Adolescent development
The second window of opportunity
Potential for a better future
There are approximately 329 million adolescents in the East Asia and Pacific region, making up a quarter of the world's adolescent population. Young people in the region play an important role as agents of change, being more connected, aware, and eager to bring fresh perspectives, offer solutions, and support partnerships towards social change.
Risks and opportunities
Adolescence is a phase separate from both early childhood and adulthood. It is a transitional period that requires special attention and protection. This second decade of life presents a window of opportunity, since it is characterized by rapid physical and cognitive development. The desire and curiosity of adolescents to learn and interact with the world around them have often led to innovation and achievement. Adolescents and young people continue to impact their communities and environment in diverse ways through individual and collective action.
However, millions of adolescents and young people in this region are still far from accessing quality learning, education, and skills that will enable them to have a bright future. The disparities are huge when it comes to ethnic minorities, young people with disabilities, young girls, and adolescents from poor families. Many continue to lack awareness and access to information and services that can improve their health and nutrition.
Teen pregnancies and child marriage have a disastrous effect on the lives of young girls, exacerbating discrimination and exclusion. Young adolescents are suffering from mental health and well-being challenges; often exposed to violence, abuse, and exploitation both offline and online, with limited support systems at home, school, or community levels. There are also serious constraints to freedom of speech and expression – societies that are often hierarchical do not allow young people to express their voices, opinions, or to make informed choices on matters affecting them.
A voice for all adolescents
Adolescents who are better informed and involved in decision-making can better protect themselves, grow and develop to their full potential
As a fundamental human right under Article 12 of the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child (CRC), their infinite capacities for ideas, action, and activism towards the creation of a better world must be unleashed through adequate investments and engagement.
To expand opportunities for adolescents to participate meaningfully in their homes, schools, communities, and in political processes such as local governance and policymaking, UNICEF works with young people, ensuring their views and opinions are heard and acted upon.
To reinforce adolescents' potential and their right to participation, UNICEF promotes policies and programmes that invest in young people. It strengthens partnerships with UN agencies, governments, the private sector, youth organisations, civil society networks, and others to develop platforms for collective action and engagement of adolescents and young people.
Together with adolescents and young people, UNICEF works to co-create solutions that can enhance their transition into adult life and work, particularly through quality learning and skills development, including digital literacy and entrepreneurship.
UNICEF works to enhance the role of adolescents as change-makers who can impact positively on adolescent-responsive healthcare and nutrition, including sexual and reproductive health, menstrual hygiene, obesity and malnutrition.
UNICEF is committed to the prevention of all forms of violence against children and adolescents by working with them; understanding their needs and challenges; and ensuring their voices are heard. It focuses on promoting adolescents' mental health and psychosocial well-being to keep adolescents safe from harm.
To drive action where it is most needed, UNICEF explores ways in which adolescents can be proactively engaged in data collection, research, and evaluations to generate evidence.
With an emphasis on equity, UNICEF also encourages gender-responsive programmes and specific attention to adolescents from the most disadvantaged groups, such as those who are stateless, migrants, and those with disabilities.
Resources
These resources represent just a small selection of materials produced by UNICEF and its partners in the region. The list is regularly updated to include the latest information.
Building Pathways to Empowerment: Recommendations For Promoting Inclusive Youth Civic Engagement
This series of short papers explores practical approaches and recommendations for promoting inclusive youth civic engagement in policy making, product design and other arenas. They were developed to spark discussions and strengthen the discourse among practitioners, policy makers and young people in East Asia and the Pacific following UNICEF’s East Asia and the Pacific Regional Office’s first regional conference in 2021 on young people’s rights to civic engagement, entitled Building Pathways to Empowerment. The research and case studies in this report aim to address barriers and identify solutions to systematically promoting meaningful adolescent participation—including the need for inclusive spaces recognizing the diversity of young people’s lived experiences and the need to build capacity of adults to understand how to engage adolescents.