The international community has made tremendous gains in improving the health and well-being of children under 10, but less progress has been made in reaching older children. 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.With the great majority (88%) of the world's 1.2 billion adolescents living in developing countries, investing in their education and training could break entrenched cycles of poverty and inequality. Investing in adolescents will 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, and contains perspectives of young people and adults on pressing issues, policy recommendations, as well as statistical tables on basic indicators and on adolescents and equity, with the latest available data for 196 countries and territories.
