Our work for the 2025 High-Level Meeting on Non-Communicable Diseases and Mental Health
Recognising a critical year for global mental health advocacy
This is an important year for global mental health. In September 2025, for the first time in the history of the United Nations, mental health will be discussed at the core of a meeting of Heads of State at the General Assembly.
This High-Level Meeting (HLM) on Non-Communicable Diseases (NCDs) and Mental Health is convened by the UN General Assembly (UNGA) to help governments reach agreements and make commitments on global issues. Over the last 20 years, several health issues have been prioritised on the global agenda through HLMs at the UNGA, and there have been 3 HLMs focused on NCDs in the past. But this is a rare opportunity for mental health to be at the core of such a meeting.
With global health funding cuts and influences away from multilateralism hitting the news this year, this agenda could not be more urgent. Despite the increased interest in mental health over the past few years, the sector remains chronically underfunded, many countries have old or inappropriate legislation and policy, and there is still a significant global unmet need for mental ill-health prevention and treatment. Hence, this HLM is an historic opportunity to secure new progressive commitments towards the shaping of person-centred mental health services and effective policies for prevention. There is a critical need for progress on the issues of child & adolescent mental health, suicide prevention, moving away from mental health institutionalisation, and the social and commercial determinants of mental health for all.
The Global Mental Health Action Network, enabled by our host United for Global Mental Health, has been playing a strategic role as the convener of the sector since early 2024. We have been convening a Taskforce of all major international mental health organisations and a Short-Term Action Group (STAG) of national partners and advocates coming from 40 countries around the world. This has been critical work, both in the coordination of the global sector and in ensuring that the voices of lived experience are being heard at the highest level. We have been the main platform for civil society throughout this journey and the main trusted thought partner in mental health for all major international organisations (incl. the World Health Organization and UNICEF) and many governments.
➤ Access our overview page on our work for the High-Level Meeting.
➤ KEY IMPACT: UnitedGMH has been established as the most influential civil society voice for mental health advocacy in the international multilateral system, being the main advisor for WHO in the process, and GMHAN is recognised as the key convener of the sector and facilitator of global advocacy.
Co-producing our priorities
The priorities we set out from the global mental health community have been co-produced from the start with our GMHAN members from around the world. We have made sure the priorities reflect what is important to change from the perspectives of both national advocates and global health organisations
The High-Level Meeting will produce an influential Political Declaration, that will summarise the commitments and actions that governments collectively pledge to implement to address NCDs and mental health. In this, we are hoping to see:
1. Commitment to shape our healthcare systems to provide care in the community, in primary care and in the settings in which we play, study and work.
2. Immediate action to decriminalise and prevent suicides.
3. Increased attention to the mental health of young people.
4. Recognition that our health – mental and physical – is profoundly shaped by the circumstances in which we are born, grow up, work, live and age. And greater regulations for harmful industries that have been cynically harming our wellbeing for decades.
5. Formalised social participation frameworks and processes for people with lived experience and young people in every policy conversation and decision.
Our Priorities Brief has been used as an anchor for advocating for mental health for major international organisations, such as the Global Psychology Alliance, the World Federation of Public Health Associations and Save the Children International.
➤ Download our Brief with key statements and positions for mental health at the High-Level Meeting.
➤ KEY IMPACT: Early signs from the UN show that many of our collective priorities are reflected in the commitments being made for the High-Level Meeting.
Shaping the Road to September 2025
Although the HLM is taking place in September 2025, key influencing opportunities have been set on various milestones in the year leading up to it. Our website (such as our Roadmap to 2025) has been a key point for information for the global community and our HLM-related pages have had more than 10,000 visits so far.
Foreseeing the importance of mental health at this Meeting, we started our convening work as early as the start of 2024 and have supported hundreds of organisations to leverage the opportunities of the past year both to increase their global connections and to understand how to advocate more effectively for their priorities at the highest level.
The first major victory of our advocacy was recorded in January 2025 when the it was confirmed, through the UN Modalities Resolution on the High-Level Meeting, that what was initially called “The Fourth High-level Meeting of the UN General Assembly on the prevention and control of NCDs”, will be hosted on 25 September 2025 as “The Fourth High-level Meeting of the UN General Assembly on the prevention and control of NCDs and the promotion of mental health and wellbeing”. This title - the first in history for an HLM with “mental health” included - came on the back of strong and coordinated advocacy from UnitedGMH to place mental health at the heart of such an important global meeting, that is well-recorded dating back to at least 2023.
➤ Access our High-Level Meeting Advocacy Roadmap.
➤ KEY IMPACT: Our long-standing, strong and coordinated advocacy has directly led to a High-Level Meeting at the UN on mental health, for the first time in history.
Disrupting power by placing youth voices at the core
Young people are often excluded from influential decisions that shape their future. However, we know that they are more than just beneficiaries of mental health interventions - they are experts in designing and implementing the programmes and services that best address their needs. From the start of our journey, we made one of our key aims to facilitate leadership, solidarity and advocacy by youth.
We invited young professionals to our STAG, made sure that their priorities were reflected in our collective global priorities, and facilitated them to be front and centre in important meetings and events in the decision-making rooms of New York and Geneva, as well as at WHO’s Youth Multi-Stakeholder Hearing.
Even though for many of our youth partners, these were the first times that they were using their voice in such high-level settings, we worked with them to ensure that they were not there just to observe. They were there to contribute, think critically, share their perspectives, and advocate for the beliefs, values and communities they care about. In doing so, together we once again disrupted how power and voice is used and shared in those traditional global settings.
➤ Read Reflections from participants from the youth multi-stakeholder hearing.
➤ KEY IMPACT: Young people have been involved in influencing a UN process on mental health at a bigger scale than ever before.
UN Multistakeholder Hearing: A transformative moment for global mental health advocacy
The most direct influencing opportunity on the road to the High-Level Meeting was the Multi-Stakeholder Hearing held at the UN HQ on May 2nd. This was a space for member states to listen to stakeholders and understand their priorities.
What unfolded during that week in New York demonstrated just how far we have come in decentralising power, sharing decision-making and ensuring diverse representation from our community in global mental health policy discussions.
The Global Mental Health Action Network mobilised a true team of 40 advocates from 30 countries. Over just 5 days, we hosted an advocacy workshop, organised 23 meetings with governments missions to the UN covering 5 continents, and participated in 7 important events bringing together government representatives, international organisations and advocates. We carried one unified message: mental health must be prioritised at the upcoming HLM.
The phrase “historic moment” was used a lot during our time in New York, and rightly so! Friday, 2nd May was the first time mental health was being discussed at the UN Headquarters with this much urgency, and with such a strong presence from civil society. One after another, representatives from our global mental health community, from all corners of the room, were cued up to take the mic. It was a giddying experience, with a total of 14 interventions coming from our mighty delegation.
Mental health was in the spotlight at the highest level of global health conversation. Those shaping the political declaration were being directly confronted with the dire, and too often overlooked, state of mental health around the world, and at the same time, were being presented with clear, actionable solutions for transformative and sustainable change.
➤ Read our blog reporting back from the Multi-Stakeholder Hearing
➤ KEY IMPACT: People with lived experience and advocates from Low- and Middle- Income countries were able to access a global political process and to directly advocate to their governments, and eventually made more direct statements at a UN hearing for a High-Level Meeting than ever before,
Making history at the 78th World Health Assembly
For years, UnitedGMH, GMHAN and key stakeholders across the sector have worked tirelessly for meaningful recognition and the prioritisation of mental health at the highest levels. The 78th World Health Assembly marked a turning point. The Action Network’s presence was about more than just hosting and participating in events. Our activities and engagements were an example of the change we hope to see in the mental health sector, with community voices and experts by experience meaningfully included in shaping global policy.
Mental health was a priority discussion, and that was no accident. Staying true to our commitment to decentralise power and facilitate local-to-global influence and global-to-local action, we arrived in Geneva with 17 GMHAN members, representing 12 countries, who embody the diverse voices, lived experience and rich expertise of our global mental health community. Although our journeys and perspectives are unique, we were united in our mission to place mental health at the heart of the conversation. Over five days, we collectively engaged 26 governments calling for strengthening of the commitments around our collective priorities.
As we made our way to side events taking place across town, member states were convening at the UN Palais to deliver statements on a diverse range of topics in WHO’s Programme of Work. The European Union, the South East Asian region, the Eastern Mediterranean region, and the African region, which together represent a total of 106 member states, issued joint statements emphasising the importance of prioritising mental health and proposing possible solutions.
The interest in mental health was unprecedented, and the presence of our community in Geneva was simply unavoidable.
➤ Read our blog reporting back from the World Health Assembly.
➤ KEY IMPACT: Mental health featured more prominently at the World Health Assembly (both in meetings and in important side events) than ever before.
Staying united and resilient to scale our influence
As part of the preparatory activities for the HLM, the President of the General Assembly and the Co-facilitators of the intergovernmental negotiations process released in May the “Zero Draft” of the Political Declaration – available on the On the Road to 2025 campaign website. Our work, since May and in the lead up to September, is focusing on influencing the contents of the Political Declaration.
We are excited to see mental health and psychosocial wellbeing fully integrated into the Political Declaration of a UN High-Level Meeting for the first time - in line with our collective priorities - and encouraged that so many important commitments on mental health are incorporated. We have stayed focused on responding within one day to every window of influencing.
We are shifting our focus towards the protection of the mental health language used in the first draft of the Zero Draft and the strengthening of our key priorities. Alongside our global community of advocates, UnitedGMH has engaged representatives from more than 50 countries, and through working with negotiating groups (e.g. the European Union and the G77) we have made sure that our coordinated voice for mental health has reached more than half of the world’s governments! We are aware that there are member states that do not share our view on the importance of mental health in the Political Declaration, and in the last few months of the negotiations our joint efforts remain as urgent as ever.
➤ Read UnitedGMH’s letter on the development of the Political Declaration and the GMHAN joint response letter to the Zero Draft.
➤ KEY IMPACT: The scale of our influencing work is unprecedented, with more than 100 governments directly or indirectly engaged.
