The Guides clearly define the gap between investment and need, and illustrate how the most vulnerable youth populations may be excluded from the very programmes intended to help them.

Supporting Adolescents and Youth
This series of Adolescent Data Guides, which draws principally on data from the Demographic and Health Surveys (DHS), aims to provide decision makers at all levels — from governments, nongovernmental organizations (NGOs), and advocacy groups — with data on the situation of adolescent girls and boys and young women. The age range covered is 10-24. The data are presented in graphs, tables, and maps (wherever possible), providing multiple formats to make the information accessible to a range of audiences.

The Guides clearly define the gap between investment and need, and illustrate how the most vulnerable youth populations may be excluded from the very programmes intended to help them. The beneficiaries of youth policies and programs are often adolescents who already have an advantage (typically they are urban, older, male, unmarried, and go to school). Policies and programs repeatedly ignore large, neglected and pivotal subgroups of adolescents, such as 10-14 year old out-of-school girls, girls at risk of child marriage, rural adolescents living without their parents, and young migrants at risk of unsafe, exploitative work and trafficking.

These vulnerable groups of adolescents require special attention. The Guides are meant to inform, provoke discussion and ensure that interventions are based on concrete evidence and focus on those most in need.
Download Guides (PDF): http://www.unfpa.org/adolescents/dhs_adolescent_guides.html