Governments need to invest more to deal with health risks of teenagers, says Unicef

The world needs to invest in the world’s 1.2 billion adolescents—88% of whom live in poor nations—to consolidate the gains of the last two decades for young children, and to help deal with the array of challenges, including health risks, faced by teenagers, a Unicef report says.

“Adolescence is a pivotal point—an opportunity to consolidate the gains made in early childhood or risk seeing those gains wiped out,” said Anthony Lake, Unicef executive director.

The paucity of attention and resources devoted to adolescents (aged 10-19), Unicef warns, is threatening to limit the impact that efforts devoted to improving children’s health have had.

“We need to focus more attention now on reaching adolescents—especially girls—investing …