Beyond UNGA 80: Reflecting on 2025’s global mental health and well-being advocacy

2025 has been an historic year for mental health advocacy, culminating this fall. In a year, uniquely impacted by global tensions, conflict and uncertainties, mental health was affirmed as a key issue facing the world’s population today and into the future. In September, global leaders met in New York for the 80^th session of the UN’s Global Assembly, high level meetings and side events. There were many notable moments, though for the Global Alliance, the most important was about advocating for mental health awareness, and the ensuing momentum and commitments toward the promotion and implementation of mental health and well-being, within decision making, strategies and policies. These opportunities to collaborate and foster relationships with colleagues and like-minded organizations from around the globe, are critical for future collective action.

But, what do historic markers for mental health and well-being actually look like? To start, a majority of states discussed mental health and well-being on the international stage. This awareness is a significant success, and a required precursor for any future action. Reaching near consensus during UNGA 80 followed by the recent adoption of the Political Declaration, ought to be looked at in the years to come, as a major milestone in achieving better outcomes for all. The Declaration, entitled, Equity and integration: transforming lives and livelihoods through leadership and action on noncommunicable diseases and the promotion of mental health and well-being provides the needed framework, with specific targets to accelerate global progress. And, in achieving this milestone, there is a general understanding that individual and population well-being have an impact on a state’s ability to thrive as well as global security, more broadly. For a detailed understanding of the mental health focus of the Political Declaration check out this resource.

In reflecting on the meeting, there are three main concepts drawn from the international activities which the Global Alliance participated in.

• This years success for mental health advocacy internationally was based on a series of ‘key ingredients’ that are important to recognize and apply in developing future strategies, locally, nationally and internationally.

A collective voice of civil society, is challenging to develop, however, critical for meaningful action. To reach decision makers, at every level, the messaging matters. In other words, a co-ordinated series of messages that fundamentally underlie civil society broadly, result in cohesive advice and guidance for decision makers to support. Conversely, trying to include ‘too many’ messages, has historically resulted in a lack of action or ‘buy in’ from decision makers.

Further to this, ensuring points are clear, concise, applicable and actionable are necessary for change. The adoption of the Declaration is a successful example of this strategy, resulting in an agreed upon framework with targets for country’s to promote mental health and well-being. This year, United for Global Mental Health and their Global Mental Health Action Network, which the Global Alliance has been actively involved with since 2019, led civil society in developing the messaging for country’s to incorporate in their priorities and policies.

• Multisectoral approaches to well-being are (finally) starting to play a role in countries’ development of strategies to achieve their well-being targets. The case of Uganda was shared as a successful example, with their governments’ support for Strong Minds. Strong Minds brings mental health care access to individuals through community, health and education sectors, with the support from the government in regard to training, quality control and outreach. Greece discussed their commitment to a whole society approach to mental health, recognizing that it would enhance the speed, scale and action through bold steps. More broadly there has been a shift toward community health and the need to engage a broader range of stakeholders to reach people where they are, particularly for promotion and prevention strategies.

Yet, without financial commitments generally, it is unlikely that a movement toward all sectors in society committing to mental health and well-being targets across the continuum (from promotion and prevention through to recovery), will occur. To aid in this movement though, the World Health Organization (WHO) developed guidance that would emphasize both the costs of inaction and the societal benefits of investing in mental health. It is the WHO guidance on policy and strategic actions to protect and promote mental health across government sectors. As a member of the World Health Organization’s (WHO) Civil Society Commission, the Global Alliance participated in the launch of an instrumental resource toward a “mental health in all policies” approach. The guidance sets out, for the first time, what different government sectors can do, individually and collaboratively, to promote and protect population-wide mental health and well-being. Evidence-based and grounded in human rights, recommendations are made across 10 key sectors (Culture, arts and sport; Defense and veterans; Education; Employment; Environment, conservation and climate protection; Health; Interior; Justice; Social protection and Urban and rural development).

• Children and youth must be a priority and therefore research, policy and practice must reflect and integrate the needs and interests of young people today for the well-being of future generations. During the United Nations General Assembly this year, and for the first time, within the Political Declaration, children and youth are specifically identified. During the side event, Access for Every Child: Ensuring Multidisciplinary Care for Non-Communicable Diseases, a detailed historic lack of integration of children and youth interests in past declarations was discussed. The traditional focus of such guiding documents have mostly been focussed on those who are between the ages of 30-70, as the key demographic of a state’s workforce. While the shift to integrate children and youth this year is promising for future outcomes, a lot of work remains to be done. As an example, during the fall event, Unlocking Africa’s Youth Potential through Integrated NCD and Mental Health Care hosted by Amref, participants explored a critical discussion about the need to (re)consider what appropriate and relevant language related to young people’s mental health would entail. Lola Walker, the Senior Advisor & Global Lead, Adolescent HIV, UNICEF shared the example that the signs and symptoms related to mental health for Gen Z are not clinical and therefore their needs are not being captured appropriately with regard to effective promotion and prevention strategies.

As we look ahead to 2026, the Global Alliance remains steadfast in our commitment to centering mental health and well-being within and across all systems and settings. From a global perspective, the emerging advancements toward multisectoral approaches in policy and practice and a focus on children and youth are promising. As an organization, we will continue our advocacy alongside other stakeholders, with particular focus on prevention and promotion of mental health and well-being for all.