We only use your email address to send you the newsletter and to see how many people are opening our emails. A full privacy policy can be viewed here. You can change your mind at any time and update your preferences or unsubscribe.

Adolescent girls at school in Dire Dawa, Ethiopia. Photo: Nathalie Bertrams/GAGE

The invisibility of adolescents within the SDGs

20.10.19 | Global

Bodily integrity and freedom from violence | Economic empowerment | Education and learning | Health, Nutrition and Sexual and Reproductive Health (SRH) | Psychosocial well-being | SDGs | Voice and agency

Authors

Silvia Guglielmi and Nicola Jones

A central pillar of Agenda 2030 is the pledge to ‘leave no one behind’ – a pledge which must not be viewed as a separate course of action, but intrinsic to the achievement of the Agenda as a whole. Moreover, the United Nations (UN) member states made a commitment to reach those furthest behind first, and to fast-track them within the global agenda (United Nations, 2015). Nearly five years into implementation, and as the Inter-Agency and Expert Group on Sustainable Development Goal Indicators (IAEG-SDGs) prepares for the 2020 Comprehensive Review, we must consider progress against this pledge.

Though the UN Statistical Commission (2019) has highlighted data disaggregation as a key priority, the indicator framework is not delivering sufficient granularity on age and gender differences to be able to measure progress among particular groups. With only 18 SDG indicators explicitly calling for disaggregation by gender and adolescent- or youth-specific age categories, too little data has been accrued on young girls’ and boys’ lives, which means that their specific needs and vulnerabilities remain largely invisible to policy and programme designers. Although the years between age 10 and 19 are increasingly recognised as a critical time in which to accelerate progress against poverty, inequity and discrimination and to foster positive development trajectories, this is not matched by global data generated across the SDGs. In the lead-up to the 2020 Comprehensive Review, we present recommendations to bridge this critical gap and highlight the ways in which young people should be considered more explicitly in order to deliver on the promise of the SDGs.

Suggested citation

Guglielmi, S. and Jones, N. (2019) ‘The invisibility of adolescents within the SDGs.’ Policy Note. London: Gender and Adolescence: Global Evidence. (https://www.gage.odi.org/publication/the-invisibility-of-adolescents-within-the-sdgs/)


Related publications

Toolkits and survey instruments
29.03.24
Qualitative research toolkit on adolescent gender norm change and empowerment programming
Education and learning
Ethiopia
Read more
29.03.24 | Education and learning | Toolkits and survey instruments | Ethiopia
Qualitative research toolkit on adolescent gender norm change and empowerment programming
Read more
Reports
13.03.24
Resourcing girls: The potential and challenges of girl- and youth-led organising
Cross-country
Read more
13.03.24 | Reports | Cross-country
Resourcing girls: The potential and challenges of girl- and youth-led organising
Read more
Journal articles
11.03.24
'People will talk about her if she is not circumcised': Exploring the patterning, drivers and gender norms around female genital mutilation in Ethiopia's Somali region
Bodily integrity and freedom from violence
Ethiopia
Read more
11.03.24 | Bodily integrity and freedom from violence | Journal articles | Ethiopia
'People will talk about her if she is not circumcised': Exploring the patterning, drivers and gender norms around female genital mutilation in Ethiopia's Somali region
Read more