Publication

Improving adolescent girls’ health and well-being is critical to achieving virtually all international development goals, from reducing infant and child deaths to stimulating economic growth and encouraging environmental sustainability. Governments and donors seem to recognize this, but they have yet to take the specific actions needed to genuinely invest in adolescent girls’ health and, thereby, the health and well-being of generations to come. This brief shows why doing so is a global must and identifies eight priorities for international action: implementing comprehensive health agendas; eliminating marriage for girls younger than 18; focusing maternal health investments on adolescent girls; focusing HIV prevention on adolescent girls; making health systems work for girls; making secondary school completion a priority; creating an innovation fund for girls’ health; and increasing donor support for adolescent girls’ health.