GIHD in action
From launching Pakistan's National Mental Health Policy to graduating the health workers who deliver care in their own communities.
Summit 2026 · Policy
Ministers, the Ministry of National Health Services, Regulations and Coordination and partners came together in Islamabad on 1–2 October to launch Pakistan's National Mental Health Policy 2026–35.
Explore the summitAnnual Day 2026 · Graduation
LHV and CMW graduates of IPHN&M-GIHD take their oath, many of them already serving in district health systems through the CM Punjab Community Health Inspector initiative.
Read the Annual Day storyOpen now
4 programmes are accepting applications. Each one lists who can apply and how.
Admissions open
Institute of Public Health Nursing & Midwifery
Registration open
For practising clinicians
Registration open
Embedded within the Diploma in Family Medicine
Open for enrolment
Be the support young people need
Find what you're looking for
Pick the description closest to you and we'll take you straight to the right part of the site.
Explore diplomas, certificate courses and professional training, with entry requirements and how to apply.
Explore open programmesFamily medicine, mental health for GPs, nursing and midwifery, and UHC leadership training.
Find professional trainingResearch areas, active and completed projects, research methods courses and the full publication record.
Explore researchPaid internships, free virtual training, and youth roles in mental health research and advocacy.
Find opportunitiesChild and adolescent wellbeing programmes, including the Child Anxiety Support Programme with the University of Oxford.
Explore wellbeing programmesAbout GIHD
The Global Institute of Human Development (GIHD) is a not-for-profit mental health and public health institute in Islamabad, Pakistan. We generate evidence, build capacity, influence policy, and deliver community-based mental health services to improve the wellbeing of children, young people, families, and communities.
GIHD brings together research, education, policy, and community-based services to strengthen mental health systems and improve health outcomes in Pakistan and beyond — conducting high-quality research, offering accredited education and training programmes, supporting policy and systems change, and providing mental health services in communities, schools, and workplaces.
Figures as published by GIHD.
Study at GIHD
Diplomas, certificate courses and professional training across nursing and midwifery, family medicine, mental health and research methods.
Admissions openLady Health Visitor (LHV) and Community Midwifery (CMW) are PNMC-recognised, NEBP-affiliated diplomas taught at the Mandra campus in Rawalpindi. This page carries the 2026 admissions round in full: eligibility, documents, financial aid, hostel and transport, and the application forms.
Registration openA one-year blended diploma for General Practitioners, aligned with the WHO Framework for Regional Diploma in Family Medicine and offered throughout Pakistan by Shifa Tameer-e-Millat University.
Registration openSystematic training for General Practitioners to identify and manage priority mental health problems in routine practice, and to conduct research under supervision. Supported by WHO and the Ministry of NHSR&C.
A certified training course that equips graduates with counselling skills to support the emotional wellbeing of young people, built on Early Adolescent Skills for Emotions (EASE).
A comprehensive six-month certificate course in conducting high-quality systematic reviews for healthcare interventions, taught through hands-on workshops, software training and group discussion.
Six 6-month professional certificate courses in public health and research methods, developed with international and national experts and delivered through blended learning with a practice site.
Research at GIHD
School and service-based adolescent mental health, child anxiety and early psychological intervention — including RISE, PREVENT and GLOW-CAT.
View projectsPredicting who is most at risk of depression and acting before it takes hold, with young people who have lived experience as co-designers.
View projectsCulturally relevant, validated assessment for Pakistan, and the national data infrastructure that planning and monitoring depend on.
View projectsTechnology-assisted cascade training and supervision, task-sharing, and building the non-specialist workforce that delivers care at scale.
View projectsImplementation science, cost and scalability — what it takes to move an intervention with proven efficacy into routine public services.
View projectsIntegrating mental health into Pakistan's climate adaptation, health and disaster-risk policy, and into population wellbeing more broadly.
View projects
A longitudinal study generating high-quality evidence on how individual and combined stressors contribute to the onset of depressive symptoms in young people, in Pakistan, Indonesia and Colombia.
Pakistan, Indonesia, Colombia
GIHD's stepped-care programme for youth mental health and wellbeing, with its own dedicated site.
Can technology make it possible to train and supervise more non-specialist school counsellors, without compromising the quality of care they provide? A randomised test of technology-assisted cascade training and supervision for EASE.
Pakistan
65 peer-reviewed publications, protocols and reports
Filter GIHD's full research record by year, research area and type.
Take part
Not every route into GIHD is a course. Paid internships, free virtual training, youth roles in live research, and programmes for parents, teachers and schools.
For young people, graduates
A fully paid, professionally structured internship for young people passionate about youth mental health — hands-on research, one-to-one mentorship, career counselling, transport and accommodation.
For graduates, young people
A one-month virtual programme built around Early Adolescent Skills for Emotions (EASE), the WHO–UNICEF endorsed psychosocial intervention for adolescent mental health in Pakistan.
For young people, researchers
Young people at GIHD are co-creators, leaders and changemakers — peer researchers, youth advisors, campaigners, storytellers and programme co-designers, with fair compensation and real decision-making power.
For parents, teachers & schools
An online support programme for children aged 5 to 12 with anxiety, being adapted for Pakistan. Parents, teachers and school counsellors are invited to help shape it.
Building Climate-Resilient and Future-Ready Mental Health Systems for Children, Young People and Communities
Where we are
GIHD works from a campus in DHA Phase 5, Islamabad, and a teaching campus at Mandra, Tehsil Gujar Khan, Rawalpindi.
GIHD's Islamabad base, and the home of its research teams, postgraduate training and the School of Universal Health Coverage.
Building 18, SVC Road C2/C4, Sector H, Phase 5, DHA Islamabad, Pakistan
The teaching campus of the Institute of Public Health Nursing & Midwifery (IPHN&M), with hostel accommodation, a clinical skills lab and a daily pick and drop service.
Near Rural Health Centre, Village Bucha, Mandra, Tehsil Gujar Khan, Rawalpindi, Pakistan
Recognition and collaboration
GIHD's research and training are delivered with government, UN agencies and academic institutions in Pakistan and internationally. Our nursing and midwifery programmes are recognised by the Pakistan Nursing and Midwifery Council and affiliated with the Nursing Examination Board Punjab.
World Health Organization
UNICEF
Ministry of National Health Services, Regulations & Coordination, Pakistan
Shifa Tameer-e-Millat University
Liverpool School of Tropical Medicine
Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health
The Global Health Network, University of Oxford
The George Washington University
Child Mind Institute
Children's National Hospital
Columbia–WHO Center for Global Mental Health
United for Global Mental Health
Being Initiative
Science for Africa FoundationNews
GIHD's Annual Day and Graduation Ceremony brought together government, district health systems, academia and development partners around a scalable model of policy–academia integration.
A regional mapping across eight South Asian countries, commissioned by UNICEF, profiling existing child and adolescent mental health systems and identifying priority gaps.
The 2025 theme — access to services in catastrophes and emergencies — and GIHD's commitment to making sure no one is left behind.
Get in touch
Call, email or WhatsApp us, or send an enquiry and say whether it's about a programme, research, an internship or a partnership. Office hours are Monday to Friday, 9 am to 5 pm.
Monday to Friday, 9 am to 5 pm
