Global Commitments to Adolescent Health

The International Association of Adolescent Health (IAAH) has been active in several initiatives for adolescent and young adult healthcare in the past few months.

IAAH leadership, our education committee, our International Adolescent Health Week (IAHW) team, and our young professionals facilitated several sessions in the first ever Global Forum for Adolescents in October 2023. Led by the Partnership for Women’s Children’s and Adolescents  Health (known as PMNCH), the Forum had more than 5600 participants. Many countries, funders, civil society groups, and health care professional associations, including IAAH, made new commitments to financing and services for adolescent health and well-being.

Jonathan Klein (IPA Treasurer and IAAH President), Helga Fostad (PMNCH Executive Director), Naveen Thacker, (IPA President), and Ilze Kalnina, PMNCH Manager for Global Campaigns) at the UN General Assembly meetings in New York City, September 2023, getting ready for the Global Forum on Adolescents.

IAAH President Jonathan Klein (he also serves as IPA Treasurer) worked closely with IPA President Naveen Thacker and with PMNCH in developing a joint commitment by the PMNCH  health care professional associations, representing numerous global medical societies, to collaborate and advocate together at the national level to call attention to what adolescents need for health and well-being.

With a vested interest in climate change and its impact on adolescents, IAAH co-facilitated a presentation at the Global Forum for Adolescents and is also developing a joint position statement in partnership with the Society for Adolescent Health and Medicine. IAAH has also taken a more active stance in support of comprehensive sexuality education (CSE). In July 2023, IAAH published an open letter calling for evidence-based CSE in all countries, for all young people. In November, Melis Pehlivantürk- Kızılkan, co-chair of the IAAH Emerging Professional Network (EPN), presented IAAH’s position at the World Association for Sexual Health conference in Turkey. IAAH will continue to partner with WHO and other civil society groups to dispel myths and advocate for implementation of appropriate CSE in schools around the world.

In addition to addressing climate change and CSE, IAAH is also working to improve the training of health care professionals. The IAAH Symposium: Innovations in Education and Training in Adolescent Health, a 4-session series led by IAAH Education Committee member Richard Churchill, highlights new and creative ways to train health care providers. IAAH also recently published a commentary, Answering the Call: International Policy Statement Provides the Framework for Adolescent Health Care Professional Education Globally, in the Journal of Adolescent Health. In the coming year, the Education Committee plan to also address implementation of training innovations, to continue to support adolescent health professionals in improving education of clinicians in their countries’ training institutions.