PMNCH Launches Survey Report – ‘What Young People Want’
By Diana Coker
A massive survey project undertaken by Partnership for Maternal, Newborn and Child Health (PMNCH), a global alliance for the health and well-being of women, children and adolescents hosted by the World Health Organisation (WHO) on Thursday 10th August 2023, released an interim report of the worlds largest survey titled, ‘What Young People Want’.
David Imbago Jacome, Board Member of PMNCH Adolescent and Youth Consultancy and YIELD Hub Director, stated among other things that young people expressed concerns over safety and the need for a supportive environment where good health and optimum nutrition are treated as priority, adding that more than 700,000 respondents identify education, skills training and employment as pathways to future security.
According to him, the youngest survey respondents had specific concerns such as the need for safety and a supportive environment cited by 11.0% of respondents aged 15-19, 8.4% of those aged 20-24, and 1.8% of those aged 10-14. Adolescent boys want clean water and good roads, while adolescent girls added free sanitary pads to the list in addition to clean water.
Overall, nearly half of respondents (47.2%) fell within the range of 15 to 19, comprising 25.7% girls and 21.5% boys. Among these, the average age is 16, accounting for 13% of total respondents. The youngest group of adolescents (10 years old) was the least represented at 1.2%, while the oldest group of adolescents and youth aged 24 years, accounts for 7.3% of the respondents.
Approximately, 1% of respondents identified as transmen, transwomen, gender-fluid, two-spirit, nonbinary, other, or preferred not to say their gender.
More than two-thirds (68.8%) of respondents were from the African region, followed by the South-East Asia region at 27.5%, and a small minority from Latin America. Survey outreach to date has prioritised low and middle income countries, ensuring that voices less often heard are prioritised. Future outreach will expand to high income countries.
India constituted the largest population of respondents, comprising 17.2% of the total sample. Uganda ranks as the second-largest contributing country, accounting for 12.0%, followed by Indonesia at 10.2%, and Zambia at 8.4%.
The project collects the voices of 1 million+ young people, informing a global ‘Agenda for Action for Adolescents’, launching at a global forum for adolescents in October 2023
The survey asked young people, aged 10-24, to express, in their own words, what they want most for their own well-being, giving voice to many of those who have simply never been asked, including in fragile and low-resource settings.
Among 713,273 respondents between ages 10-24, the top interest expressed by young people (40.5%) is for learning, competency, education, skills and employability (40.5%), reflecting a strong interest in job stability, financial and material security and independence. This result was reflected across all age groups, particularly among those aged 15-19 (47.2%) and among adolescent girls (49.2%), who frequently cited the need for “learning opportunities” and “quality education”.
In 2022, in low and middle income countries, learning losses to school closures due to COVID-19 left up to 70 per cent of 10-year-olds unable to read or understand a simple text – up from 53 per cent pre-pandemic. In parallel, rising conflicts around the world have left many young people unable to engage in the job market, including as a result of low levels of education, physical and psychological conditions, and scarcity of educational and vocational training. Climate change too presents a looming challenge to economic well-being, with an estimated 60% of young people around the world currently lacking necessary skills to support the “green transition”.
PMNCH aims to obtain responses from a total of at least 1 million young people by October 2023, when it will convene the Global Forum for Adolescents – a virtual gathering and the world’s largest event to date focused on adolescent well-being, powering the 1.8 Young People for Change campaign, launched in October 2022.
PMNCH is the world’s largest alliance for women’s, children’s and adolescents’ health and well-being, with +1,300 partner organizations working together through 10 constituency groups: partner governments, donors and foundations, NGOs, adolescent and youth groups, private sector organisations, health professional associations, academic and research institutions, global financing mechanisms, inter-governmental organisations, and UN agencies. PMNCH is hosted by the World Health Organisation (WHO), based in Geneva.
