’s Children 2011 echoes and builds onthis fundamental insight. Today, 1.2 billion adolescents standat the challenging crossroads between childhood and the adultworld. Nine out of ten of these young people live in the developingworld and face especially profound challenges, fromobtaining an education to simply staying alive – challengesthat are even more magnified for girls and young women.In the global effort to save children’s lives, we hear too littleabout adolescence. Given the magnitude of the threats tochildren under the age of five, it makes sense to focus investmentthere – and that attention has produced stunning success.In the last 20 years, the number of children under fivedying every day from preventable causes has been cut by onethird, from 34,000 in 1990 to around 22,000 in 2009.Yet consider this: In Brazil, decreases in infant mortality between1998 and 2008 added up to over 26,000 children’slives saved – but in that same decade, 81,000 Brazilianadolescents, 15–19 years old, were murdered. Surely, we donot want to save children in their first decade of life only tolose them in the second.This report catalogues, in heart-wrenching detail, the arrayof dangers adolescents face: the injuries that kill 400,000 ofthem each year; early pregnancy and childbirth, a primarycause of death for teenage girls; the pressures that keep70 million adolescents out of school; exploitation, violentconflict and the worst kind of abuse at the hands of adults.It also examines the dangers posed by emerging trendslike climate change, whose intensifying effects in manydeveloping countries already undermine so many adolescents’well-being, and by labour trends, which reveal aprofound lack of employment opportunities for youngpeople, especially those in poor countries.Adolescence is not only a time of vulnerability, it is also anage of opportunity. This is especially true when it comes toadolescent girls. We know that the more education a girlreceives, the more likely she is to postpone marriage andmotherhood – and the more likely it is that her childrenwill be healthier and better educated. By giving all youngpeople the tools they need to improve their own lives, andby engaging them in efforts to improve their communities,we are investing in the strength of their societies.Through a wealth of concrete examples, The State ofthe World’s Children 2011 makes clear that sustainableprogress is possible. It also draws on recent research toshow that we can achieve that progress more quickly andcost-effectively by focusing first on the poorest childrenin the hardest-to-reach places. Such a focus on equity willhelp all children, including adolescents.How can we delay? Right now, in Africa, a teenager weighsthe sacrifices she must make to stay in the classroom. Anotherdesperately tries to avoid the armed groups that mayforce him to join. In South Asia, a pregnant young womanwaits, terrified, for the day when she will give birth alone.The young woman who asked the question in Bonn, alongwith millions of others, waits not only for an answer, butfor greater action. By all of us.© UNICEF/NYHQ2010-0697/MarkiszAnthony LakeExecutive Director, UNICEFFOREWORDiii
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AcknowledgementsThis report was produced with the invaluable guidance and contributions of many individuals, both inside and outsideof UNICEF. Important contributions for country panels were received from the following UNICEF field offices:Côte d’Ivoire, Ethiopia, Haiti, India, Jordan, Mexico, Philippines, Ukraine and the US Fund for UNICEF. Input wasalso received from UNICEF regional offices and the World Health Organization’s Adolescent Health and DevelopmentTeam. Special thanks also to UNICEF’s Adolescent Development and Participation Unit for their contributions,guidance and support. And thanks to adolescents from around the world who contributed quotations and othersubmissions for the print report and the website.The State of the World’s Children 2011 invited adult and adolescent contributors from a variety of stakeholdergroups to give their perspectives on the distinct challenges adolescents face today in protection, education, health andparticipation. Our gratitude is extended to the contributors presented in this report: His Excellency Mr. Anote Tong,President of the Republic of Kiribati; Her Royal Highness Princess Mathilde of Belgium; Her Highness Sheikha Mozahbint Nasser Al Missned; Emmanuel Adebayor; Saeda Almatari; Regynnah Awino; Meenakshi Dunga; Lara Dutta; MariaEitel; Brenda Garcia; Urs Gasser; Nyaradzayi Gumbonzvanda; Colin Maclay; Cian McLeod; Paolo Najera; John Palfrey;Aown Shahzad; and Maria Sharapova. These essays represent a selection of the full series of Perspectives available at.Special thanks also to Ayman Abulaban; Gloria Adutwum; Rita Azar; Gerrit Beger; Tina Bille; Soha Bsat Boustani;Marissa Buckanoff; Abubakar Dungus; Abdel Rahman Ghandour; Omar Gharzeddine; Shazia Hassan; Carmen Higa;Donna Hoerder; Aristide Horugavye; Oksana Leshchenko; Isabelle Marneffe; Francesca Montini; Jussi Ojutkangas;and Arturo Romboli for their assistance with the Perspectives essay series and Technology panels. Special thanks alsoto Meena Cabral de Mello of WHO’s Adolescent Health and Development Team for her assistance with the panel onadolescent mental health.EDITORIAL AND RESEARCHDavid Anthony, Editor; Chris Brazier, Principal Writer;Marilia Di Noia; Hirut Gebre-Egziabher; Anna Grojec;Carol Holmes; Tina Johnson; Robert Lehrman; CélineLittle; Charlotte Maitre; Meedan Mekonnen; KristinMoehlmann; Baishalee Nayak; Arati Rao; AnneSantiago; Shobana Shankar; Julia Szczuka; JordanTamagni; Judith YemanePRODUCTION AND DISTRIBUTIONJaclyn Tierney, Production Officer; Edward Ying, Jr.;Germain Ake; Fanuel Endalew; Eki Kairupan; FaridRashid; Elias SalemTRANSLATIONFrench edition: Marc ChalametSpanish edition: Carlos PerellónMEDIA AND OUTREACHChristopher de Bono; Kathryn Donovan; Erica Falkenstein;Janine Kandel; Céline Little; Lorna O’HanlonINTERNET BROADCAST AND IMAGE SECTIONStephen Cassidy; Matthew Cortellesi; Keith Musselman;Ellen Tolmie; Tanya TurkovichDESIGN AND PRE-PRESS PRODUCTIONPrographics, Inc.STATISTICAL TABLESTessa Wardlaw, Associate Director, Statistics andMonitoring Section, Division of Policy and Practice;Priscilla Akwara; David Brown; Danielle Burke;Xiaodong Cai; Claudia Cappa; Liliana Carvajal;Archana Dwivedi; Anne Genereaux; Rouslan Karimov;Rolf Luyendijk; Nyein Nyein Lwin; Colleen Murray;Holly Newby; Elizabeth Hom-Phathanothai;Khin Wityee Oo; Danzhen YouPROGRAMME, AND POLICY ANDCOMMUNICATION GUIDANCEUNICEF Programme Division, Division of Policy andPractice, Division of Communication, and InnocentiResearch Centre, with particular thanks to Saad Houry,Deputy Executive Director; Hilde Frafjord Johnson,Deputy Executive Director; Nicholas Alipui, Director,Programme Division; Richard Morgan, Director, Divisionof Policy and Practice; Khaled Mansour, Director,Division of Communication; Maniza Zaman, DeputyDirector, Programme Division; Dan Rohrmann, DeputyDirector, Programme Division; Susan Bissell, AssociateDirector, Programme Division; Rina Gill, AssociateDirector, Division of Policy and Practice; WivinaBelmonte, Deputy Director, Division of Communication;Catherine Langevin-Falcon; Naseem Awl; PaulaClaycomb; Beatrice Duncan; Vidar Ekehaug; MariaCristina Gallegos; Victor Karunan; and Mima Perisic.PRINTINGHatteras PressiiTHE STATE OF THE WORLD’S CHILDREN 2011
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