Technical Assistance for the Assessment of mhGAP Implementation & Climate-Resilient Mental Health Systems in the Philippines

The World Health Organization (WHO) Philippines seeks a qualified institutional partner to provide technical assistance for two complementary workstreams: (1) an implementation gap analysis of the WHO Mental Health Gap Action Programme (mhGAP); and (2) a country-level assessment of mental health and climate change in the Philippines. Mental health conditions remain a major public health concern globally and in the Philippines. The Philippine National Survey on Mental Health and Well-being (NSMHW) 2021 found that approximately one in seven Filipino adults experienced at least one mental health problem during their lifetime. This highlights the continuing need to strengthen access to quality, integrated, and people-centred mental health services, while generating evidence to inform policies and programmes that respond to emerging and evolving mental health challenges. WHO Philippines continues to support the Department of Health (DOH) in strengthening mental health systems through evidence-informed policies, programmes, and service delivery. A key component of this effort is the implementation of the WHO Mental Health Gap Action Programme (mhGAP), which aims to integrate evidence-based mental health services into primary health care. Since its introduction in the Philippines in 2014, mhGAP has been widely adopted and integrated into national mental health initiatives. However, implementation varies across settings due to differences in workforce capacity, governance, availability of medicines, referral mechanisms, financing and monitoring systems. A systematic implementation gap analysis is therefore needed to assess the current status of mhGAP implementation, identify barriers and enabling factors, and generate actionable recommendations to strengthen its scale-up, institutionalization and sustainability within primary health care. At the same time, climate change is increasingly recognized as an important determinant of mental health. Climate-related hazards and