Reflections from the World Health Summit
The World Health Summit 2025 (WHS) — one of the world’s largest gatherings bringing together clinicians, researchers, ministers, policymakers, private sector professionals, and people with lived experience to discuss priorities in global health — has come and gone, with over 4,000 participants attending in person and more than 40,000 joining online.
It offered a crucial — and perhaps all too rare — opportunity to (1) represent our community of over 8,000 global mental health advocates, and (2) ensure that mental health remains at the forefront of global health agendas.
Given that global health is such a vast field, it is not uncommon for conferences such as the WHS to be dominated by topics other than mental health — a phenomenon that, perhaps confusingly, contrasts with the fact that mental health has been placed at the heart of the drafting process for the 2025 UN Political Declaration on NCDs, and is front and centre at the High-Level Meeting, compared to its 2018 counterpart.
It is therefore all the more important that the progress made between 2018 and 2025 was highlighted in sessions at the WHS, such as Wellcome Trust’s Turning Commitment to Action for Mental Health: Implementing the Outcome of the UN High-Level Meeting on NCDs and Mental Health, where Dion Ras (Advisory Group Member at GMHAN) spoke.
The session aimed to discuss what tangible steps the global community needs to take to implement the commitments laid out in the 2025 UN Political Declaration on NCDs and Mental Health.
Throughout the discussion, speakers emphasized the importance of increased financial investment in mental healthcare, the involvement of people with lived experience, and the strengthening of community-based initiatives — all topics now covered in the 2025 declaration — while citing best practice examples from their respective contexts.
The room was full and participants were actively engaged. As beautiful and important a moment as this was, it also highlighted the confusion felt by many mental health advocates about this seemingly being the only session where mental health was truly front and centre — despite it causing the world’s largest health burden.
Mental health was also addressed in other sessions and side events — such as the InciSioN Network meeting, where Dr. Jakub Bil, MPH (UHC Working Group Co-Chair) spoke, and a session on youth engagement in the context of climate action, where Dion Ras contributed — but it was not necessarily the main focus, something reflected in the broader programme.
In this sense, there were echoes of mental health across sessions. Yet, in the corridors and informal discussions, these echoes turned into strong, impassioned conversations: many participants — even those not directly working in mental health — expressed excitement and genuine commitment to the cause.
Particular interest came from governments, especially in the Middle East, where many populations remain at risk of being left behind or are suffering from the mental health consequences of geopolitical instability and regional conflicts. Also notable was the overwhelming support for the engagement of people with lived experience and for community-based participation.
It is with hope that we call upon global health conferences to give greater attention to mental health as a central topic — and particularly to the important progress reflected in the 2025 UN Political Declaration on NCDs and Mental Health.
We extend our sincere thanks to the Wellcome Trust for hosting such a profoundly important cross-sectoral session, which included voices from GMHAN, and to the InciSioN Network for their invitation to participate in the side-event session.
With people from all sectors and backgrounds working together, we can — and indeed did, at this important event — ensure that mental health remains at the forefront of global health agendas.
By Dion Ras and Jakub Bil