The African Union is coordinating a Validation Workshop on the Draft Policy on Mental Health and Psychosocial Support (MHPS) in Peace Support Operations (PSOs).
The workshop is bringing together representatives from the AU Commission, AU Member States, Regional Economic Communities and Mechanisms (RECs/RMs), and technical experts to review and strengthen the draft policy.
The workshop aims to advance a coherent approach to mental health and psychosocial support across peace support operations, incorporating perspectives and recommendations toward a practical, responsive policy that supports the wellbeing and operational effectiveness of personnel deployed in conflict-affected environments.
The validation workshop marks a significant step forward in an effort the AU has been building since at least 2023. An initial guideline draft was first developed that year.
In April 2024, AU experts, peace and security practitioners, health specialists, human rights advocates and humanitarian workers gathered in Monrovia, Liberia, to refine the document into its first formal draft, a process explicitly grounded in Agenda 2063, the AU’s revised Post-Conflict Reconstruction and Development Policy, and decisions of the AU Peace and Security Council.
📍Accra, Ghana
The @_AfricanUnion is coordinating a Validation Workshop on the Draft #AU Policy on Mental Health and Psychosocial Support (MHPS) in Peace Support Operations (#PSOs).
The workshop brings together representatives from the #AUC, #AU Member States, #RECs/#RMs and… pic.twitter.com/kXhxTMdqoI— African Union Political Affairs Peace and Security (@AUC_PAPS) August 19, 2026
Reaching the validation stage now signals the policy is nearing readiness for formal adoption. The push for a dedicated policy responds to a well-documented gap in AU peace operations.
Personnel deployed to volatile, conflict-affected areas face significant psychosocial and mental health risks, yet, unlike their physical health needs, these challenges have often been relegated, with no formal policy guidelines in place to support them systematically.
The AU has taken steps to address this in practice, including developing an MHPSS training course for peace support personnel in partnership with Ghana’s Kofi Annan International Peacekeeping Training Centre, but implementation has been hindered by the absence of an overarching policy framework, the gap this validation process is now designed to close.
The workshop also fits into a wider continental effort on mental health that has gathered pace over the past two years, from a Continental Strategy on Mental Health and Psychosocial Support for teachers developed alongside UNESCO, to the AU Youth Envoy’s “#ICanSurvivetoolkit” addressing youth mental health, and WHO-backed national efforts such as Lesotho’s validation of its own National Mental Health Policy in May 2026.
Regional health officials have set 2030 targets requiring all African countries to have a mental health policy in place, alongside targets for dedicated funding and the integration of mental health into primary healthcare and disaster response.
