Dear colleagues and friends,
The health and wellbeing of adolescents is one of the most important investments we can make for our shared future.
Today, there are 1.3 billion adolescents aged 10 to 19 around the world.
When adolescents are healthy, educated, and empowered, they help drive stronger economies, more equitable societies, and lasting peace.
This is why investing in adolescent health is not just a health issue—it is a strategic imperative for achieving the Sustainable Development Goals.
Over the past two decades, we have made significant progress.
Thanks to expanded access to education, improved nutrition, and reductions in communicable diseases, adolescent mortality has declined by 27% globally.
More girls are in school than ever before, paving the way for greater gender equity and better life outcomes.
But serious challenges remain.
Noncommunicable diseases—such as those linked to obesity—are on the rise.
Road traffic crashes are now the leading cause of death for boys aged 15–19.
And mental health issues have surged, with self-harm among the top five causes of death for adolescents.
These issues are compounded by harmful social media use and the aftershocks of the COVID-19 pandemic.
Girls continue to face systemic gender inequality, with early marriage and early pregnancy robbing them of opportunity.
And adolescents everywhere are feeling the impacts of climate change, through displacement, food insecurity, and the mental strain of environmental anxiety.
In the digital world, a growing divide is deepening inequalities.
While some adolescents thrive online, many—especially in low-income communities—are locked out of access to health, education, and opportunity.
These problems do not respect borders. Our solutions must not either.
WHO is at the forefront of the global adolescent health response.
Together with our H6+ partners, WHO has developed AA-HA!—the Global Accelerated Action for the Health of Adolescents.
This is our global roadmap to build health systems that truly respond to the needs of young people—including sexual and reproductive health, mental health, and services that are safe, stigma-free, and accessible.
We’ve also launched GAMA, the Global Action for the Measurement of Adolescent Health.
Because we know for issues to be managed, they must first be measured. Many adolescent health domains, especially in the digital space, are still under-researched and under-reported.
Schools are another critical front. That’s why WHO, with UNESCO and others, developed Making Every School a Health-Promoting School—a global framework to turn schools into centres of physical, mental, and social wellbeing.
And most importantly, we are listening to young people themselves.
In 2023, we launched the WHO Youth Council—a platform for youth voices to shape global health decisions, advise our leadership, and co-design new initiatives.
We are delighted to work with partners driving change, and thank Fondation Botnar for our strategic partnership.
We are committed, together, to scale up our responses through universal health, and strengthened health systems. The return is immense.
To all our partners, let us act together - urgently and collaboratively—because the choices we make now will shape not just the future of this generation, but of every generation to come.
I thank you.