Reflecting from the Sidelines of UNGA80

Speakers on the Panel at the Event “Unlocking Africa's Youth Potential through Integrated NCD and Mental Health Care” Left to right: Bitania, Dr. Abenet, Jonta, Rachel, Ms. Lola

Edited by: Eleleta Surafel

On the sidelines of UNGA80, Amref Health Africa hosted 3 events. As a member of the Youth in Action Steering Committee (YSC) at Youth in Action (Y-ACT), I was privileged to attend all 3 and be a panelist on 2 of the events. The first event titled was held 24th September 2025 from 9 am to 12:00 pm was in alignment with the UN high level meeting and was titled “Unlocking Africa's Youth Potential through Integrated NCD and Mental Health Care.” The session opened with opening remarks from Dr Adelard Kakunze the Senior Technical Officer of NCDs, Injuries and Mental Health at the Africa Centres for Disease Control and Prevention (Africa CDC) and Ms. Damilola Walker from the United Nations Children Fund (UNICEF), who shared key findings from the UNICEF Youth & Mental Health Report. This was followed by a panel discussion with Dr. Abenet Zeleke, the Executive Director of International Institute for Primary Health Care-Ethiopia (IPHC-E), Rachel Cheung from the International Federation of Medical Students Association (IFMSA), Ms. Damilola Walker from UNICEF, and myself representing YSC at Youth in Action. 

This session was important as 60% of Africa’s population is under 25 years old, and mental health and NCDs already impact a significant proportion of the youth population. Youth in Africa also face armed conflict, forced displacement, unemployment, poverty, and climate-related distress, all of which are factors increasing the vulnerability to mental health conditions. Despite their interconnection, mental health and NCDs are still too often addressed separately. On this panel, Dr. Abenet from IPHC-E discussed case studies in Ethiopia from integrating primary health care systems, and Rachel from IFMSA discussed the challenges for young health professionals dealing with chronic and mental health conditions. I emphasized the need for an intersectional approach that addresses the diverse  needs of young people, and the need for health systems that do not push youth into poverty when accessing care. And to conclude the discussion, Ms. Demilola from UNICEF emphasized the need to be preventive and ensure we create environments on the African continent that promote mental wellness and reduce risk factors for NCDs rather than being reactive. This was followed by a Fireside Chat by Charlotte Watts, Executive Director of Solutions at Wellcome Trust, discussing how we move beyond pilot projects to sustainable, scaled integration.

 In the afternoon, I attended Amref’s Second Session on “Optimizing Primary Healthcare as a Path to Equity.” This was a closed door session that convened stakeholders in primary healthcare and funders on the continent. The session opened with a powerful reminder that while our challenges are many, we must remain solution-oriented. We were also reminded that as we were geographically in NYC, and a lot of us in the session were African, we should not forget the soil that we are from.  This session shared insights from primary healthcare in Ethiopia and Mozambique, and reminded us to look at other countries on the continent to learn from each other. Some comments that stood out to me were the following:

1. How do citizens hold governments accountable for failing to deliver on public health commitments?

2. Ministries of Health respond well to data about the health systems showing where they are excelling and falling short. A specific example was shared about a visualization on the health care workforce, and ministries were engaged, asking how close their country was to reaching the WHO patient physician ratio

3. We cannot have conversations about primary healthcare without the communities that access the services, we need to hold conversations in the community

Speakers at the “Building a Chain of Women Advocates for Climate Action” Roundtable

The final Amref Session was a Roundtable Discussion on “Building a Chain of Women Advocates for Climate Action.” This session was co-hosted with Pathfinder and Women in Global Health, and was held in the morning on Friday, September 29. Climate Change and gender equality are deeply connected with climate change having disproportionate health, social, and economic burdens for women and young girls. These inequalities also intersect with other forms of discrimination, compounding risks for Indigenous, Afro-descendant, LGBTQIA+, stateless, and women and girls with disabilities. In this session, I highlighted 2 youth initiatives, virtual online training programs, and a community-led organization driving local change in Ghana. This session discussed how women and youth are already designing climate-health solutions. A key takeaway message was that innovations do not always need to be high-tech, they just need to be easily adaptable in the community. 

This was my first time attending UNGA in-person, as in previous years, I had only engaged with virtual sessions. As a diaspora representative on the YSC , it was great to finally meet the Amref and Y-ACT team in-person. While I only attended events on the sidelines of UNGA80, I found this a meaningful way to be engaged in public/global health discussions and network with people. At the end of each session, there was always time to speak to people, and it was great connecting with other panelists and participants  in the audience.

With many events happening simultaneously, I had to be intentional about selecting those aligned with my interests, and the conversations I wanted to be a part of. Some sessions were exclusive and required invitations or accepted registrations, which added another layer to navigating the space.

As an African youth in the diaspora, being in the space reminded me of my diaspora privileges. I had no visa challenges, and my proximity to New York City made it easier for me to cover transportation. This is not the reality of many youth on the continent, which makes these spaces inaccessible to many, limiting African voices at many sessions. To ensure African youth could still engage with sessions, Eleleta and I made a curated list of virtual sessions that youth could engage in.

Ultimately, it is important to ask if these are the most inclusive and accessible spaces for African Youth Voices. Everyone has left New York City now, but the real challenge begins:  How do we ensure these conversations lead to action?