And lastly, NCDs only occur in adults, especially older adults. Wrong again.

Our generation of young people is the largest ever: 43% of the world’s population is under the age of 25. Many risk factors for NCDs, including tobacco and alcohol use and diet, are established during adolescence. Evidence and statistics back this up: 20-40% of adolescents are overweight; and globally, between 80,000 and 100,000 young people start smoking EVERY DAY.

Not only are young people not immune to NCDs… the prevalence of NCDs among youth and adolescents is on the rise. For example, according to a study by Johns Hopkins, 1 in 10 young people have asthma and by the age of 15 more than 25% of obese adolescents have early signs of diabetes.

But NCDs include other health issues like mental illness, motor vehicle accidents, homicides, suicides, and other types of violence. It is estimated that 500 young people die every day due to interpersonal violence.

At the end of last year, the Lancet published its first ever series entirely dedicated to the subject of adolescent health. The papers in this series noted, among many other things, that there remains a huge gap in data pertaining to NCDs in young people. Researchers also found that while the health outcomes for younger children (especially those under 5 years of age) has improved significantly in the last 50 years, the health of adolescents has improved far less so. Much of this is due to both a general focus in the global health community to children under 5 (ie the MDGs) and due to the changing burden of disease among adolescents.

Sawyer et. al’s paper, “Adolescence: a foundation for future health,” road traffic accidents are the leading cause of death among people aged 10-24 years. When combined with suicide and homicide, violence and war, drownings and other accidents accounted for 40 percent of ALL deaths of people aged 10-24.

So what does this all mean? It means that youth and adolescents are indeed vulnerable to NCDs. It also means that because of this, young people have to be involved in the development of the new set of international development and health targets beyond 2015 (when the Millennium Development Goals, or MDGs, expire). And finally, it means that without addressing the specific preventative health needs of young people – like obesity, tobacco and alcohol use, mental health, and accidents – such goals and targets cannot be achieved.

Today is US Secretary of State Hilary Clinton’s last day on the job. She will be replaced by John Kerry, Senator from Massachusetts. As Advocates for Youth‘s Janine Kossen rights in Politico this week, “No one can doubt the indelible impact she has made on advancing the rights of women and girls, young people and LGBT individuals around the world. The question now becomes — what will Secretary Kerry do to build on these accomplishments?”

Secretary Clinton, a strong proponent of women’s health and rights and youth involvement in international development, will forever be regarded as one of the most forward-thinking and strong Secretaries of State the US has ever had.

Clinton will be giving her farewell comments to staff today at 2:30pm ET. You can watch LIVE on CSPAN.

Ricardo Baruch is a member of the Youth Coalition for Sexual and Reproductive Rights. He is also member Global Youth Coalition on HIV/AIDS (GYCA)’s Advisory Board and a former GYCA Regional Focal Point for Latin America. GYCA is a program of the Public Health Institute.

BY Lindsay Menard-Freeman, Women Deliver and Amanda Keifer, Public Health Institute (PHI)

With the world’s population now at seven billion and counting, issues of human rights, health, education, and employment require action more urgently than ever before—especially for youth under the age of 25, who comprise more than 40 percent of the world’s population.

That’s why we joined more than 3,000 young people from more than 150 countries—in Bali and virtually—this week at the Global Youth Forum to chart a progressive vision for equitable, sustainable, and just global development.

At the meeting, hosted by the United Nations Population Fund and the Indonesian government, the multi-stakeholder attendees agreed to a historic set of recommendations for the global community on sexual rights; gender equality; ending discrimination against LGBTQI youth; safe, legal and accessible abortion; support for meaningful youth participation in policy and program design and development; and a whole range of other amazing and forward-looking outcomes!

In recent decades, the international development agenda has changed dramatically. Historic United Nations agreements throughout the 1990s and early 2000s, such as the International Conference on Population and Development Programme of Action (ICPD), the Beijing Platform for Action, and theMillennium Development Goals, established a new paradigm for sustainable development that privileges a human rights-based approach to development instead of a ‘population control’ framework.

This shift towards a human rights-centered development agenda, which includes ensuring access to sexual and reproductive health and achieving gender equality, was a watershed change. But today, we live in a very different world. Young people everywhere face threats to their human rights and health, including discrimination, violence, and a lack of educational and employment opportunities. At the same time, an increasingly interconnected global youth movement has been at the forefront of political and social transformations like the Arab Spring. Now, more than ever, engaging the largest-ever generation of youth is critical as we determine the future of global development.

We know what it’s like to live as youth and adolescents in an ever-changing and increasingly globalized world. That’s why our participation in the Forum was so important: With the 20th anniversary of the ICPD quickly approaching and with the Millennium Development Goals set to expire in 2015, world leaders are now tasked with setting the “post-2015 agenda” that will determine global development policies for years to come.

Moving forward, our agenda is clear: young people must be meaningfully involved in the design, implementation, and evaluation of international development policies. The Global Youth Forum is the first of its kind in the process of forging consensus on the post-2015 development agenda. The resulting Declaration will inform ongoing events within the post-2015 process, including the Secretary General’s report to member states in September 2013.

The outcome of the Bali Youth Forum is another momentous step in the formation of a new set of global development priorities as FOR young people and BY young people. We have made our voices loud and clear: we want our rights upheld and respected regardless of our sexual orientation, gender, income, education or location.  And we will not settle for anything less.

Click here to read the final declaration.

The Youth Health and Rights Coalition (YHRC) is inviting you to design a logo for the Coalition that reflects the YHRC’s commitment to promoting positive Sexual and Reproductive Rights and Health (SRRH) outcomes for young people in the developing world. The winning logo will be chosen as the official YHRC logo and brand future YHRC publications and our online presence.

We would like to thank those who submitted logo designs over the last few weeks.  In order to expand the pool of possible logos from which to choose, the Youth Health and Rights Coalition has decided to EXTEND the logo design contest to DECEMBER 10 (by midnight Eastern Time). Additionally, we will REWARD the winning submission with a $50 iTunes giftcard!! Below you will find more information about YHRC and the competition rules (including ways to submit your logo) for your reference. We recommend that designs be simple and unique but also relate to YHRC’s goal of advancing the sexual and reproductive rights and health of adolescents and youth.

If you have any questions, or if you would like to join YHRC’s Youth Advisor listserv, please feel free to send your inquiries to youthhealthrights@gmail.com.

Amanda Keifer, Youth Engagement Working Group Lead, and Alexandra Hervish and Lindsay Lincoln, YHRC Co-Chairs.

Please read the Official Logo Design Contest Rules HERE (please read carefully before entering)

FHI 360, on behalf of USAID’s Interagency Youth Working Group, and in collaboration with the Youth Health and Rights Coalition, is hosting an online forum, The Road to Bali: Engaging Young People in Meaningful Ways, November 14.15, 2012.

In December, at the International Conference on Population and Development (ICPD) Beyond 2014 Global Youth Forum (GYF), youth participants will gather in Bali, Indonesia to address the lack of youth voices in the mainstream development debate.

At the IYWG online forum, a “Road to Bali” event, join moderators from USAID, UNFPA,
GYF and others in a discussion about how best to ensure that young people’s voices and
needs are included in international policy, programs, donor decision-making processes and civil society consultations.

Starting November 8, you can submit questions and comments to the IYWG online
forum. The online forum itself will begin at 9 AM Eastern Standard Time (EST) on
Wednesday November 14 (when previously submitted questions and comments will be
posted and answered) and end at 5 PM EST on Thursday, November 15.
Click here to register and learn more.

You can also participate in the global discussion around the ICPD Beyond 2013 Global
Youth Forum —before, during, and after the IYWG online forum—on Twitter at
#icpdyouth. Find more ways to participate at the ICPD website.

The International Conference on Population and Development (ICPD) is approaching its 20th anniversary. In 2014, advocates, governments, and experts will come together to assess our progress since the landmark ICPD Cairo took place in 1994. ICPD+20 will review the implementation of the ICPD Programme of Action and will influence the future of global population and development policy at national, regional, and global levels.

A critical aspect of this review is the ICPD Global Youth Forum. This forum, which will take place December 4-6, 2012, in Bali, Indonesia, will include nearly 1000 youth leaders from every country.

According to the UN: “Representing the 43% of the world’s population under age 25, they will convene in Bali to develop official recommendations for the United Nations Development agenda. But they will not be the only ones contributing. Around the world, youth leaders will connect locally and electronically to provide a shared response to the social, economic and human rights challenges and opportunities faced by their generation. This is the moment when the 43% take control of our shared future.”

There are a five key issues for which the Forum will develop global recommendations:

• Staying Healthy: Creating communities, policies and services that respect individual health needs and human rights, ensuring every young person achieves their full potential.
• Comprehensive Education: Providing all young people, regardless of gender, disability, race or economic status, with good quality education so that they are empowered to be active citizens
• Transitions to decent employment for youth: Overcoming the challenges of youth unemployment and harnessing the potential of youth to drive development that creates a healthier, more equal and more sustainable world for everyone.
• Sexuality, Families and Rights: Exploring the relationship between sexuality, family formation and sexual and reproductive health and human rights amongst adolescents and youth or family planning as a part of protecting sexual and reproductive health and rights.
• Fully Inclusive CIVIC participation: Supporting and building the capacity of youth leaders and the ability of governments, institutions and businesses to work collaboratively to create a more equal, more sustainable planet.

While the delegates and experts have already been chosen, YOU can be part of the conversation! HERE are some ways that you can participate in the Bali Global Youth Forum:

• Join the conversation on Twitter: use hashtag #icpdyouth
• Check out the ICPD Global Youth Forum website for up-to-date information on events in your area, and more ways to participate!

Many blogs and articles were written/ posted on this topic yesterday (I have listed a few of our favorites below), but our very own Adolescent Girls’ Advocacy and Leadership Initiative (AGALI) was featured in a blog on RH Reality Check. See the full article below!

DAY OF THE GIRL ARTICLES:

• United Nations News Centre: “On world’s first International Day of the Girl Child, UN calls for end to child marriage”
• Huffington Post: “International Day of the Girl: Doing Right by Girls Everywhere”
• Aljazeera: “A much needed International Day of the Girl”
• Huffington Post: “Celebrating the International Day of the Girl”
• United Nations Department for International Development (DFID): “International Day of the Girl”  
• CARE International: “On International Day of the Girl, Celebrating Progress in Ending Child Marriage” 

AGALI Celebrates the First Annual Day of the Girl 

by Emily Teitsworth, Program Coordinator

*re-posted from RH Reality Check

Today, from Lilongwe, Malawi to Guatemala City, Guatemala, Fellows of the Adolescent Girls Advocacy & Leadership Initiative (AGALI) are celebrating the first annual Day of the Girl Child.

For the first time, the United Nations General Assembly has adopted a resolution to declare October 11th as the International Day of the Girl Child, establishing a special day to recognize girls’ rights and the unique challenges facing girls and young women globally. Since then, activists around the world have been advocating for government recognition of the Day of the Girl Child and planning events to commemorate this historic day.

On this first annual Day of the Girl Child, I am excited to share the inspiring work being done by some of our 89 AGALI Fellows in Central America and Sub-Saharan Africa.

Guatemala

AGALI partner organization the National Association Against Child Abuse (CONACMI) is organizing a press conference in Guatemala City to highlight strategies to protect girls’ rights, and to showcase their successful advocacy work. Three additional AGALI Fellows’ organizations will participate in the press conference. CONACMI and other AGALI partner organizations are also involved in a national effort led by Plan International to convince the Guatemalan government to officially recognize October 11th as the Day of the Girl Child.

Ethiopia

Three Ethiopian women took home gold medals at the 2012 London Summer Olympics, all in long-distance running events. AGALI grantee Talent Youth Association (TaYA) will honor these extraordinary athletes at a youth forum celebrating Ethiopian women’s accomplishments in sports. This event will be used as a platform to spark conversations with invited decision makers about how sports can be used to improve girls’ lives in Ethiopia.

Liberia

Only a month before the first Day of the Girl Child, no large-scale events had been planned to honor October 11th in Liberia. Responding to this gap, AGALI partner organization Helping Our People Excel (HOPE) is spearheading a National Girls’ Empowerment forum that will kick off with a workshop where 30 adolescent girls will receive training in media outreach and develop a Manifesto for the Development of the Liberian Girl Child. The girls will then present their Manifesto at a press conference for key stakeholders from the media, UN agencies, and government institutions.

Malawi

The AGALI-affiliated Adolescent Girls Advocacy Network (AGANET) is collaborating with UNICEF and other organizations to organize several events in celebration of the Day of the Girl Child. AGANET and its partners are advocating with the President of Malawi, Joyce Banda, to make a statement concerning the need for Parliament to raise the age of marriage to 18 years of age. On October 11th, AGANET will hold girl-focused events throughout the country designed to highlight the needs of girls at the grassroots level.

AGALI Fellows around the world have been working for months to organize events that celebrate the potential for adolescent girls to contribute to sustainable and equitable development globally. AGALI thanks all of our Fellows for their dedication to empowering girls to speak out today, and on every day of the year.  For more information on AGALI’s advocacy for girls’ rights, please visit www.agaliprogram.org.

Recently, the Girl Up team interviewed Denise Dunning, Director of the Adolescent Girls’ Advocacy and Leadership Initiative (AGALI), and Emily Teitsworth, AGALI Program Coordinator. They spoke about what American girls can do to help their counterparts in developing nations and what their favorite girl power song is at the moment!

Below is the full Q & A text!

Girl Up: What is AGALI?
Denise Dunning: AGALI (Adolescent Girls’ Advocacy Leadership Initiative) is a global movement of leaders who are working to improve adolescent girls’ lives. AGALI provides training, funding, and support to leaders in Africa and Latin America who advocate for laws, policies, and funding to improve girls’health, education, and livelihoods.

GU: Can you tell us a little bit about the programs you support?
Emily Teitsworth: We support a wide variety of advocacy and leadership programs, from grassroots efforts targeting village chiefs in Malawi, to a project led by indigenous girls in Guatemala that has been successful in developing and implementing public policies designed by the girls themselves. One of the youngest girls involved in that project started showing up to meetings at age 9 and refused to leave, even though no one below the age of 12 was officially allowed to participate. Now, she’s 15 and is recognized as a leader in her community in Guatemala. When she finishes high school, she plans on studying to become a lawyer so that she can fight for the rights of other girls like her.
DD: Recognizing that AGALI leaders have the greatest understanding of the challenges facing girls in their communities, AGALI supports a diverse range of initiatives developed by AGALI Fellows. These programs include efforts to improve girls’ ability to stay in school, ensure that girls have access to sexual and reproductive health services and information, and that girls are economically empowered.

GU: What do you hope to accomplish with AGALI in the future? What are your goals?
DD: My goal for the AGALI program is to continue to improve girls’ lives around the world by sustaining the tremendous work of the AGALI Fellows. I hope that in the future, we will also be able to expand AGALI to additional countries so that we can empower leaders to advocate for the policies, programs, and funding that girls need to live safe, fulfilled lives.

GU: What is the best part of your job?
ET: One of the absolute best parts of my job is getting to spend time with inspiring girl leaders. A few months ago, I interviewed a teenage girl who was the Deputy Speaker of Liberia’s national Children’s Parliament. She told me about how when she first joined the Children’s Parliament, she was nervous to speak out, especially in front of the boys. Now, she is a champion for other girls and has helped advocate for the passage of national laws and policies that protect girls’ rights!

GU: Wow! That sounds so inspiring. What role can American girls play in helping girls around the world?
ET: I think one of the most important things that American girls can do is to spend time learning about the real lives of girls in other countries. Many of them have faced obstacles that we can barely imagine and have come up with ingenious solutions to address the problems facing their communities. I’ve always found that when I take the time to really imagine myself in someone else’s shoes, it helps me to better understand their life and to learn from them.
DD: American girls can encourage their friends, families, and communities to support girls around the world in whatever way they can!

GU: What is your girl power song at the moment? 
ET: Full disclosure: I’ve been a big country music fan ever since I was a young girl growing up in rural Oregon! One of my favorite girl power songs to sing along to in the car is “Bye Bye” by Jo Dee Messina.
DD: ”Unwritten” by Natasha Bedingfield

GU: What is your favorite inspirational quote?
ET: ”If you have come to help me, you are wasting your time; but if you are here because your liberation is bound up with mine, then let us work together.” –Lilla Watson, Australian Aboriginal Elder
DD: “Our deepest fear is not that we are inadequate. Our deepest fear is that we are powerful beyond measure. It is our light, not our darkness that most frightens us…. As we let our own light shine, we unconsciously give other people permission to do the same. As we are liberated from our own fear, our presence automatically liberates others.” -Marianne Williamson

GU: Who is your female role model?
ET: One woman who I have always admired is the author Arundhati Roy. She’s a brilliant writer and activist who speaks out on environmental and political issues both in her native India and around the world.
DD: That’s a tough question – I’ve admired so many women in my personal and professional life. One who stands out is my Girl Scout troop leader from high school – she is an amazing community leader who leads by her example. She is generous, compassionate, and committed to helping others and has transformed the lives of so many girls.

GU: If you had to choose only one: pizza or chocolate?
DD: Chocolate, for sure!! I think it’s about time someone invented chocolate pizza!
ET: I think it’s about time someone invented chocolate pizza!

GU: Yum, chocolate pizza! Thanks for taking the time to talk to us today, Denise and Emily! Keep up the amazing work.

Below is an article, by ECSP staffer Kate Diamond, on the subject.

There are 1.2 billion adolescents (ages 10 to 19) in the world today, accounting for 17 percent of the global population. They are the largest youth cohort in history, and 90 percent live in the developing world. Within that broad age group, very young adolescents (ages 10 to 14) often fall through the cracks of international development work, especially when it comes to health, and reproductive health in particular.

“We’ve been reluctant to really directly reach out to very young adolescents because we fear community backlash or we don’t really know how to work with very young adolescents,” said Cate Lane, USAID’s youth health advisor, speaking at the Wilson Center on August 28.

Lane, along with Laurette Cucuzza, the senior technical advisor for reproductive health at CEDPA, and Gene Roehlkepartain, president of child advocacy group Search Institute, discussed the challenges and benefits of working with 10- to 14-year-olds on sensitive but important sexual and reproductive health issues.

An Overlooked Age Group

“Adolescents are often lumped into groups, such as 10 to 19, or 15 to 24, but there are vast differences between adolescents of different ages,” said Cucuzza. Programs that ignore those differences, she continued, “often miss the windows of opportunity for early and nuanced approaches that can have lasting effects and provide protection from a myriad of health risks that contribute to high maternal and child mortality and morbidity.”

One reason why sexual and reproductive health work often bypasses the younger adolescent group, according to Lane, is the concern that “if you talk about sex, and you talk about sexuality, then the young people are going to want to go out and experiment.”

But, she continued, “we know from the research around comprehensive sexuality education that that’s really not true. That if you provide young people with comprehensive sexuality education they’re more likely to delay, they’re more likely to use contraception, they have fewer partners.”

Developmental Assets: A Framework for Engagement

Because of their age and social and cultural norms that may complicate sexual and reproductive health efforts, figuring out how to best to target very young adolescents can be difficult. Roehlkepartain advocated a “positive development” approach – one that builds on so-called “developmental assets,” or characteristics, both in adolescents and in their communities, that support healthy personal development.

Through extensive survey-based research in the United States (currently being expanded internationally), Search Institute has identified 40 of these assets, ranging from having family and community support to valuing delayed sexual debuts. Encouraging these assets can lead to a cycle of positive development for adolescents, said Roehlkepartain. Based on the institute’s U.S.-based work, youth with more developmental assets are less likely to engage in or support risky behavior, like violence, drinking, or sexual activity.

Most recently, Search Institute surveyed adolescents in Bangladesh, Honduras, Jordan, and Rwanda to assess correlations between asset levels and health, violence prevention, livelihood development, education, and civic engagement. The results suggest that developmental assets are universally applicable.

“Even with very different populations in each country, we’re finding similar patterns of asset levels. And that…doesn’t vary much by age, gender, or city or village. So it seems to be a fairly stable measure across a wide variety of young people,” said Roehlkepartain.

The Necessity of an Integrated Approach

Because of the impact developmental assets can have on a range of behaviors across cultures, Roehlkepartain likened their impact to preventive programming. “We think that focusing on identifying and building the strengths in young people complements the efforts to prevent the problems” that so many youth programs target, like health, education, and workforce development, he said.

CEDPA’s on-the-ground work in India, Nepal, Nigeria, and South Africa shows the importance of cross-cutting interventions that empower youth and create supporting environments for addressing sexual and reproductive health. For example, reproductive health programming in India’s Jharkhand state included “intensive advocacy with parents, media, and communities from the outset,” and was able to survive even as comparable programs in other states were coming under increasing criticism, Cucuzza said.

In Nigeria’s Akwa Ibom state, where “HIV prevalence is high, primary school attendance is low, and poverty is rampant,” village chiefs worked alongside religious and women leaders to create an integrated approach, teaching adolescents vocational skills, providing sexual and reproductive education, and improving primary school attendance,  she said.

There is a tendency to only deal with “positive development” – empowering youth and strengthening preventive behaviors and norms – once more pressing, immediate problems have been tackled, said Roehlkepartain. But “what we’re learning in developing contexts, which I think is true for this country as well, is that by paying attention to developing and empowering children and youth in all walks of life…is part of what lifts them up.”

“It’s not just waiting until they’ve got everything else solved,” he said. “It all goes together.”

Pursuing positive development could hold promise for USAID and the myriad goals it has relating to the health and wellbeing of young people, said Lane.

“If we are to really achieve USAID’s goals of reducing high-risk pregnancies, unsafe abortions, HIV, reducing maternal mortality, improving child survival, increasing the use of contraception, stabilizing population growth,” she said, “we really have to understand how we instill and sustain positive behaviors among this group of very young adolescents instead of trying to change those negative and often entrenched behaviors when people are older.”

 Event Resources:

• Cucuzza presentation
• Roehlkepartain presentation
• Photo gallery
• Video

 Photo Credit: Sean Peoples.