Investing in the world’s 1.2 billion adolescents aged 10-19 now can break entrenched cycles of poverty and inequity, said UNICEF today in its 2011 State of the World’s Children report entitled ‘Adolescence: An Age of Opportunity’. Strong investments during the last two decades have resulted in enormous gains for young children up to the age of 10. The 33 per cent drop in the global under-five mortality rate shows that many more young lives have been saved, in most of the world ‘s regions girls are almost as likely as boys to go to primary school, and millions of children now benefit from improved access to safe water and critical medicines such as routine vaccinations.
On the other hand, there have been fewer gains in areas critically affecting adolescents. More than seventy million adolescents of lower secondary age are currently out of school, and on a global level girls still lag behind boys in secondary school participation. Without education, adolescents cannot develop the knowledge and skills they need to navigate the risks of exploitation, abuse and violence that are at height during the second decade of life. (...)

The article:
http://www.unicef.org/sowc2011/pdfs/SOWC_Press_Release_Final.pdf

The Report:
http://www.unicef.org/sowc2011/fullreport.php