13:15 - 14:15
Youth mental health and well-being has emerged as one of the most urgent and cross-cutting challenges of our time, shaping young people’s lives, opportunities, and capacity to contribute to peaceful, inclusive, and sustainable societies. This urgency is particularly acute for young people living in contexts of crisis, conflict, displacement, and humanitarian emergencies—where exposure to violence, loss, uncertainty, and structural deprivation significantly heightens mental health risks.
The United Nations Office of Partnerships has been advancing critical global leadership on mental health through the Greentree Acceleration Plan, which elevates mental health as a shared global priority requiring multi-stakeholder action specially pointint at the urgent Action to Scale Up Evidence-Based Mental Health and Psychosocial Support (MHPSS) in Humanitarian Settings, particularly through Track 3: Policy Recommendations, with a strong focus on the mental health and psychosocial well-being of humanitarian workers and frontline responders.
In parallel, the United Nations Youth Office, through its Flagship Initiative on Youth Mental Health and Well-Being, has identified an urgent need to strengthen policy advocacy, elevate youth-centered language within intergovernmental processes, and shift global narratives from reactive, symptom-based responses toward ecosystem-level, preventive, and rights-based approaches.
This work is anchored in the Joint Call to Strengthen Policy and Investment for Child and Youth Mental Health and Well‑Being, developed with WHO, UNICEF, and UNESCO and launched at the 2025 World Social Summit in Doha, where the Initiative was formally introduced and global leaders underscored the need for system‑level transformation across social, health, and community structures. Building on this momentum, early diplomatic champions—including Ambassador Omar Hilale, Permanent Representative of Morocco, and Ambassador Sophie De Smedt, Permanent Representative of Belgium—have played visible roles in advancing the follow‑up in New York, helping position youth mental health as an emerging priority for coordinated Member State leadership.
Bringing these agendas together, the Goals Lounge Series offers a strategic platform for UNOP and UNYO to jointly strengthen, align, and leverage a shared agenda that is present in the daily lives of young people—particularly those who face the greatest vulnerabilities, including in humanitarian and crisis-affected settings.