In 2006, the Population Council in conjunction with UNFPA published Investing When It Counts: Generating the Evidence Base for Policies and Programmes for Very Young Adolescents, which represented the first major effort to synthesize information on 10–14-year-old adolescent girls and boys using existing datasets, research, and program experience. Since then, we have witnessed a burgeoning interest in the very young adolescent (VYA) population and an ever-expanding array of programs aimed at addressing their social, health, and development needs. The current report builds upon the momentum generated from recent research and program efforts, and from the greater data available in the past decade.

The report is intended to be helpful to anyone who plans, manages, implements, monitors, evaluates, or funds research or programs that involve young adolescent girls and boys. Our focus is on outcomes and influencers of health and well-being. While the report presents some data for VYAs globally, we focus primarily on findings from low- and middle-income countries (LMICs), and wherever possible, disaggregated by sex.