Tool: Exploring challenges and opportunities

Use this tool to help you to explore some of the challenges and opportunities for adolescents in your community.

Adolescent boys

• Possible challenges and difficulties:
   
• Things going well and opportunities:
   

Adolescent girls

• Possible challenges and difficulties:
   
• Things going well and opportunities:

Sample tool

UNICEF’s partner organizations implementing life skills and psychosocial support programmes for adolescents affected by the protracted conflict in South Sudan identified the following challenges and opportunities adolescent boys and girls were facing:

Adolescent boys

Possible challenges and difficulties:

• Problems with bullying, romantic relationships, parents fighting over money and other issues
• Lack of education opportunities
• Recruitment into fighting forces
• Exploitative child labour
• Vulnerability to sexually transmitted diseases (including HIV and AIDS)

Things going well and opportunities:

• relationships, parents fighting over money and other issues
• High burden of household chores and responsibilities
• Duties as wives or mothers that reduce opportunities to participate in programmes
• Fewer opportunities (than boys) to attend school
• Child marriage, sexual exploitation, vulnerability to pregnancy, sexually transmitted diseases

Adolescent girls

Possible challenges and difficulties:

• More likely to get education than girls
• More opportunities (and confidence) to participate in family or community matters than girls
• Humanitarian situations may give boys opportunities to take on new roles and to learn new skills – e.g., building shelters, learning new languages

Things going well and opportunities:

• Increasing awareness of the importance of educating the girl-child
• Increasing numbers of programmes for girls
• Humanitarian situations may give girls opportunities to take on new roles, such as becoming heads of households or economic providers and to learn new skills such as other languages