At a high-level side event during the 80th Session of the United Nations General Assembly, President John Dramani Mahama, the African Union Champion for African Financial Institutions, led heads of state, multilateral leaders, and private sector partners in launching the Accra Reset.
The Accra Reset is a bold framework for re-engineering global development institutions, financing, and partnerships as the Sustainable Development Goals era nears its close.
Opening the event, President Mahama stated that the current development architecture is fraying. COVID-19 has erased two decades of progress in less than two years, extreme climate shocks now threaten nearly 735 million people with hunger, and many developing countries spend more servicing debt than on health and education.
With fewer than half of the 169 SDG targets on track, Mahama argued that “development‑as‑usual” must end.
“The world is only five years from 2030,” President Mahama said. “The question is not simply what new targets should replace the SDGs, but how we design institutions and financing systems that actually work. ‘Workability’ is the name of the game now—innovative financing instruments, new business models and smarter coalitions that multiply resources rather than ration them.”
The Accra Reset, led by President Mahama and his co-convenor, former Nigerian President Olusegun Obasanjo, proposes a new architecture anchored in sovereignty, workability and shared value.
Health will serve as an entry point and proof of concept, transitioning from aid dependency to health sovereignty, building on commitments made at the Africa Health Sovereignty Summit in Accra in August 2025. A Club of Accra coalition will initiate work to pilot financing innovations and “geostrategic dealrooms” for investment in health, climate, food security, and job creation.
The launch also saw the unveiling of the Global Presidential Council, which will unite a coalition of Heads of State and Government from Africa, Asia, Latin America, and beyond to provide political leadership and accountability. A Global College of Advisors, comprising eminent experts from health, finance, innovation, and business, will also be assembled to design and oversee pilots and financing mechanisms.
Supporters at the launch included political and institutional leaders who affirmed their support for the Accra Reset.
– Olusegun Obasanjo, Co‑Patron of AfroChampions: urged solidarity “fit for the new era” and a move away from aid dependency.
– Gordon Brown: called the Reset “a plan for the future” and endorsed building health sovereignty.
– President William Ruto (speech read on his behalf): emphasised financing national ambition and holding the Global Presidential Council accountable for progress toward universal health coverage.
– Prime Minister Mia Mottley: committed to practical alignment on skills and industrial policy to make pharmaceutical manufacturing viable.
– Aigboje Aig‑Imoukhuede, Chairman of Access Bank: pledged significant private‑sector leadership and financing.
– Dr Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus and Dr Ngozi Okonjo‑Iweala conveyed institutional support for “rewiring” global norms.
Concluding the launch, President Mahama recalled the Monterrey Consensus of 2001, which helped create GAVI and the Global Fund, and said the world now needs “a new vision of multilateralism” that moves from wish lists to engines of sustainable value creation