Development of a UNICEF Adolescent Well-Being Framework for Monitoring and Evaluation

The UNICEF core mission includes advancement of a broad agenda of child rights covering health, development and other key areas, and monitoring progress towards these goals. Moreover, there is a growing global consensus regarding addressing adolescents as a unique (child) population. Yet most data for adolescents focuses on negative indicators (e.g., HIV/AIDS, violence, substance abuse). In response, the authors, working with UNICEF Latin America-Caribbean (LAC), developed a preliminary framework for understanding/assessing adolescent well-being that represents a step beyond negative indicators, focusing instead on assets – at individual, community, societal and policy levels – necessary for adolescents to flourish. The framework was developed through several stages: 1) An extensive review of social/behavioral theory on adolescent development and risk; review of relevant policy documents; and a scan of (regional) program approaches to positive adolescent development, culminating in a preliminary background paper with a definition of adolescent well-being and draft framework organized into domains for monitoring/evaluation; 2) Review and critique of the initial framework from regional UNICEF M&E staff; 3) Presentation of the revised framework at a multi-region meeting in New York (UNICEF Adolescent Development and Participation Division) aimed at identifying an initial set of adolescent data for collection in the UNICEF Multiple Indicator Cluster Survey (MICS); and 4) a technical assistance paper with guidance on the rationale for the framework and its use at multiple levels as a monitoring, evaluation and program development tool. This paper will review the framework, its rationale, and its monitoring/evaluation use as well as program development applications.