At the 2025 World Health Summit, 120 nations pledge $10 billion for mental health, recognizing depression as the leading cause of disability worldwide.
The 2025 World Health Summit in Berlin has concluded with a landmark agreement in which 120 nations pledged $10 billion over five years to transform global mental health infrastructure. The commitment, formally titled the Berlin Declaration on Mental Health, recognizes depression as the leading cause of disability worldwide and commits signatories to concrete actions including workforce expansion, service integration, and anti-stigma campaigns.
The declaration was catalyzed by alarming data presented at the summit showing that the global burden of mental health disorders has increased by 35% since the COVID-19 pandemic. An estimated 1 billion people worldwide now live with a diagnosable mental health condition, yet the global median government expenditure on mental health remains below 2% of health budgets.
Key commitments in the declaration include training 500,000 new mental health professionals by 2030, integrating mental health screening into primary care in all signatory nations, eliminating discriminatory legislation that restricts the rights of people with mental health conditions, and establishing digital mental health platforms to extend services to underserved populations.
Dr. Devi Sridhar of the University of Edinburgh, who helped draft the declaration, described it as the most significant policy commitment for mental health in WHO history. She noted that previous declarations on mental health have lacked enforcement mechanisms and funding commitments, but the Berlin Declaration includes specific targets and annual reporting requirements.
The funding will be mobilized through a combination of domestic budget reallocations, international development assistance, and innovative financing mechanisms including mental health bonds and levies on social media companies whose platforms have been linked to increased rates of anxiety and depression among young people.
Several countries announced immediate actions at the summit. Japan committed to placing a mental health counselor in every secondary school by 2027. Brazil announced universal access to telemental health services through its public health system. The United Kingdom pledged to achieve parity of esteem between physical and mental health in NHS funding within three years.
Mental health advocates welcomed the commitments but cautioned that implementation will be the true test. Previous global health commitments have sometimes fallen short of their targets due to competing priorities and political changes. Civil society organizations announced plans to establish an independent monitoring mechanism to track progress against the Berlin Declaration's commitments.