President John Dramani Mahama has announced plans to move the Accra Reset initiative from policy development to implementation, with Ghana set to work with governments, global health organisations and private-sector partners to establish country-level health agreements.
The move follows the launch of the Accra Reset Presidential Council’s report, A Sovereign Future for Health, which contains 10 recommendations aimed at strengthening countries’ capacity to build resilient and self-reliant health systems.
President Mahama launched the report on the sidelines of the 81st United Nations General Assembly in New York, declaring that the initiative had reached the stage where its recommendations must be translated into practical action.
“We are now moving from design to execution,” he said, warning against allowing ambitious proposals to lose momentum after their initial launch.
President Mahama said Ghana and the Accra Reset Presidential Council would, in the coming months, convene governments, global health institutions, development finance institutions, philanthropic organisations and businesses to develop country-level compacts based on the report’s recommendations.
He said the initiative would seek partnerships with institutions in Africa and other parts of the Global South to establish sustainable networks covering research, regulatory oversight, local manufacturing and distribution of health products.
“We want to build self-sustaining networks that connect research, regulatory oversight, local manufacturing, and reliable distribution,” he said.
The President said the proposed health architecture was not intended to promote isolationism but to create a more balanced form of international cooperation in which countries could strengthen their domestic capacity while maintaining strategic partnerships.
He argued that stronger health systems in Africa and Asia would benefit the entire international community by making countries more resilient to health emergencies.
President Mahama said health had been selected as the first area of focus for the global reset because it was central to human wellbeing, with maternal and child health serving as an immediate test of the proposed reforms.
He cited global statistics indicating that nearly seven out of 10 maternal deaths occurred in Sub-Saharan Africa and said Ghana’s maternal mortality rate remained about three times above the recommended Sustainable Development Goal target.
“This is unacceptable,” he said.
He said initiatives such as the Mother Africa initiative, championed by Tanzanian President Samia Suluhu Hassan, and the Business United for Mothers, Babies and Youth (BUMBY) campaign would help connect public policy with private-sector responsibility in addressing maternal and child health challenges.
According to President Mahama, the initiatives would also provide an opportunity to test the proposed financing and governance arrangements and assess their impact through measurable outcomes.
He expressed appreciation to members of the Accra Reset Presidential Council, including former Nigerian President Olusegun Obasanjo, former Liberian President Ellen Johnson Sirleaf and former Costa Rican President Laura Chinchilla, for their work.
He also thanked former British Prime Minister Gordon Brown for taking on the task of mobilising international political support for the proposed global health bargain.
President Mahama said the implementation of structural reforms should not be postponed until global geopolitical tensions had eased.
“I respectfully disagree. Crisis is precisely when new paradigms are forged,” he said.
He further expressed appreciation to the Director-General of the World Health Organisation (WHO), Dr Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, for supporting efforts to advance global health reform.
President Mahama said Ghana’s planned assumption of the African Union Chairmanship in 2027 would provide an opportunity to place the Reset Agenda within Africa’s broader policy framework.
He said Ghana would work with the Non-Aligned Movement and the G77 plus China to advance cooperation around the initiative.
