Development

Children and young people (0-24 years old) in the Middle East and North Africa currently account for nearly half of the region’s population.

They hold the promise of driving positive change, contributing to a more prosperous and stable future for themselves and their communities, and participating in the benefits of the demographic dividend. However unleashing this potential requires urgent and significant investment to create opportunities for meaningful learning, social engagement, and work. Unfortunately, these opportunities remain restricted, especially for young women and the most vulnerable individuals.

One in two deaths of young people in the region (45,000 deaths) is due to injury (transport, other unintended injury, and violence). Injuries also cause substantial morbidity, accounting for a quarter of the total disease burden (measured in Disability-Adjusted Life Years (DALYs) among 10-24 year-olds. Non-communicable diseases, including cardiovascular disease, cancers, headaches, musculoskeletal disorders, and skin diseases, account for 41 percent of the total disease burden of young people and led to over 27,000 deaths in 2019. Almost a quarter of the total disease burden is due to mental disorders and intentional self-harm, with over 4,000 deaths of young people in the region due to suicide. [1].

References:

[1] https://www.unicef.org/mena/reports/young-peoples-health-and-well-being-in-mena

[2] UNICEF Middle East and North Africa Regional Office.

Mental disorders cause 16 percent of the burden for boys and are the second leading cause of poor health for girls, accounting for 22 percent of DALYs. In both girls and boys, non-communicable diseases are a significant cause of poor health, accounting for almost half of all DALYs in girls, of which neurological (headache), musculoskeletal, cardiovascular, and skin disorders, and cancer are the main causes.[2]

Young people in the MENA region experience a substantial burden of poor mental health. Nationally representative and comparable primary data describing the prevalence of mental health conditions for this age group are limited, however, modeled estimates from the GBD estimate that 1 in 6 young people in the MENA region aged 10–24 years (22.5 million) were living with a mental disorder in 2019.