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Youth at Risk in Latin America and the Caribbean : Understanding the Causes, Realizing the PotentialRealizing the potential of Latin America and the Caribbean's (LAC) youth is essential not only to their well-being, but also to the long-term welfare of the whole region. Young people's families, communities, and governments as well as private, nonprofit, and international organizations, have a responsibility to help youth reach their potential. There have been many successes but also important failures. How to build on the successes and correct the failures is the subject of this report. This book has two objectives: to identify the at-risk youth in LAC, and to provide evidence-based guidance to policy makers in LAC countries that will help them to increase the effectiveness and efficiency of their youth investments. The book concludes that governments can be more effective in preventing young people from engaging in risky behavior in the first place and also in assisting those who already are engaged in negative behavior. To support governments in this endeavor, the book provides a set of tools to inform and guide policy makers as they reform and implement programs for at-risk youth.
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Enhancing Youth Skills and Economic Opportunities to Reduce Teenage Pregnancy in ColombiaThe Government of Colombia (GoC) has identified teenage pregnancy as a priority issue. The current strategic framework to address teenage pregnancy in Colombia is outlined in the CONPES 147, effective from February 2012 until March 2014. The CONPES 147 establishes a multi-sectoral framework that aims to address the determining factors of teenage pregnancy within Colombia (Box 1). The national strategy outlined in the CONPES 147 was piloted in 192 municipalities for youth ages 10 through 19. Building on this strategy, the Commission for the Guarantee of Sexual and Reproductive Rights is developing a new framework to guide the government’s policy and activities to address this important policy issue in the coming years. Parallel to its work on teenage pregnancy, the GoC released a national strategic framework to generate opportunities for Colombian youth in July 2014. The note includes an overview of the WDR 2012 gender equality framework and World Bank regional study on teenage pregnancy; outlines the Colombian country context with regard to gender equality and youth labor market outcomes; reviews interventions that develop life skills; and highlights how these interventions might be relevant to the GoC policies and programs related to teenage pregnancy prevention (CONPES 147) and youth labor (CONPES 173).
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Adolescent HealthMore than a quarter of the world's
 population is between the ages of 10 and 24. Most (86
 percent) of the world's 1.7 billion young people live
 in developing countries, where they are often 30 percent or
 more of the population. At first glance, youth appears to be
 a relatively healthy although not hazard-free period of
 life. Young people account for 15 percent of the disease and
 injury burden worldwide and over one million die each year,
 mainly from preventable causes. Nonetheless, roughly 70
 percent of premature deaths among adults can be linked to
 behavior initiated during adolescence, such as tobacco use,
 poor eating habits, and risky sex. Investing in health and
 development of young people is not only the right thing to
 do, it's the smart thing for countries that want their
 economies to grow faster: 1) reducing HIV infection in young
 people will reduce the devastating economic impact of
 HIV/AIDS; 2) when young people postpone marriage and
 childbearing, family size falls and population growth slows.
 Combined with investments in health and education, these
 changes contribute to higher economic growth and incomes;
 and 3) investments to head off negative behaviors such as
 tobacco use and drug abuse will pay off later for
 individuals and for society.