Regional Conference on Mental Health in East Africa​

Mental health services: identifying solutions that are contextually relevant, innovative, scalable, and sustainable across diverse contexts in East Africa ​


Join us for the  regional conference on mental health in East Africa where we will highlight the status of mental health services in the region and share insights on how to take innovative models of quality mental health services to scale. The conference seeks to bring together a diverse group of mental actors including: policy makers, researchers, Non-governmental organizations (NGOs), mental health practitioners, people with lived experiences, mental health champions, Civil Society Organisations (CSOs), academia, funders, government ministries, departments, and agencies to discuss and deliberate on the mental health trajectory in East Africa.


Conference Objectives​

  • Highlight the mental health services in the region
  • Foster dialogue that promotes knowledge and experience sharing to enrich the mental health agenda and for improved quality of mental health services
  • Showcase innovative mental health programmes in the East Africa region, including the use of technology
  • Strengthen policy and programme implementation, build partnerships, and establish pathways for collaborations and networking


Conference format 


This will be an in-person conference to maximise on conference attendance and participation by stakeholders from across the region. It will also provide an opportunity for networking and learning among participants and offer sponsoring organizations a chance to showcase their work in the exhibition booths available at the conference venue. The conference will be organised in different sessions to allow to participants with interest in different sub-themes to attend sessions that may interest them. 

The conference sessions will be organised as follows: 


  • Plenary sessions where keynote presentations will be made along with panel sessions. 
  • Oral paper presentations in thematic break-out parallel sessions. 
  • Exhibition of partner initiatives and sharing of materials and resources. 

Conference host

This conference is being hosted by the Aga Khan University Institute for Human Development (IHD) and School of Nursing and Midwifery, East Africa (SONAM EA).​