The State of the World's Children 2011: Adolescence - An Age of Opportunity examines the global state of adolescents; outlines the challenges they face in health, education, protection and participation; and explores the risks and vulnerabilities of this pivotal stage. The report highlights the singular opportunities that adolescence offers, both for adolescents themselves and for the societies they live in. The accumulated evidence demonstrates that investing in adolescents' second decade is our best hope of breaking the intergenerational cycle of poverty and inequity and of laying the foundation for a more peaceful, tolerant and equitable world.

The State of the World’s Children 2011: Adolescence – An Age of Opportunity examines the global state of adolescents; outlines the challenges they face in health, education, protection and participation; and explores the risks and vulnerabilities of this pivotal stage. The report highlights the singular opportunities that adolescence offers, both for adolescents themselves and for the societies they live in. The accumulated evidence demonstrates that investing in adolescents' second decade is our best hope of breaking the intergenerational cycle of poverty and inequity and of laying the foundation for a more peaceful, tolerant and equitable world.

The book provides contributions of adults and adolescent who gave their perspectives on the challenges adolescents face today in protection, education, health and participation.

On 20 November 2009, the global community celebrates the 20th anniversary of the adoption by the United Nations General Assembly of the Convention on the Rights of the Child, the unique document that sets international standards for the care, treatment and protection of all individuals below age 18. To celebrate this landmark, the United Nations Children's Fund is dedicating a special edition of its flagship report The State of the World's Children to examining the Convention's evolution, progress achieved on child rights, challenges remaining, and actions to be taken to ensure that its promise becomes a reality for all children.

While cities have long been associated with employment, development and economic growth, hundreds of millions of children in the world’s urban areas are growing up amid scarcity and deprivation. This publication presents the hardships these children face as violations of their rights, as well as impediments to fulfilling the Millennium Development Goals. It examines major phenomena shaping the lives of children in urban settings, including migration, economic shocks and acute disaster risk. It also provides examples of efforts to improve the urban realities that children confront and identifies broad policy actions that should be included in any strategy to reach excluded children and foster equity in urban settings driven by disparity.

One in every seven children is disabled. Children with disabilities are among the most likely to be marginalized, poor and vulnerable. UNICEF is committed to improving the lives of children, particularly those who face the greatest disadvantages. The report will investigate the web of barriers disabled children face: discrimination, harmful norms and the lack of accurate information. The report will analyse and provide good-practice guidance on: inclusive health and education; prevention; nutrition; protection from violence, exploitation and abuse; emergency response; institutionalization; and the role of appropriate technology and infrastructure

This report examines nutrition, providing a fresh perspective on a rapidly evolving challenge. Despite progress in the past two decades, around 200 million under-fives suffer from undernutrition. Adding to this toll is rising obesity, which affects 38 million children. All these forms of malnutrition threaten children’s development, while obesity is creating a lifelong legacy of disease. At the heart of this evolving challenge is a global shift towards modern diets that do not meet children’s nutritional requirements. The report provides unique data and analysis of malnutrition in the 21st century and outlines recommendations to put children’s needs at the heart of global and national food systems.