1  UNDERSTANDING THE CONTEXT
The Secretary‐General of the Organisation for Economic Co‐operation and Development (OECD), Angel Gurría, writes “pandemic brings with it the third and greatest economic, financial and social shock of the 21st Century, after 9/11 and the Global Financial Crisis of 2008 (Gurría, 2020).” The United Nation's Development Program (UNDP) predicts a disproportionate impact of the economic crisis in the low and middle income countries with little access to social protection. Not surprisingly, the national governments of these affected countries first would try to ensure basic food security and nutrition. With the existing poor infrastructure and limited healthcare capacity, the available health budget is likely to be siphoned for upgrading clinical care and research in COVID‐19 (Walker et al., 2020). Non‐COVID‐19 healthcare and research is starting to be hit hard. Besides, there is evidence to suggest governments take austerity measures (reducing public expenditure) to deal with financial crises and, under such circumstances, healthcare and healthcare research are one of the worst affected areas (Simou & Koutsogeorgou, 2014). Among the healthcare areas, mental healthcare and research get a very low priority. According to the WHO Mental Health Atlas (2018), the national governments of the African, South‐East Asia and Manuscript File Western Pacific regions estimated to spend US$0.1‐1.1 per capita in mental health: this was 0.3% of the total development assistance for health. COVID‐19 related economic crisis and health budget cut could tighten the purse string further for mental health.