EVENT
Connecting mental health and peacebuilding across the conflict cycle
Learning from lived experience
Join our World Mental Health Day event to explore how conflict experiences can deepen our understanding of mental health, psychosocial wellbeing and peacebuilding.
The human cost of armed conflict extends far beyond injury, death and destruction. Insecurity, repeated exposure to violence and displacement can profoundly affect mental health and psychosocial wellbeing. The World Health Organisation estimates that around one in five people affected by war or conflict lives with a mental health condition.
The psychosocial impacts of armed conflict do not only affect individuals but also peace: mental health and psychosocial wellbeing influence people’s ability to cope, make decisions, build relationships and engage in collective action. At the same time, the social connections, sense of belonging, agency and economic opportunities that peacebuilding seeks to restore can be vital foundations for psychological recovery. Yet mental health and psychosocial support (MHPSS) and peacebuilding are still too often treated as separate fields.
To mark this year’s World Mental Health Day, we will explore what lived experience can teach us about how mental health and psychosocial wellbeing can contribute to peace, and how peacebuilding can, in turn, play a role in psychosocial recovery at different stages of the conflict cycle.
The event will bring together peacebuilders and mental health professionals with direct, first-hand experience of conflict and its aftermath. Drawing on experiences from Somalia, Rwanda, the northeastern governorates of Syria and Yemen, the discussion will examine how MHPSS and peacebuilding can reinforce one another – from peacemaking and conflict transformation to recovery, reintegration and the prevention of renewed violence – and how lived experience can inform programmes, policies and institutions.
Connecting mental health and peacebuilding across the conflict cycle
8 October 2026
17:30 - 19:00 CEST
Online event via Zoom.
This event will be held in English.
Welcome remarks by Nomfundo Mogapi, Clinical Psychologist, CEO, Centre for Mental Wellness and Leadership
Speakers:
- Frank Kayitare, Country Representative, Interpeace, Rwanda
- Jeyana Ahmed, Programme Manager, Salam for Hope Foundation
- Dr Linda Hoxha, Project Manager, Senior Monitoring and Evaluation Officer, Kosovo Civil Society Foundation
- Mohammed Ali, Peacebuilding Researcher and Project Manager, Resonate Yemen
- Mohamud Hasan Abdi, Project Manager, Sub-Saharan Africa Unit, Berghof Foundation, Somalia Office
- Nika Saeedi, Global Lead on Mental Health and Psychosocial Support, Crisis Bureau, UNDP
- Rowda Olad, Executive Director, Maandeeq Mental Health and Peace Institute
Moderated by Stefanie Gaumert, Advisor MHPSS and Peace, Berghof Foundation.
The event is co-organised by the Berghof Foundation, the Global Community Engagement and Resilience Fund, Interpeace, Maandeeq Mental Health and Peace Institute and the United Nations Development Programme.
Please note that the event will be recorded using the cloud-based recording tool within the Zoom.us platform (using cloud servers based in the U.S.), to be published on the Berghof Foundation’s website and social media channels for external communications purposes. You can find the Berghof Foundation’s data protection notice here. If you have questions, please feel free to contact the Berghof Foundation's Data Protection Officer (data.protection@berghof-foundation.org).
Media contact
You can reach the press team at:
+49 (0) 177 7052758
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