A national strategy sets a shared direction for suicide prevention and provides the leadership and coordination needed to turn commitment into action. Yet these commitments are still far from universal. This review sets out where they exist and where they are still absent.
Produced as part of the Partnerships for Life Global Initiative, the review brings together national and subnational suicide prevention strategies, policies, plans, programmes and legislation identified around the world. It records 109 national documents across 63 countries, organised by WHO region.
For each country, current instruments are listed first, with any superseded documents noted beneath them. Where strategies exist at the level of a state, province, nation or region, these subnational instruments are set out too, giving a fuller picture of how suicide prevention is organised in federal systems and devolved administrations.
The review draws on government publications, official gazettes and, where necessary, established repositories and civil-society sources. It is intended as a practical reference for policymakers, researchers and advocates, and as a way of tracking progress over time, both how much has been achieved in recent years and how uneven that progress remains across regions and income levels.
A living document
This review is updated and published annually, and we rely on the suicide prevention community to help keep it accurate and complete. If you are aware of a newer, superseded or better-hosted version of any document, or of a strategy we have missed, we would welcome hearing from you.
Read the review
Get in touch: globalinitiative@iasp.info
