In 2025, UNICEF released a report highlighting significant progress in civil registration and vital statistics (CRVS) across sub-Saharan Africa, with over 60 million children under the age of five having their births registered over the past five years. While this achievement is commendable, it also draws attention to the urgent challenge that remains: an estimated 60 million children are still unregistered, with the highest concentration—43 million—residing in Eastern Africa.
Since January 2021 UNICEF Eastern and Southern Africa has actively been involved with scaling cross and multi sectoral mental health and psychosocial support programmes in line with the current UNICEF Strategic Plan 2022 – 2025 and Regional Office Management Plan (ROMP) which identified child and adolescent mental health as a priority. In response to these plans UNICEF Eastern and Southern Africa Regional Office (ESARO) undertook a comprehensive situational analysis of the MHPSS regional landscape and in 2023 developed the first ever Regional Programme Note and a consolidated cross sectoral workplan (2023-2025).
The MHPSS Programme Note and associated workplan are strongly aligned to the UNICEF’s Strategic Plan, the Regional Operational Management Plan and Regional Collaboration for Children, the Core Commitments for Children and Global Multisectoral Operational Framework for Mental Health and Psychosocial Support of Children, Adolescents and Caregivers Across Settings. It was developed using the UNICEF Theory of Change to ensure conceptual alignment to UNICEFs global vision, however, remains a fully localized agenda driven by country office’s needs and supported by the regional office MHPSS Technical Working Group (TWG).
In 2025, UNICEF released a report highlighting significant progress in civil registration and vital statistics (CRVS) across sub-Saharan Africa, with over 60 million children under the age of five having their births registered over the past five years. While this achievement is commendable, it also draws attention to the urgent challenge that remains: an estimated 60 million children are still unregistered, with the highest concentration—43 million—residing in Eastern Africa.
Since January 2021 UNICEF Eastern and Southern Africa has actively been involved with scaling cross and multi sectoral mental health and psychosocial support programmes in line with the current UNICEF Strategic Plan 2022 – 2025 and Regional Office Management Plan (ROMP) which identified child and adolescent mental health as a priority. In response to these plans UNICEF Eastern and Southern Africa Regional Office (ESARO) undertook a comprehensive situational analysis of the MHPSS regional landscape and in 2023 developed the first ever Regional Programme Note and a consolidated cross sectoral workplan (2023-2025).
The MHPSS Programme Note and associated workplan are strongly aligned to the UNICEF’s Strategic Plan, the Regional Operational Management Plan and Regional Collaboration for Children, the Core Commitments for Children and Global Multisectoral Operational Framework for Mental Health and Psychosocial Support of Children, Adolescents and Caregivers Across Settings. It was developed using the UNICEF Theory of Change to ensure conceptual alignment to UNICEFs global vision, however, remains a fully localized agenda driven by country office’s needs and supported by the regional office MHPSS Technical Working Group (TWG).
