Reaching Out to Diverse Populations

Adolescents confront diverse realities. Differences in age, sex, experience, marital status, interests and preferences, family background, income and religion can place adolescents worlds apart in terms of what they need and want. The options and constraints they face vary widely as well.

Successful programming responds to these varied life circumstances, priorities, interests and preferences. This often includes a multi-sectoral approach that reaches young people wherever they may be — the army, the workplace, the streets, sports events or other gathering places. Effective programmes also find ways to overcome specific barriers that may prevent young people from getting the information, services and supports they need.

School programmes have the potential to reach large numbers of youth, at least in countries where most young people attend school. But many of the most marginalized young people are not in school. To address the needs of these hard-to-reach groups, strategies must correspond to their life situations, and help them deal with the issues they find most pressing. For example:

• In India, shelter and regular meals, as well as classes in reading, arithmetic and crafts, are provided to young adolescents who have no homes.
• In Zimbabwe, peer educators make weekly rounds of local bars to talk to commercial sex workers and bar patrons about health issues.
• In Eastern Europe, social marketing campaigns, including posters, television commercials and magazine ads, urge sexually active adolescents to use condoms.

For many young people, economic realities are paramount. UNFPA supports linking reproductive health with programmes that address livelihood skills and income-generation activities.

Large numbers of young people live on the margins

Specific strategies are also needed to reach the large numbers of young people who live in duress. An estimated 238 million youth — almost one in four — endure the deprivations of extreme poverty. A large percentage survive without their parents, or are marginalized for other reasons, including humanitarian emergencies, migration, disability, poor health or family dissolution.

Nearly 12 million young people aged 15-24 are living with HIV/AIDS. Thirteen million children under age 15 have lost one or both parents to AIDS. With the loss of their parents, many people take on the care of younger siblings, or live on the streets. Millions of girls and young women living in poverty have been abducted or left home and end up being exploited by sexual traffickers.

Recent political and ethnic conflicts have also taken a terrible toll on young people, and exacerbate vulnerability to sexual exploitation and associated risks. One in every 230 people worldwide is a child or adolescent who has been forced to leave home because of conflicts. Some 30,000 child soldiers are estimated to be involved in ongoing conflicts.

A large number of young people suffer from depression. The fact that some 90,000 young people commit suicide each year (more than four times that many attempt it) underscores the desperation many young people feel.

Innovative approaches in diverse settings

Especially since ICPD in 1994, many innovative methods and media have been used to deliver health messages tailored to various audiences. These include drama and folk communications, mass media, sports events, and individual counselling, as well as formal and informal education. Telephone hotlines, radio call-in shows and the Internet are also popular and cost-effective ways to offer information and counselling to young people who seek anonymity.

School, workplaces and community, vocational or recreational centres are other possible entry points for referrals, counselling or information. Using several of these channels, a campaign can reach different segments of the youth population and reinforce key messages. Increasingly, UNFPA is involved in programmes that address young people's need for employment or skills that can help them generate income.

Targeting underserved groups

UNFPA is committed to reaching out to adolescents who are living in poverty or otherwise underserved and marginalized. Target groups, which often overlap, include:

• The rural and urban poor, who often lack access to education and health services, face deprivation and limited income-earning opportunities, and are at risk from exploitation
• Adolescents who have dropped out of school, either due to poverty, pregnancy, HIV/AIDS or other factors, or because they are girls and therefore not expected to continue schooling
• Pregnant adolescents, whether married or not, who are at high risk of pregnancy-related complications, including premature delivery, prolonged labour, and maternal mortality, including from unsafe abortion. In many societies, adolescents who are pregnant outside of wedlock can face severe social repercussions, including ostracization or even violence, at a time when they need support
• The millions of married adolescents, who may need support in family planning, parenting, employment skills, and continued education
• Young single parents often need help with child care, as well as other social supports
• Groups of young people who are HIV-positive, or at particular risk of HIV/AIDS, such as sex workers or migrant youth
• Young refugees or displaced persons, who may be deeply affected by the absence of role models, breakdown of social and cultural systems, personal traumas such as the loss of family members, exposure to violence or sexual exploitation, and the disruption of school and friendships
• Racial, linguistic and ethnic minorities, who may be discriminated against, marginalized and underserved, as reflected in their low health and educational status
• Teenage boys and girls who live on the street, have been orphaned or abandoned, who at extremely high risk, including from sexual exploitation, and often have no access to social support
• Young people who are disabled, as a result of conflict, fistula, birth defects or other causes

Read more about UNFPA-supported projects that reach out to young people in diverse situations.

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