President John Dramani Mahama has called for a new global development bargain that gives countries greater control over their health and development priorities while imposing stronger accountability on national governments and international partners.
Speaking at the Accra Reset gathering on the sidelines of the 81st UN General Assembly (UNGA 81) in New York, Mahama launched a report titled “A Sovereign Future for Health,” which contains 10 recommendations for reforming global health governance and financing.
He said countries in the Global South cannot achieve genuine ownership of development programmes without control over the decisions and resources that shape them.
“Today, through the Accra Reset, we declare unequivocally that there can be no ownership without control,” Mahama said.
The president, however, warned that transferring authority from international institutions to national governments would not automatically deliver sovereignty without domestic accountability.
“The same principle applies across the whole global south. No ownership without control, yes, but no control without absolute accountability to our people,” he said.
According to the president, Ghana would work with the Presidential Council to convene governments, global health institutions, development finance institutions, philanthropies and private-sector organisations to translate the report’s recommendations into country-level compacts.
The proposed partnerships will include institutions from Brazil, India, Indonesia, the Gulf region and Africa, with a focus on research, regulation, local manufacturing and distribution.
The president said Ghana would also introduce the Accra Reset agenda into the African Union’s policy framework when it assumes the chair of the continental body in January 2027.
“We’ve come full circle, but let us not go around in circles,” Mahama said. “Let this new global bargain begin today,” he added.
