On Aug 10, 2023, the Partnership for Maternal, Newborn and Child Health (PMNCH) released the initial results from the What Young People Want survey. The survey involves completing a single sentence: “to improve my well-being, I want...” More than 1·1 million young people and adolescents age 24 years and younger have participated so far, at a rate of around 50 000 per week. “I want to stop child marriage in my village”, stated an Indian woman aged 19 years. “I want paved roads in my area”, said an Indian man aged 19 years. A woman from Indonesia, aged 18 years, asserted that “if we have education and self-skills, it can increase our value as a teenage generation”. A Zimbabwean boy aged 15 years expressed his desire for “access to sexual and reproductive health rights”, whereas a Malawian woman, aged 23 years, asked for “youth inclusion in leadership”. The results can be viewed on an online dashboard, broken down by factors such as age, location, and gender.The What Young People Want survey is part of the 1·8 Billion Young People for Change campaign, a youth-led initiative started by PMNCH in 2022. Its stated aim is to “galvanise global action for promoting the well-being of adolescents and youth through mobilisation of policy and financial commitments”. The results will be discussed at the UN General Assembly in September, 2023, and at the Global Forum for Adolescents the following month. Informed by the survey results, a comprehensive agenda for adolescents will be launched at the forum.“Our goal is to understand what matters to young people and adolescents”, explained David Imbago-Jácome, Chair of the Adolescent and Youth Constituency at PMNCH. “We are hoping this survey and the other advocacy efforts will encourage policymakers to include young people in defining priorities and designing, implementing, and evaluating interventions.” He pointed out that young people and adolescents are eager to be involved in discussions on how to address the major issues confronting humanity, such as climate change. “There is plenty of enthusiasm, energy, and ideas among young people, and there are a lot of problems that they may well have the answers for”, stressed Imbago-Jácome. Deep Shikha is a youth mobiliser based in India. She noted that young people are going to be the ones who will drive the gargantuan Indian economy. “We want to be directly involved in the decisions that affect our lives”, she added.In 2020, PMNCH, WHO, and a UN working group came up with a framework for adolescent well-being consisting of five domains. These are learning, competence, education, skills and employability; safety and a supportive environment; good health and optimum nutrition; connectedness, positive values, and contribution to society; and agency and resilience. The domains have been used to categorise the responses to the survey.As of Sept 6, 2023, virtually all responses have come from low-income and middle-income countries, predominantly in Africa and south east Asia. Nearly half of respondents were from one of four nations: India (23%), Nigeria (11%), Uganda (9%), and Tanzania (7%). 51% of respondents were aged 15–19 years. 40% of responses fell into the domain of learning, competence, education, skills, and employability.“There is a great deal of concern about education in Kenya; people want to see improvements in infrastructure, and they want more teachers”, said Mercy Koech, who helped organise the survey in the country. “Young Kenyans are worried about employment opportunities. They do not know if they will be able to find work.” Food security, nutrition, and mental health were also common themes. “There are young people whose basic needs are not being met; if a girl lacks access to sanitary towels, or there is a problem getting clean water, then this can lead to anxiety”, said Koech. Shikha drew attention to the interrelationship between domains: “Someone might say that they would like for the library to be open past 2000 h. But if girls are not safe to walk alone in the road at night, how can they stay late at the library?”Koech and Shikha are continuing to collect the survey results. “I believe this work is really important. It is not every day that someone asks you what you want. This is a rare opportunity for young people to have their voices heard. They have unique perspectives, fresh insights, and valuable contributions”, said Koech. “I want to see a Kenya that embraces young people, trusts them with leadership roles, and creates friendly services and an enabling environment”. Shikha has a similar vision for India. “I want to see my country progress, taking into consideration what young people want, and I want to see the young people of India lead the world through their skills”, she told The Lancet Child & Adolescent Health.This article was originally published on the Lancet.