“Adolescents engaged for Change & a Sustainable Future”

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A group of youths and adolescents gathered at the Radisson Fort George in Belize City for a two-day forum, which focused on a range of issues. Those included health, gender-based violence, and climate change. Given that adolescence is such an integral period between childhood and adulthood and during which significant changes are experienced, the Special Envoy for Women and Children in partnership with the Spouses of the CARICOM Leaders Action Network (SCLAN) hosted the Adolescent Forum. It consisted of two high-level panel discussions, and six adolescent/youth panels. The six panel discussions with adolescents focused on: adolescent pregnancy; gender-based violence; HIV/AIDS; cervical cancer; mental health; and climate change. The two-day conference had three primary objectives including providing a platform for high level advocacy in support for priorities as they relate to adolescents; raising awareness and empowering them in their priorities, rights, and opportunities in engagement; and creating a call to action.
Bearing in mind the changes experienced in adolescents that impact their behavior, reasoning, risk-taking, social interaction, and physical and emotional health, investing in adolescents can accelerate the fight against poverty, socio-economic disparities and gender discrimination. Gaps in the social support and environment, as seen regionally, threaten adolescent outcomes in multiple sectors, undermine the progress established in building child health, and pose a significant and long-lasting threat to the overall development. Underlying many of these gaps is the challenge of gender equality and equity and the influence of these on attitudes and norms, relationships and the experience of girls and boys as they transition from early childhood through adolescence. Norms and attitudes around gender socialization are at the heart of findings showing early sexual debut, teenage pregnancy, and gender-based violence.
Papers show that investments in adolescent health and wellbeing are some of the best that can be made, resulting in a ten-fold economic benefit, and are vital for the progress towards achieving the United Nation’s Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). Investments in health and education will not only transform the lives of adolescents in resource-poor settings, but will also generate high economic and social returns. The costs of inaction are too great to ignore. To address these issues, a team in Belize (UNICEF/UNFPA/PAHO/Belize Family Life Association [BFLA]) the Chief Executive Officers from the Ministry of Health (MOH), Ministry of Education, Youth, Sports and Culture (MOEYSC) and the Ministry of Human Development, Social Transformation and Poverty Alleviation (MHDSTPA) commissioned the development of the National Adolescent Health Strategic Plan in collaboration with stakeholders providing services to adolescents. This strategic plan could be an exemplary model for other Caribbean countries.
In 2010, UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon launched Every Woman Every Child – a global movement to mobilize broad new partnerships to accelerate action, innovation and mutual accountability for health results. Undoubtedly, this global push for innovative partnerships for health contributed significantly to the achievements recorded at the close of the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) era. In 2015, as the global community formulated a new agenda for development defined by the sustainable development goals, the UN Secretary General commissioned the development of an updated global health strategy aligned to the 2030 agenda. This led to the development of the 2015 Global Strategy on Women’s, Children’s Adolescents’ Health with its focus on actions to ensure that all women, children and adolescents can benefit from actions and investments that ensure that they survive, thrive and contribute effectively to social transformation for sustainable development. Strong political commitment and leadership have been essential in bringing the issues of women and children’s health to the global agenda. In addition to this high- level commitment, champions as well as strong country and regional ownership are necessary to sustain the advancements post 2015. In contemplation of this, in 2017, the Spouses of CARICOM Leaders Action Network (SCLAN) was officially launched in Belize.
Kim Simplis-Barrow and Sandra Granger, Chair and Co-Chair of SCLAN, announced SCLAN’s commitment to improving women’s and children’s health and wellbeing in the Caribbean. “The members of SCLAN envision a Caribbean and by extension a world without HIV, TB, cervical cancer, early pregnancy and violence where women and girls know their value and truly can reach their potential.” SCLAN advocates and works to fulfil the 2030 SDGs including SDG3: Good health and wellbeing; 3.4 Reducing, by one third, the premature mortality from non-communicable diseases through prevention and treatment and promote mental health and well-being; SDG 5: Gender Equality, the CARIWAC initiative focuses on improving the development and lives of women, children and adolescents through empowerment and special attention to sexual reproductive health and rights; SDG 10: Reduced inequalities; SDG 11: Sustainable Cities & Communities; SDG 13: Climate action and its impacts; and SDG 17: Partnerships for the goals. It was against these backgrounds that the two-day conference on youth and adolescents engaged for change and a sustainable future was held.