Dear Subscribers,
SEASON GREETINGS and a HAPPY NEW YEAR from the Lancet Standing Commission on Adolescent Health and Wellbeing.
2016 has been a big year in pushing for the health and well-being of the world’s young people. Our future: a Lancet Commission on adolescent health and wellbeing was published in May. It followed the adoption of the Global Strategy for Women’s, Children’s and Adolescents Health at UNGA in 2015. The Commission Report launch at University College London was followed by events at Women Deliver and the World Health Assembly, further launch events in Washington DC, Seattle, Melbourne, Johannesburg in South Africa, and most recently at the American University of Beirut in Lebanon.
2017 will undoubtedly be another big year. The team at WHO have been active in developing the framework for the Global Accelerated Action for the Health of Adolescents (the Global AA-HA!) which we anticipate will be released at the World Health Assembly in May 2017. This has the potential to not only coordinate actions for adolescent health within WHO but catalyse action across the UN system.
Over the next six months we our planning the work of the Lancet Standing Commission. The Lancet will support the Standing Commission over the next five years. The focus will be the six recommendations in the Commission Report. We are very keen to make connections with academic and technical groups working around all aspects of the health and wellbeing of adolescents and young adults. This might be around specific health problems (e.g. HIV or mental health) or around the needs of particular groups (e.g. young women, young refugees LGBT adolescents). And we want to make sure that we engage as deeply as possible with our main constituents – adolescents and young adults around the world.
Do not hesitate to get in touch if you are interested in the work of the Standing Commission. And a big thank you to everyone who has helped so far.
George Patton,
Commission Chair
And the Lancet Youth Team.