Adolescent Prevention

UNICEF’s HIV/AIDS Thematic Fund is a global flexible funding pool. It enables us to strengthen systems to ensure an AIDS-free future for children and adolescents. This offers donors an exciting opportunity to target funding specifically to HIV/AIDS outcomes, while also giving UNICEF the flexibility to allocate funds based on where the need is greatest for children, including critically underfunded priorities at the country level, humanitarian response activities, and where funds will have the greatest impact. Thanks to our generous donors UNICEF’s Global HIV/ AIDS Thematic Fund income in 2022 reached over $5.7 million.

This document features the results achieved in 2022, when supporters of the HIV/AIDS Thematic Fund enabled UNICEF to allocate resources to 45 countries and territories. Funds were allocated to countries based on several measures determining the burden of HIV/AIDS on the population. These included the number of AIDS-related deaths in the country and the number of new infections among children and adolescents in the country. Funds were also allocated to UNICEF’s regional and global headquarters, supporting the vital work that allows thematic funding to unlock wide-scale results and impact the world over.

Global initiatives are urging countries to prioritize quality as a way of reinforcing human rights-based approaches to health. Yet evidence from both high- and low-income countries shows that services for adolescents are highly fragmented, poorly coordinated and uneven in quality. Pockets of excellent practice exist, but, overall, services need significant improvement and should be brought into conformity with existing guidelines.

The WHO/UNAIDS global standards for quality health-care services for adolescents aim to assist policy-makers and health service planners to improve the quality of health-care services, so that adolescents find it easier to obtain the health services that they need to promote, protect, and improve their health and well-being, according to their needs. 

This publication presents global standards for quality health-care services for adolescents, as well as an implementation guide and monitoring tools.

This document is an interactive guide for the uniform collection, compilation, reporting, and use of adolescent health data.

Adolescence is a critical stage in life for physical, cognitive and emotional development, shaping future health and well-being. Comprehensive measurement of adolescent health is essential to prioritize health issues, guide interventions and track progress. However, global, regional and national adolescent health measurement has historically been inconsistent and incomplete.

The Global Action for Measurement of Adolescent health (GAMA) Advisory Group has been established by the World Health Organization (WHO) in collaboration with United Nations partners to support efforts to focus adolescent health measurement on the most important issues and to improve alignment across different measurement initiatives.

The indicators are intended to guide policy and programming for adolescents, and to assist in identifying topics in which more detailed health assessments and additional programming are needed. The last chapter in this guidance document describes how this can be done, based on the approach suggested in the Accelerated Action for the Health of Adolescents (AA-HA!) guidance.

This document presents a list of 47 indicators recommended by GAMA for measurement of adolescent health, which are applicable to all adolescent population subgroups and span Well-being Outcomes. 

This advocacy report discusses the HIV epidemic among young people in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) region, particularly among key populations. The report emphasizes the challenges faced in collecting HIV-related data and the need for comprehensive efforts to address the epidemic, including targeted prevention programmes, improved access to testing and treatment, and addressing social and structural factors. It also discusses the presence of punitive and obstructive laws that contribute to stigma and discrimination and calls for their removal or reform. The report advocates for increased investment in HIV programmes, improved access to sexual and reproductive health services, comprehensive sexuality education, and community engagement. It highlights the importance of community health systems, data collection, and involving young people in the development of HIV and other health programmes.  ​

This second edition of AA-HA! guidance to support country implementation builds on the first edition published in 2017. It is a collaborative effort spearheaded by the World Health Organization in collaboration with UNAIDS, UNESCO, UNFPA, UNICEF, UN WOMEN, the World Food Programme and PMNCH.

Building on the solid foundation of the first edition and voices of adolescents and young adults around the world, this multi-agency product has evolved to incorporate valuable learnings from the past six years, including of the COVID-19 pandemic's impacts. Latest estimates of mortality and disease burden, updated evidence, and a broader focus on wellbeing make the second edition a cutting-edge resource for policy makers in the area of adolescent health and well-being.

AA-HA! 2.0 offers insights into the current health and well-being landscape of the world’s over 1.2 billion adolescents, underlining evidence-based solutions and presenting strategies for priority setting, planning, implementing, and evaluating health and well-being programmes. The inclusion of key implementation strategies and real-world case studies make this guide a practical tool for governments in designing and implementing a new generation of adolescent health and well-being programmes.

This synthesis report reflects a comprehensive review of the body of research undertaken through the Evidence-to-Action partnership.