🚨 The data is clear: Europe & Central Asia are failing their children. 🔷 Hard-earned progress in reducing child mortality is reversing or stagnating. 🔷 Mental health concerns have doubled since COVID-19 - 1 in 4 children is affected. 🔷 Immunization rates are stagnant, measles outbreaks are back. 🔷 5M children are at risk of developmental difficulties. 🔷 1 in 3 primary school children is living with overweight or obesity. This is not just a health crisis – it’s a crisis for the future of our societies. As Regional Directors for @UNICEF_ECA & @WHO_Europe, we are calling for urgent actions. We need a renewed focus on child and adolescent health and wellbeing, built on 5 key principles: 1️⃣ Investing in child & adolescent health - early interventions = lifelong benefits. 2️⃣ Ensuring duty of care & protection - from quality healthcare to nutritious school meals. 3️⃣ Regulating against commercial harm - protecting children from targeted marketing of unhealthy products. 4️⃣ Strengthening cross-sector governance - aligning health, education, environment & social policies. 5️⃣ Measuring progress & ensuring accountability - @UNICEF_ECA and @WHO_Europe will work together to fill data gaps & assess policy impact. We must act now. The health and wellbeing of children today will shape the world of tomorrow. 📖 Read my joint letter with @R_DeDominicis in @TheLancet: bit.ly/40SQYuu

Young people across the @WHO_Europe Region are leading increasingly unhealthy lifestyles - compromised by poor diets and a lack of physical activity. The consequences across their lifetimes could be devastating. Our new @HBSCStudy report has the story: news.un.org/en/story/2024/05…

Alcohol, e-cigarettes, cannabis. Our new @WHO_Europe/@HBSCStudy report on adolescent substance abuse shows over half of 15-year-olds surveyed have experimented with alcohol. 1-in-5 have recently used e-cigarettes. The risks to young people are clear. bit.ly/3xZrhMy

Such an urgent issue, with often dangerous consequences for young people who are targeted. The latest edition of the @HBSCStudy - issued with @WHO_Europe - underscores how urgent it is for bullying to be effectively tackled as the danger to health and wellbeing that it is. ⬇️