Healthy youth development: getting our priorities right

Promotion of healthy youth development is a worldwide priority that cannot be achieved by parents and families alone. Health professionals must use and advocate for evidence‐based strategies that enhance key protective factors in the lives of young people. The United Nations’ Millennium Development Goals create an unprecedented opportunity to partner with professional and youth‐led organisations to ensure young people in the most vulnerable settings benefit from this initiative to reduce extreme poverty and threats to health and wellbeing.