Ananda Galappatti

Ananda Galappatti is a medical anthropologist and a practitioner in the field of mental health and psychosocial support (MHPSS) across humanitarian crisis, development and post-conflict settings. Ananda received a Ramon Magsaysay Award in 2008 for his work in Sri Lanka, and was elected to the Ashoka Fellowship in 2011.

Ananda is co-Director of MHPSS.net, a global online platform hosted by the Institute for Health Policy, Sri Lanka. He is also Director of Strategy at The Good Practice Group, a social business working to strengthen communities and services in Sri Lanka and beyond. Ananda has been engaged in postgraduate training of practitioners through the University of Colombo for two decades, and is currently a member of the Lancet Commission on Racism & Child Heath.

Since 1996, Ananda's work has been concerned with strengthening the support available to vulnerable groups and populations in low-resourced and adverse settings, both by direct intervention as well as through improving access to knowledge and skills, building collaborative networks and enhancing coherence within the field.

In Sri Lanka, Ananda has worked with international, state, civil society and community groups to develop and integrate MHPSS approaches across diverse sectors such as health, social services, livelihoods, education, justice and peacebuilding.

To connect LMIC practitioners’ field experiences to global debates, knowledge production and policy processes, Ananda co-founded the journal Intervention in 2003 and the global network MHPSS.net in 2008. His recent work focusses around how the field of MHPSS can respond to the decolonisation and localisation movements in humanitarian aid and global health.

Below are some interviews, podcasts and presentations about Ananda’s work:

• Presentation on 'Transforming power dynamics in MHPSS localisation' panel, 10 October 2024 (WMHD), Geneva.
• IFRC podcast interview on Sri Lanka's response to the 2004 Indian Ocean Tsunami, and implications for the field of MHPSS, 2024.
• Interview on Global Health Lives podcast, 2022.
• Interview on “Recovery after Conflict, Disaster, and the Pandemic” with Ramon Magsaysay Award Foundation, 2022.
• Presentation on the field of MHPSS in Sri Lanka for practitioners in Pakistan, 2021.
• Panel on ‘MHPSS: Global Challenges and Ways Forward’, World Humanitarian Forum, 2021.
• Early career interview, Sasakawa Peace Foundation, 2009, Part 1, Part 2 and Part 3.