East African Community Partner States Sign Mental Health Declaration

Declaration and Proposed Regional Policy Emphasize Community-based Approach

KAMPALA, UGANDA, October 23, 2026 /EINPresswire.com/ — At the conclusion of the 2nd annual East African Mental Health Summit on Thursday, October 22nd, governments of the East African Community (EAC) signed the Kampala Declaration, a regional commitment to strengthen mental health in the region. Partner states also supported a call from First Deputy Prime Minister of Uganda and Minister for East African Community Affairs, Rt. Hon. Rebecca Alitwala Kadaga, for the EAC to adopt principles of the declaration as the basis of formal mental health policy for the regional organization. The declaration and proposed policy seek to address mental health needs in East Africa, where an estimated one in eight people (about 12.6 percent) live with a mental health condition.

Both the Kampala Declaration and the proposed EAC mental health policy encourage partner states to take whole-of-government and whole-of-society approaches to mental health, to integrate mental health into primary care, and to increase sustainable financing for mental health.

By signing the declaration, governments pledged to strengthen community-led approaches, reduce mental health stigma, integrate mental health into emergency and humanitarian response frameworks, utilize innovation in ways that expand equitable access while safeguarding privacy and human rights, include mental health indicators in national data collection, and strengthen regional cooperation through policy harmonization, workforce development, and knowledge exchange. The declaration also committed governments to raising mental health spending to at least two percent of their national health budgets.

Rt. Hon. Kadaga is First Deputy Prime Minister of Uganda, Minister for East African Community Affairs, and Chairperson of the EAC Council of Ministers. With Uganda currently chairing the EAC, her call to use the Kampala Declaration as the basis for policy puts mental health on the regional body’s agenda at the highest level. Government representatives from Uganda, Burundi, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Somalia, and South Sudan have signed the declaration and pledged to support the EAC policy. Kenya, Tanzania, and Rwanda are expected to support following review in their capitals.

“These developments demonstrate and reinforce the political will to treat mental health as a development priority, a key ingredient to economic and human progress and to peace,” said Vincent Mujune, Uganda Country Director for StrongMinds, who helped organize the summit. “It takes seriously the 2025 UN Political Declaration target of 150 million more people with access to mental health care by 2030.”

Progress on the declaration will be reviewed annually. The Declaration represents the East African region’s strong commitment to mental health leadership on the continent, as African health leaders prepare for the 7th Ministerial Mental Health Summit, slated to occur in Kigali, Rwanda and hosted by the Government of Rwanda in 2027.

To ensure the commitments are carried out, the declaration encourages East African Community Partner States to align national mental health plans with the goals of the declaration, and to establish a regional platform for dialogue, cooperation, and progress monitoring.

For more information, please contact: Roger Nokes, Roger@strongminds.org

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About StrongMinds

Founded in 2013, StrongMinds increases access to depression treatment in sub-Saharan Africa. Through interpersonal group therapy (IPT-G) delivered by trained lay community members, StrongMinds enables governments to reach hundreds of thousands of people each year with mental health services. Learn more at strongminds.org.

Roger Nokes
StrongMinds
+1 732-770-9971

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