Page 9 - Luce 2016

N ews a nd Events

political and social science, law 1.8 billion young people is expected important for them (in men, alcohol
and education. Our two youth to be ‘peak youth’, that is, the largest fueled road traffic accidents are a major
Commissioners came from Sri Lanka and population of young people that the cause of death), the intergenerational
Nigeria, and we also had Commissioners world will ever experience. effect can be equally profound.
with deep links to the UN system (the
World Health Organisation, UNICEF and Governments in low and middle- The Lancet Commission created a
the United Nations Population Fund or income countries are now rapidly narrative for a different way of thinking
UNFPA) as well as NGOs. becoming more interested in about the importance of adolescents,
adolescents, if only because of their health and wellbeing. And while
The process took nearly three years the limited window in which it is important for adolescents to have
from invitation to publication in May the ‘demographic dividend’ that access to health services, in relation to
2016. And you can get lucky. In accompanies a decline in a country’s preventive strategies, the Commission
September 2015, the UN launched young dependent population in relation argued that one of smartest investments
the Sustainable Development Goals to the working-age can be attained. we can make for adolescent health is
(SDGs), which included a new ‘Global China hugely benefited from its youth quality secondary education.
strategy for women’s, children’s and ‘bulge’. The extent to which countries
adolescents’ health’, the first time that like Indonesia and India (at 250 In disadvantaged countries, the health
adolescents had ever been part of million, India has the largest number outcomes of those who only complete
global health policy. This proved highly of adolescents in the world!) become primary school are significantly worse
serendipitous as suddenly people in the economically more successful will, to a than those who gain at least some
UN system, the World Bank, NGOs, and large extent, depend on their ability to secondary education. The health
national governments were all asking educate and employ their youth. benefits are even greater in those
what they should do for adolescents. who complete upper secondary in
Published nine months later, The And across the world, we can equally comparison to lower secondary –
Lancet Commission set out to provide appreciate that when we don’t get it whether counted by reductions in child
a blueprint for thinking about why right for young people – when there are marriage, rates of smoking, or emotional
adolescent health matters, to describe large groups of disenfranchised, poorly health and wellbeing. In many parts
how the profile of adolescent health educated young people who cannot of the world achieving the rates of
differs in different parts of the world, to see a future for themselves – that these secondary education completion
describe the evidence base of what can young people are a risk to the stability we have in Australia is a priority,
be done to improve adolescent health, of our communities and to themselves. especially for young girls who are too
and to highlight the need for global and As an African proverb says, ‘If the often disadvantaged if families can’t
national accountability that includes young are not initiated into the village, afford to send all children to secondary
young people themselves. they will burn it down just to feel its school. In these countries, financial
warmth.’ stipends that help families to finance
Governments and communities in high their children’s attendance at school
income countries like Australia and New In The Lancet Commission we describe are a strategy to promote continued
Zealand are relatively well informed the ‘triple dividend’ of benefits that education for girls as well as boys. Yet
about the significance of adolescence come from investing in adolescents – there is much room for improvement in
within the life-course, although it is during adolescence itself, across the Australia’s secondary school completion
only in the past decade that we have life course, and for the next generation. rate, in our students’ performance on
appreciated that brain development Investing in adolescents improves comparative educational outcomes,
across the adolescent years is second their emotional wellbeing, sexual and and on how well we are equipping our
only to the early years in terms of its reproductive health and substance use. students with the softer skills required to
significance, scale and scope. In low Healthy adolescence then plays out succeed in the workplace.
and middle income countries – where across the life course. For example, if
90% of the world’s young people live you don’t become a tobacco smoker How was The Lancet Commission
– governments have largely ignored the during the adolescent years, you are funded?
second decade due to overwhelming most unlikely to become an adult
burden of disease in very young smoker. And adolescents and young While The Lancet provides its name
children. adults are the next generation to parent; and editorial expertise, it doesn’t
if we want the healthiest start to life for provide funding for initiatives like this.
Over the past two decades, reduced the next generation, then waiting until Melbourne University made the first
poverty, improved nutrition, water women are pregnant is too late. For contribution, and we are incredibly
and sanitation, and greater access to example, folate and B12 levels affect grateful to the Vice-Chancellor, Glyn
immunisation and health services have the fetal spinal cord. It is too late to Davis, who immediately appreciated the
halved under five mortality and we are start folate and B12 supplements once a importance of this age group, the heart
seeing a rapidly shifting demographic woman knows she is pregnant because of any university, and the strategic value
profile in these countries. Whereas the spinal cord has already closed by of the Commission for the University
previously, parents had many children in about week 8 of fetal life. Similarly, in of Melbourne. These funds underwrote
order to guarantee the survival of some, terms of the effect of alcohol on the the first meeting of Commissioners.
the higher odds of child survival are fetus, some of the most profoundly toxic We were then lucky enough to get
rapidly reflected in families choosing to effects of alcohol on the fetal brain will the workplan funded from the Bill and
have fewer children with a burgeoning occur before young women know they Melinda Gates Foundation and from the
population of adolescents and young are pregnant. While reducing binge MacArthur Foundation.
adults as a result. The current cohort of drinking in young women and men is continued overleaf
J anet Clarke Hall 9