Mahama urges Global South to End Health Aid Dependency
President John Dramani Mahama has called on developing nations to break free from systemic foreign aid reliance.
He was speaking at a high-level side event on the Accra Reset, where he launched a report designed to reshape global health governance and foster self-reliance across the Global South.
He told the New York side event that the report compiled by a panel of the Accra Reset, ‘A Sovereign Future for Health ’, is a key milestone in the broader Accra Reset Agenda.
Addressing an audience of world leaders, President Mahama declared that while African nations secured political independence decades ago, global structural inequities continue to compromise their sovereignty.
“We won political independence; we raised our national flags and sang our anthems. Yet, the levers of global trade, finance, and health governance remained firmly anchored elsewhere,” Mahama said.
The report outlines a roadmap moving from policy design to immediate execution. It advocates for building domestic industrial capability, expanding local pharmaceutical manufacturing, and establishing state-guaranteed purchasing to secure medicine supply chains across Africa and Asia.
The president noted that Ghana’s domestic initiatives, focused on local value addition, healthcare investments, and a 24-hour economy, mirror the Accra Reset initiative’s core goals.
He reiterated, however, that the initiative is not an attempt to isolate the Global South from international partners, but a call for “pragmatic interdependence” built on equal terms.
“Stronger, self-reliant Southern partners are not a threat to the Global North,” Mahama stated. “On the contrary, resilient health systems in Africa and Asia make the entire world safer for all of us.”
Rejecting traditional aid models that offer limited local oversight, President Mahama articulated a new doctrine for future development: “No ownership without control, and no control without absolute accountability.”
Looking ahead, the Ghanaian leader said Ghana will push the transformative agenda of the Accra Reset to the forefront of continental policy when he assumes the Chairmanship of the African Union (AU) in 2027.
The launch attracted prominent international figures, including former UK Prime Minister Gordon Brown, former Nigerian President Olusegun Obasanjo, Prime Minister of Barbados Mia Mottley, UN Under-Secretary-General Amina Mohammed, President William Ruto of Kenya, billionaire Aliko Dangote, among others.
Commending the initiative, Gordon Brown singled out Presidents Mahama and Obasanjo for their leadership on the Accra Reset Agenda, expressing confidence that the report will catalyse long-overdue improvements in health outcomes across the African continent.
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