About Us

Advocating for Dignity & Inclusion

PANPPD is a continental organisation dedicated to advocating for the rights, dignity, and inclusion of persons with psychosocial disabilities across Africa. We unite organisations and stakeholders to address stigma, discrimination, and marginalisation.

Our work spans advocacy, capacity building, policy development, and systemic change initiatives that strengthen governance and institutional frameworks across African nations.

Nothing About Us Without Us
Our guiding principle ensuring persons with psychosocial disabilities lead our advocacy efforts.

50+
Partner Organisations
20+
African Countries
1M+
Lives Impacted

Stock photograph of a community gathering with people engaged in discussion. This is not a PANPPD event. — Photograph from Unsplash, used under the Unsplash License. Not a PANPPD photograph.

The sections below repeat published descriptions of the network. They are not a new statement issued by PANPPD for this website.

How the network began

Published accounts say the network was established in 2005 in Kampala, Uganda, as the Pan African Network of Users and Survivors of Psychiatry (PANUSP). A journal record of the Cape Town Declaration describes it as a collective voice to promote and protect the rights and dignity of people with psychosocial disabilities on the African continent. That record says the second congress was held in Cape Town in 2011, and that the declaration was issued there. The Union of International Associations lists the same founding year and place for the Pan African Network of People with Psychosocial Disabilities.

Stock photograph of people gathered outdoors in a community setting in Africa. This is not a PANPPD meeting. — Photograph from Unsplash, used under the Unsplash License. Not a PANPPD photograph.

Purpose in public profiles

The African Disability Forum profile, and an earlier public statement of the network’s objectives, describe the Registered Trustees of the Pan African Network of People with Psychosocial Disabilities as a continental organisation. Those texts say it was established to represent the legitimate voice of people living with psychosocial disabilities in Africa, and to increase continental solidarity among organisations that promote and protect their rights.

Stock photograph of a group of women in a community setting in Africa. This is not a PANPPD photograph. — Photograph from Unsplash, used under the Unsplash License. Not a PANPPD photograph.

Objectives in those profiles

The same public texts set out these objectives:

To ensure that member organisations work towards improving the quality of life of people with psychosocial disabilities in Africa so that they may reclaim their dignity and achieve equal rights and opportunities.
To function as an advocacy mechanism that is dedicated to social justice, human rights, empowerment, social development and full participation and inclusion of all people with psychosocial disabilities in Africa.
To promote the establishment of national organisations and to support and promote their work and that of existing member organisations.
To network and build relationships with other civil society organisations, intergovernmental organisations, regional bodies, governments and other relevant institutions and individuals to further its mission.
To be an African forum and network for the exchange of knowledge, raising awareness and the promotion of research regarding psychosocial disability.

From the Cape Town Declaration, 16 October 2011

We are people first! We have potentials, abilities, talents and each of us can make a great contribution to the world. No one can speak for us. We want to speak for ourselves.

Short excerpt from the Cape Town Declaration of the Pan African Network of People with Psychosocial Disabilities, then called PANUSP. It was published in Disability and the Global South in 2014 under a Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 licence.

Stock photograph of people engaged in community discussion. This person is not a PANPPD representative. — Photograph from Unsplash, used under the Unsplash License. Not a PANPPD photograph.

What a public directory records

The Union of International Associations Open Yearbook says the network aims to represent people living with psychosocial disabilities in Africa and to increase continental solidarity among organisations that promote and protect their rights. That directory lists links with the African Commission on Human and Peoples’ Rights, the African Union, the Committee on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities, the United Nations, and the World Health Organization, and it lists membership of the Africa Disability Alliance. This page treats that entry as a directory record, not as a current partnership announcement from PANPPD.