Children’s and Adolescent’s Mental health in Somaliland, CHAMPS: a collaboration between Somaliland and Sweden in building partnership and capacity

This project stems from the newly launched Mental Health Policy in Somaliland.

The originality of the project lies in its design and co-creation of research questions that are crucial for tackling global mental health and sustainable development issues.

The initiative, involving academia in Sweden and Somaliland as well as stakeholders in Somaliland, aims to investigate the prevalence and burden of mental health problems among children and adolescents in Somaliland.

The research agenda aims to contribute scientific knowledge and pave the way for the future design and testing of innovative intervention models and policies based on human rights in line with the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child.

The collaboration will be built on an equitable partnership basis to facilitate co-creation, communication, commitment, and continuous review based on fairness, respect, care, honesty and transparency. A core group of researchers will be jointly responsible for the activities in the collaboration plan.

The project, starting in January 2022, will run for two years, during which the following activities are planned: promoting a dialogue with the Somaliland health authorities and key UN health agencies to better understand existing practices and magnitude of mental health.

The project will contribute to scientific evidence to design tailored mental health interventions, implementation strategies and policy recommendations.