On Tuesday, 4 November 2025, the Global Mental Health Action Network (GMHAN) hosted a webinar where representatives from WHO and UNICEF, experts from Peru, South Africa, and the UK, came together to reflect on the UN High-Level Meeting (HLM) on Non-Communicable Diseases (NCDs) and Mental Health, the journey to this important meeting and the outcomes of the political declaration.
SAFMH Advocacy Lead, Shayni Geffen, was one of the expert panellists on the webinar. Shayni was asked: What are the key points of progress witnessed over the past year relating to NCD and mental health advocacy in South Africa, and what will SAFMH’s focus advocacy areas be in light of this?
Read Shayni’s key points below:
In South Africa, there’s definitely been an increase in awareness and recognition of mental health, including among our NCD colleagues. For many years, mental health felt like an add-on, but over the past year, it has really become a core part of the NCD conversation.
The high-level meeting gave us, as mental health advocates in South Africa, a valuable opportunity to engage positively with local decision-makers. We were speaking with colleagues who are not our usual contacts — from the NCD directorate and the Department of International Relations — and they genuinely supported what the political agenda was calling for and seemed actively interested in discussing mental health. I also got the sense that discussions about mental health don’t always come across their desks, but when they do, there is space to speak about our key asks and a definite interest in hearing us out.
When reviewing HLM priorities, our domestic Department of Health invited the NCD Alliance in South Africa, with whom we worked closely on this, to review the draft and add our perspectives as civil society. They also kept us updated on the submission of their comments ahead of deadlines and provided a very high-level reflection on how their feedback and inputs were received. This sort of feedback, friendly engagement, and collaboration is not something to be taken for granted, and I’m very grateful it happened.
Last year, South Africa launched a National Strategic Plan for NCDs and Mental Health. Alongside our existing National Mental Health Policy Framework, this gives us a domestic roadmap for implementing many of the goals highlighted in the Political Declaration, tailored to our context.
That said, challenges remain. On balance, while South Africa is excellent at advancing the vision, upholding ideals, and setting ambitious goals, translating those ideals into tangible, on-the-ground change has not always been our strong suit — and addressing this gap is at the heart of our advocacy work.
In light of this challenge, we have been focusing more on governance, implementation, monitoring, and accountability. This ranges from informing and reminding duty-bearers about their roles and responsibilities as set out in existing domestic policies to advocating for publicly accessible data to track progress on national targets.
Shayni concluded with this message:
Mental health advocates should examine existing domestic policies, plans, and commitments in the context of High-Level Meeting priorities, and identify opportunities to influence and bring about change.”
You can watch the webinar recording below:
