Adolescence

gated by age, disability, sex, ethnicity, caste and religionare urgently required as a foundation for programmes andpolicies and as a measure of progress.Population-based household surveys such as Demographicand Health Surveys and Multiple Indicator Cluster Surveysare increasingly providing some of these indicators, butthese tools require further use and investment. Developingthe capacity of national statistical systems to focus morekeenly on adolescents will ensure better understanding ofwhether and how their rights are being fulfilled.Indicators should be chosen that identify gaps and trackprogress in services specific to adolescents. National andinternational partners should coordinate and collaborateon statistical information to help foster comprehensiveglobal knowledge about, and understanding of, adolescentsand the challenges they face.The Committee on the Rights of the Child not only urgesgovernments to provide accurate data on children andadolescents, but also emphasizes that it should be inclusive.In General Comment No. 4, it is stated that “whereappropriate, adolescents should participate in the analysisto ensure that the information is understood and utilizedin an adolescent-sensitive way.”An excellent example of youth participation in data collectionis an innovative study of sexual exploitation of youngpeople in six countries of Eastern Europe. The projectinvolved 60 young people as researchers responsible forgathering baseline data on the extent of sexual abuse,awareness of it and available support services. The youngresearchers participated in developing the methodology,created appropriate survey materials, conducted researchand analysed data to produce recommendations for futureaction; they also subsequently helped produce training andadvocacy materials and devise strategies to take a standagainst the sexual abuse of minors.More than 5,700 responses allowed for a robust analysisof the situation and enabled the project to conclude withmeaningful recommendations for action to address sexualexploitation. Interestingly, some partner organizationsquestioned the study, arguing that young people lackedthe competence and expertise to take responsibility forresearch in such a sensitive and complex field. To test theirconcerns, a pilot project was arranged in which a professionalresearcher and the young researchers interviewed asample of respondents in turn. The adolescents, who wereinterviewing their own generation, were found to haveelicited more comprehensive responses. 1Invest in education and trainingDeveloping adolescents’ capacities and values througheducation can enable an entire generation to become economicallyindependent, positive contributors to society.Investing in education and training for adolescents andyoung people is perhaps the single most promising actionto end extreme poverty during this decade.Secondary education has a significant impact on individualearnings and overall economic growth. An increasinglytechnological labour market demands greater skills andadvanced education to scale up productivity and spurcapital investment. An analysis of 100 countries found asignificant positive correlation between the average yearsof adult male secondary school attainment and economicgrowth between 1960 and 1995. Years of primary school,on the other hand, did not appear to have an influence onpositive economic outcomes. 2Investing in secondary education can accelerate progresstowards achieving several of the MDGs. For example,greater availability of secondary education will create realisticopportunities that motivate students to complete primaryschool, thereby boosting primary school completionrates (MDG 2). 3 A 2004 paper by the Center for GlobalDevelopment pointed out that no country had achievedmore than a 90 per cent net primary school enrolment ratewithout also having at least 35 per cent net enrolment insecondary school. 4Secondary education can also have a strong impact on promotinggender equality (MDG 3) and improving maternalhealth (MDG 5). Data for 24 sub-Saharan African countriesshow that adolescent girls with secondary educationare six times less likely to be married than girls with littleor no education. They are also three times less likely to getpregnant than their peers with only primary education. 5 Indeveloping countries, women who have completed secondaryeducation or higher are more likely to have a skilledattendant present at delivery than their counterparts,thereby improving their children’s chances of survival. 6Investing in secondary education will require at least threekey actions. The first is to extend compulsory schooling64THE STATE OF THE WORLD’S CHILDREN 2011