A/RES/50/81
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monitoring issues and trends and for evaluating progress achieved in
implementing the Programme of Action. Special attention should be directed
towards building national capacities and institutions regularly to collect and
compile socio-economic data series that are both cross-sectional and
disaggregated by cohort. To this end, interested centres and institutions may
wish to consider the possibility of jointly strengthening or establishing, in
cooperation with the United Nations, networks concerned with collection of
data and publication of statistics and to realize thereby greater economies of
scale in the development and dissemination of statistics in the field of
youth.
127. Major contributions related to data and statistics in the field of youth
are currently being made by the United Nations. Such contributions include
the socio-economic data collection and statistical development activities of
the Statistics Division of the Department for Economic and Social Information
and Policy Analysis of the Secretariat; the youth policies and programmes
information activities of the Division for Social Policy and Development of
the Department for Policy Coordination and Sustainable Development of the
Secretariat; the educational and literacy data collection activities of the
United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization; and the
youth advisory networks of the United Nations Environment Programme.
Concerned bodies and agencies of the United Nations system are urged to
explore ways and means of achieving greater coherence in data collection and
the publication of statistics. This could include programme planning and
coordination on an inter-agency basis. For example, the data bank programme
on adolescent health of the World Health Organization is coordinated with the
work of the Statistics Division of the Secretariat. Other bodies and agencies
of the United Nations system are invited to contribute data in their
respective areas of expertise to an integrated socio-economic data bank on
youth. For instance, the international drug abuse assessment system of the
United Nations International Drug Control Programme is urged to consider
including a component on youth and drugs. An inventory of innovative youth
policies, programmes and projects could be coordinated and made available to
interested users by the Department for Policy Coordination and Sustainable
Development. Other topics that could be considered for joint action include
juvenile delinquency, runaways and homeless youth.
128. Public information and communications are equally important in building
awareness of youth issues, as well as a consensus on appropriate planning and
action. The bodies and organizations of the United Nations system concerned
are urged, as a matter of priority, to review publications currently produced
and to identify ways in which these publications can better promote the
Programme of Action and areas in which they may need to be complemented
through the production of leaflets and posters in connection with special
events.
129. To encourage widespread awareness of and support for the Programme of
Action, Governments, non-governmental organizations and, as appropriate, the
private sector, are urged to consider the possibility of preparing both
printed and audiovisual materials related to areas of concern in the Programme
of Action. This could be carried out with the assistance of and in
cooperation with the United Nations and materials could be disseminated
through United Nations public information channels. In addition young people
and youth organizations are urged to identify and plan information activities
that focus on priority issues, which they would undertake within the context
of the Programme of Action.
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