Strategic Alliances and Partnerships

Throughout the year 2003, PAHO's Child and Adolescent Health Unit has been developing a conceptual framework and strategies for its new plan of action. The plan is based on a life cycle approach that responds to the needs of adolescents and youth of both genders and different age groups between the ages of 10 and 24, and focuses on the most vulnerable adolescent populations in priority countries. The plan also seeks to address current and emerging needs in adolescent health, particularly in the areas of violence, teen pregnancy, sexually transmitted infections and HIV/AIDS.

To help address the needs of adolescents and youth, Child and Adolescent Health has established working relationships with other PAHO units as well as with several international funding agencies, namely the Swedish International Cooperation Development Agency (SIDA) and the Norwegian Development Cooperation Agency (NORAD) with whom we are implementing projects in teen pregnancy and VIH/AIDS/STI prevention in youth; YouthNet, with whom we produce a quarterly newsletter, Youth AIDS Action, available on this website; and the German Technical Cooperation (GTZ), our partner in a youth violence prevention project in Latin America.

The year 2004 marks the beginning of our IMAN project (Integrated Management of Adolescent Needs) in six Latin American countries, as well as our participation in a joint UN response to Haitian youth and their needs. This year, we will also pilot test the manual for our youth soccer health initiative in the Region and continue our collaboration with PAHO's Risk Assessment and Management unit (SDE/RA) in achieving optimum adolescent health by promoting strong families.

Detailed descriptions of our projects are available here: "AdolProjects.pdf."