Adolescence is a unique and formative period for social and emotional development which lays the foundation for long-term and intergenerational health and well-being. Timely intervention to strengthen adolescent’s individual, family and social resources and to decrease risk factors levels could prevent much of the disease burden in adolescence and adulthood.

To enable targeted action to improve the health and well-being of adolescents, consistent and comprehensive measurement of health determinants, behaviours and risks, policies, programmes, systems performance and interventions, as well as health conditions and outcomes is crucial. The adolescent health module of the  Maternal, Newborn, Child and Adolescent health and Ageing Data Portal  stores and displays country, regional and global data on important adolescent health indicators. Adolescent health country profiles can also be downloaded.

However, many information gaps and inconsistencies in measurement still exist. To address this, and to improve adolescent health measurement globally, WHO, in collaboration with UNAIDS, UNESCO, UNFPA, UNICEF, UN Women, the World Bank Group, and the World Food Programme (WFP), has established the Global Action for the Measurement of Adolescent health (GAMA) Advisory Group.