Our priorities, mission and guiding principles

Our priorities

The focus of the Department of Child and Adolescent Health and Development's (CAH) work is prioritized according to the total "burden" of a problem in countries, and whether or not there are effective and affordable interventions to address it. "Burden" includes two things:

• how many individuals are affected; and
• how serious the problem is in terms of mortality or illness.

CAH priorities are reviewed and revised on a regular basis, as issues are addressed, new problems arise, and research and development produce effective and affordable interventions.

Our mission

CAH staff at WHO headquarters collaborate closely with regional and country offices to develop and implement policies, strategies, tools, programmes and interventions which work towards achieving our mission:

• to promote the health and development of newborns, children and adolescents;
• to enable countries to pursue evidence-based strategies to reduce health risks, morbidity and mortality; and
• to create mechanisms to measure the impact of those strategies.

Our guiding principles

CAH’s work is guided by the WHO Constitution and the principles established in the WHO document Strategic Directions for Improving the Health and Development of Children and Adolescents. Approved by the 56th World Health Assembly in 2003, the document was developed by CAH in consultation with relevant departments within the Organization, with Member States and with partners. It sets out three principles that form the basis for planning complementary, efficient and effective interventions to protect the health of children, adolescents and their families:

• addressing inequities and facilitating the respect and protection of human rights as stipulated in internationally agreed human rights instruments, including the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child.
• taking a life-course approach that recognizes the continuum from birth through childhood, adolescence and into adulthood.
• implementing a public health approach by focusing on major health issues that challenge populations as a whole and applying a systematic development model to ensure the availability and accessibility of effective, relevant interventions to address them.

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