A recent report has sounded the alarm over the futures of adolescents around the world. Perhaps most strikingly, it points out that without urgent action, almost one in three adolescent girls will be unable to achieve any form of education, employment or training by 2030. This ominous trend is in step with a dire forecast. By 2023, we should anticipate the number of healthy years lost to a mental disorder or suicide for adolescents to be at least 41 million. These latest findings highlight an increasingly dire health crisis that warrants acute, targeted, and coordinated interventions.
Adolescents constitute almost a quarter of the world’s population. Despite making up only 3 percent of the population, they carry almost 10 percent of the total disease burden. Yet, counter to this highly significant demographic, they only receive 2.4 percent of international health and development funding. For every health dollar invested around the globe, young people get only two pennies. This troubling gap illustrates an urgent challenge. We need to take a hard look now at how we spend our resources to adequately protect this at-risk age group.
Yet the report brings a dramatic warning. Without the most ambitious intervention, almost 90 percent of adolescents will still experience constrained opportunities and negative health impacts throughout their countries by the year 2100. Many forces are leaning us into a dystopian future. These intersect with the accelerating effects of climate change, an increase in global warfare, and an increase in global obesity rates.
Azzopardi stated, “By 2030, we project that half of the world’s adolescents will be living in settings where they experience multi-burden profiles of disease.” This shocking forecast underscores that adolescents are grappling with multifaceted and interconnected crises that jeopardize their health and vitality across a multitude of dimensions.
Climate change impacts are felt most acutely by young people. Azzopardi noted, “Climate change affects us all, but it particularly affects young people. Climate anxiety, but the direct impacts of climate displacement, places young people at a unique risk.” Projections estimate 1.8 billion youths will mature in a world that is 2.8°C warmer by 2100. This drastic increase in temperature will exacerbate current health problems and create new hazards.
Moreover, rapid and unplanned urbanization is contributing to social isolation, insecure housing, and unequal access to essential services among adolescents. Many young people are fleeing from war zones, with at least four active conflicts globally impacting their lives and futures.
Our mental health systems are outmatched for the need and ill-equipped to serve adolescents. Azzopardi emphasized, “The current approaches that we have, which are predominantly driven through the health system, aren’t effective and aren’t working for them.” This lack is an urgent require a total change in how mental wellness services are administered to youngsters.
In reaction to these alarming results, specialists have outlined a few options to ease the crisis. Setting clear global targets to measure and monitor adolescent health and well-being is an essential first step. Additionally, scaling up access to sexual and reproductive health services and protections against gender-based violence is imperative to ensure adolescents’ safety and health.
It is time to better align and amplify efforts across the health and education sectors. Working across these sectors is essential for building protective spaces for adolescents. Putting adolescents’ voices first into policy making and advocacy efforts is important. It results in smarter, more impactful strategies that address their individual characteristics and needs.
Azzopardi remarked on the importance of investing in adolescent health: “It’s a real wake-up call that we need to invest in — and we need to invest now.” Meaningfully engaging young people is crucial to creating solutions that best align with their experiences and challenges and know how to address those.
