How to use the toolkit

This toolkit is a practical guide for national and sub-national policymakers, government technical staff, and UNICEF and partner country teams working to protect and promote the health, wellbeing and development of children and adolescents. It translates the evidence and policy analysis from the accompanying report into a structured, repeatable process.

It does not prescribe a single model. Instead, it helps users identify feasible, context-appropriate options across five thematic areas — and find the connections between them, since a single platform such as primary health care, schools or social protection can advance several at once.

FIVE THEMATIC AREAS

Four fronts, one healthy start.

Presented separately for clarity, the areas overlap in causes, settings and solutions. Work across them, not only within them.

Mental Health

Protect and support the psychological wellbeing of children and adolescents across the settings where they live, learn and grow.

Immunisation

Reach every child with the vaccines they are entitled to, and close the gaps that leave some behind.

Healthy Lifestyles

Make nutritious food, physical activity and freedom from tobacco, nicotine and alcohol the easy default for young people.

Early Childhood Development

Give every child a strong start through nurturing care in the first years, when the foundations are laid.

Equity & child rights run through all five. At every phase, disaggregate data, ask who is being reached, and design for the children most affected by gaps.
THE POLICY CYCLE

Three phases, worked in sequence and revisited.

1

Identification of issues & priorities

Build the evidence base, review the frameworks your country is committed to, and define clear objectives.

2

Identification of solutions & entry points

Review what already exists, identify evidence-based solutions, and clarify stakeholders, instruments and financing.

3

Implementation & monitoring

Deliver through existing systems, and build monitoring in from the start.

EVERY STEP

Every step follows the same shape.

Why it matters

the rationale

What to do

concrete actions

Key resources

tools & frameworks

The phases are sequential in logic but not rigid in practice. Enter where you are — and treat the process as iterative, returning to earlier phases as evidence and circumstances change.