The World Health Organisation (WHO) has expressed concern that only seven African countries have effectively integrated mental health services into primary healthcare (PHCs), as it convened mental health experts and policymakers from 26 countries across West and Central Africa to accelerate reforms and fast-track progress towards the region’s 2030 mental health targets.

The experts met at the West and Central Africa Mental Health Inter-Country Learning Gathering in Lomé, Togo, where delegates reviewed progress, shared lessons from across the region and agreed on practical actions to strengthen national mental health systems, expand access to quality, rights-based mental healthcare and bring services closer to communities.

The gathering was the second in a series of WHO sub-regional consultations aimed at helping countries assess progress towards the WHO African Region’s 2030 mental health goals, including universal adoption of national mental health policies, stronger financing, improved reporting systems and wider integration of mental health services into primary healthcare.

Under the Region’s 2030 targets, WHO aims for all Member States to have a stand-alone or integrated mental health policy or strategic plan, 70 per cent to establish dedicated mental health budget lines, 95 per cent to routinely report on a comprehensive set of mental health indicators, and 60 per cent to effectively integrate mental health services into primary healthcare, ensuring equitable access to quality, rights-based mental healthcare.

Although countries across the region have demonstrated growing political commitment to mental health, WHO noted that substantial gaps continue to hinder access to care. According to the organisation, 29 countries in the African Region have adopted national mental health policies or strategies, but only 17 have aligned them with international human rights standards. More critically, only seven of the region’s 47 Member States currently provide mental health services effectively through primary healthcare.

Experts at the four-day programme noted that addressing these gaps would require stronger integration of mental health into PHCs, expansion of community-based services and greater involvement of people with lived experience in developing policies and designing services.

Speaking at the meeting, the Director of Health Promotion, Disease Prevention and Control at the WHO Regional Office for Africa, Dr Benido Impouma, said every person living with a mental health condition deserves to be treated with dignity, respect and compassion.

While acknowledging the progress already made, Impouma stressed that countries must accelerate efforts to strengthen rights-based, community-centred mental healthcare and build resilient health systems capable of ensuring that no one is left behind.

He also called for stronger legal and policy frameworks to safeguard the rights of people living with mental health conditions and urged governments to deepen collaboration across the health, education, social welfare and justice sectors to improve access to comprehensive mental healthcare.

The experts also highlighted the need to scale up implementation of the WHO’s Mental Health Gap Action Programme (mhGAP), which equips non-specialist health workers to identify, manage and treat mental health conditions in settings where specialist services are limited.

Financing also featured prominently during the discussions, with participants identifying sustainable domestic funding as critical to strengthening national mental health systems while encouraging countries to leverage support from development partners.

The Head of Field Building and Lived Experience at the Wellcome Trust, Dr Kate Martin, said barriers to improving access to mental healthcare remain political, financial, cultural and institutional. She added that overcoming them would require coordinated action, sustained commitment and meaningful collaboration among governments, development partners and other stakeholders.

Drawing on lessons from Ebola outbreaks and other humanitarian emergencies, the experts further emphasised the need to integrate mental health and psychosocial support into emergency preparedness and response to better protect affected communities before, during and after crises.

They also identified child and adolescent mental health as a priority area, with young advocates participating in discussions on how policies and services can better respond to the mental health needs of children and adolescents.