Identifying potential catalysts to accelerate the achievement of Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) among adolescents living in Nigeria.

Investing in adolescents in Africa holds great promise for the development of the continent. The steps involved in identifying factors linked to interventions that may accelerate the attainment of multiple SDGs for adolescents in Nigeria are described. Data from a survey to investigate the well-being of 1800 adolescents aged 10-19 years in Southwest Nigeria was analysed. A four-step process was employed: 1) Mapping of variables deemed as suitable proxies for SDG targets; 2) Mapping hypothesised protective factors (accelerators) from the study instruments. Consequently, SDG targets related to elimination of hunger, good health, gender equality and peace; and seven accelerators (safe schools, parenting support, good mental health, no survival work, food security, stable childhood, and regular physical activity) were identified; 3) evaluating associations using bivariate analysis and multivariable logistic regression, 4) calculating adjusted probabilities. The mean age of the adolescents was 15.02 ± 2.27 years (48.6% female). Good mental health, not doing survival work, safe schools, stable childhood and parental support were significantly associated with at least two SDG targets. For example, food security was significantly associated with the highest number of SDG outcomes: one SDG target related to child survival (no substance use: x2 = 3.39, p = <0.001); three SDG targets related to educational outcomes (school progression: x2 = 5.68, p = 0.017, ability to concentrate in school: x2 = 26.92, p = <0.001, and school attendance: x2 = 25.89, p = <0.001); and four SDG targets related to child protection (no risky sexual behaviours: x2 = 16.14, p = <0.001, no perpetration of violence: x2 = 15.74, p = <0.001, no community violence: x2 = 39.06, p =<0.001, and no sexual abuse: x2 = 7.66, p = 0.006). Interventions centred around good mental health, not doing survival work, safe schools, small family size, stable childhood and parental support are potential accelerators for the attainment of SDG outcomes by adolescents living in Nigeria.

Accelerating progress towards the sustainable development goals for adolescents in Ghana: a cross-sectional study.

Since the adoption of the sustainable development goals (SDGs) by the United Nations (UN), the search has been on to identify interventions that have effects on multiple SDG-targets simultaneously. Like other developing countries, Ghana has a youthful population and would require creative, urgent, youth-focused interventions to be able to attain the SDGs by 2030. This paper describes the application of the accelerator model on data from a sample of Ghanaian adolescents to identify potential accelerators towards selected SDG targets involving youth. The data for 944 adolescents, 10-19 years (mean age 12.31 ± 3.51 years), extracted from two cross-sectional surveys on children and adolescents aged 6-19 years in Kumasi, Ghana, were analysed in this paper. Variables considered suitable proxies for SDG targets and potential accelerators were identified from the study instruments. Consequently, four aligned SDG targets (good mental health, access to ICT, school completion and no open defaecation) and five accelerators (cognitive stimulation, no relative poverty, low student-teacher ratio, high caregiver education and safe water) were extracted. Associations between accelerators and SDG targets were assessed using multivariable logistic regression adjusting for sociodemographic covariates and multiple testing. Cumulative effects were tested by marginal effects modelling. The three hypothesised accelerators identified were cognitive stimulation, low student-teacher ratio, and no relative poverty. A combination of all three accelerators was associated with a higher likelihood of adolescents having access to Information and Communication Technology (ICT) by +73% (CI 0.72-0.74), no open defecation by +44% (CI 0.43-0.46), school completion by +27% (CI 0.26-0.27) and good mental health by +9% (CI 0.08-0.10). Three hypothesized accelerators showed association across all four SDG aligned targets. The accelerator model has been further validated in this dataset from Ghana. Robust interventions designed around these accelerators may represent an opportunity for achieving the SDGs in Ghana.

The 'beyond parental control' label in Nigeria.

Recent reports in Nigeria indicate a geometric rise in incarcerated adolescents, with an overwhelming majority of this increase being attributed to adolescents being declared 'beyond parental control'. There is a nagging suspicion that the Nigerian juvenile justice system has over criminalised adolescents by declaring them 'beyond control' when behavioural problems have actually resulted from child abuse/neglect and family disruption. A study was undertaken in a juvenile justice institution in Nigeria to assess the adequacy of pre-incarceration parental care among adolescents that had been declared as 'beyond parental control'. The study included 75 adolescent boys that had been declared as 'beyond parental control' and a comparison group of 144 matched school going boys. It examined self-reports received from the adolescent boys regarding their pre-incarceration family life and social circumstances, as well as the behavioural problems they had experienced. The findings indicate that adolescent boys who were declared as 'beyond parental control' had a significantly higher lifetime history of behavioural problems than the comparison group, and they also had significantly higher indicators of pre-incarceration child abuse/neglect and problems with stability and consistency of primary support. These findings pose questions regarding the presumption of adequate parental care prior to the declaration of 'beyond parental control'. It also raises questions about child rights protection and juvenile justice reform in Nigeria.