UNICEF programme guidance on adolescents

UNICEF has released new guidance that provides an overview of its strategic direction to advance the quality of life of adolescents. The guidance underscores the importance of adequate nutrition for optimal growth and development in adolescent girls and boys. It emphasises the provision of nutrition counselling and services, the promotion of healthy and diversified diets, including fortified foods, and, where necessary, the use of micronutrient supplements.

The guidance recognises schools as a critical platform to deliver nutrition interventions and improve nutrition literacy, while acknowledging that school-based interventions need to be supported by community-based approaches and other delivery models, especially to reach out-of-school adolescents. Download the guidance here.

To complement this overarching guidance, UNICEF will issue Programme Guidance on Adolescent Nutrition in early 2019 to detail the organisation’s approach for the operationalisation of evidence-based interventions to address all forms of malnutrition among adolescent boys and girls.