Welcome to the homepage of the Global Consultation on Child and Adolescent Health and Development “A Healthy Start in Life.”

Today, the world is facing a great challenge - how to prevent almost 11 million deaths of infants and children and more than 1 million adolescent deaths every year.  We have the knowledge and the technology to save the youngest generation from the effects of diseases, malnutrition and life-threatening conditions. We have the knowledge to help children and adolescents develop to their full potential. What is needed is to transfer this existing knowledge into practice.

To help define what is required to meet this challenge the Director-General of WHO Dr. Gro Harlem Brundtland and the Executive Director of UNICEF Carol Bellamy convened a Global Consultation on Child and Adolescent Health and Development. Hosted by Swedish authorities, the Consultation took place in Stockholm, 12-13 March, 2002. Government leaders, health experts, NGOs, and children's advocates came together for two days to define strategies and the next agenda for child and adolescent health and development.

The Global Consultation has been the time and place to establish a consensus on these strategies among world leaders and technical experts. The UN Special Session on children, scheduled for May 2002 will provide the opportunity for countries to commit to these strategies.

Stockholm Commitment by World Leaders

"We envision a world where children and adolescents enjoy the highest possible level of health, a world that meets their needs and enables them to attain their full potential. We gather in Stockholm from 12-13 March 2002 to commit ourselves to intensify our efforts to achieve this aim, and to join together in partnership to seek bolder approaches to reach the most vulnerable, the most isolated and the poorest.

The way ahead is a shared vision: to mobilise our resources to improve the health and development of children and adolescents, expand coverage of effective health and development interventions to reach every child and adolescent, and empower families and communities to care for and foster the health and development of their younger members. Through these efforts we address poverty and inequity, conditions which lay the greatest burden of ill health on the poor and weaken our collective efforts to advance humanitarian aims and global peace."

Invitation to add to the Stockholm Commitment

The organizers of the Global Consultation invite partners and participants to add to the Stockholm Commitment by expressing their own commitments to children and adolescents:

• Lists of specific actions to contribute - within the mandates of an international, national, and bilateral agency, or voluntary organization - in order to help achieve the vision of the Stockholm Commitment;

• Quotes from policy leaders-especially from national leaders, ministers of health, and NGO.

To submit a contribution by no later than 22 March, or request additional information please email: troedssonh@who.int