To inform and monitor programmes and enhance accountability for adolescent well-being, robust data are required. The World Health Organization and the Partnership for Maternal, Newborn and Child Health in collaboration with the UN H6+ agencies have established an Expert Consultative Group to work towards advancing adolescent well-being measurement based on the Adolescent Well-being Framework (AWF) and its five interrelated domains:

1. Good health and optimal nutrition;

2. Connectiveness, positive values and contribution to society;

3. Safety and a support environment;

4. Learning, competence, education, skills and employability; and

5. Agency and resilience.

The goal of this work is a measurement approach for adolescent well-being for use at global, regional, and country levels. The objective of the first phase of work is to develop a set of priority indicators reflecting the well-being status of adolescents across the five AWF domains, intended for use by national-level stakeholders to raise awareness and identify key targets for action; initiate and advance advocacy, policy and programming; and track progress in improving adolescent well-being. An additional set of indicators, aimed at reporting on government-level actions, is also under development.

The workstream to develop an adolescent well-being measurement approach is embedded in the wider global youth-led campaign “1.8 Billion Young People for Change”, launched in October 2022 to mobilize more and better action for adolescent well-being and with the Global Forum for Adolescents in October 2023 as a key milestone.

Adolescent and youth voices and engagement are considered critical to this work and will be sustained throughout.

Find out how to get involved here

"Creating and using a common framework to track progress and measure impact will enable approaches to be harmonized and information compared".

Source: Multistakeholder Consultations on Programming to Promote Adolescent Well-Being: Summary Report page 17

The Expert Consultative Group has been established to strengthen the scientific basis for the development of the measurement approach and provide guidance through the diversity of opinions on topics related to adolescent well-being in the published literature.

The work is also linked to the Global Action for Measurement of Adolescent health (GAMA) Advisory Group, which aims at improving adolescent health measurement to ensure global alignment in approaches and avoid duplication.