Ghana’s President John Dramani Mahama has launched the Accra Reset, a landmark initiative calling for a new vision of global governance and development, on the sidelines of the 80th United Nations General Assembly in New York.
Under the theme “Accra Reset: Reimagining Global Governance for Health and Development,” President Mahama, who serves as the African Union Champion for African Financial Institutions, urged the world to adopt three bold shifts in mindset, focus, and reality to address rising inequality, fragile health systems, and unsustainable debt.
Addressing world leaders, diplomats, and multilateral actors, the President framed the Reset as an urgent response to the collapse of old development models and the inability of existing systems to protect the world’s most vulnerable.
“Without new governance, business and financing models for development, there can be no sustainable path for health, no resilience for economies, and no workable future for global solidarity”.
President John Dramani Mahama
The President’s remarks followed from the Africa Health Sovereignty Summit held weeks earlier in Accra, which brought together leaders such as former Nigerian President Olusegun Obasanjo, former Liberian President Ellen Johnson-Sirleaf, World Health Organization Director-General Dr. Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, African Union representatives, development finance institutions, business leaders, and civil society groups.
President Mahama expressed gratitude for the contributions at that summit, noting that it laid the foundation for what is now becoming a global agenda.
“As AU Champion for African financial institutions, I carry a mandate to help shape the future of our continent’s financial architecture. As the continent’s advocate for reparations, I am deeply aware of the failings of the world’s moral order. That responsibility is also why I am passionate about the Accra Reset.”
President John Dramani Mahama
A Crisis of Inequality
President Mahama argued that the global health crisis reflects a deeper crisis in the development system itself. The collapse of the legacy aid model, crippling debt in the Global South, and fragile supply chains, he said, are not isolated challenges but symptoms of an outdated global order. “From Accra, a message went out to the world: if we are to heal our health systems, we must first reset development itself,” he stated.
He acknowledged global progress since 1990—including a sharp decline in extreme poverty, increased life expectancy, and millions of lives saved through expanded access to vaccines, HIV treatment, and malaria prevention. Institutions such as the Global Fund and Gavi, he said, stand as proof of what global solidarity can achieve.
However, President Mahama warned that recent shocks have reversed decades of gains. COVID-19 erased 20 years of poverty reduction in less than two years, climate change has driven nearly 735 million people into chronic hunger, and African governments now spend more on debt servicing than on health or education. “That is not sovereignty; that is subjugation by economics,” he said.
Three Bold Shifts
The President outlined three essential shifts for the Reset. First, a mindset shift is needed, urging Africa and the wider Global South to embrace agency and sovereignty in shaping their own development. “We must stop outsourcing our dreams,” he said.
Second, a focus shift, moving beyond endless lists of goals and declarations toward actionable business models, coalitions, and platforms that deliver. “What matters now is action—policies, investments, and institutions that work,” President Mahama insisted.
Third, a reality shift, which requires accepting that contradictory interests are a permanent feature of today’s world. Instead of seeing these tensions as obstacles, he called for turning them into “fuel for pragmatic cooperation and mutual investment.”
President Mahama presented health as the starting point for the Reset, describing it as the most aid-dependent sector but also the best space to demonstrate sovereignty-led models. Ghana, he explained, has already passed the Ghana Medical Trust Fund Act, established a National Vaccine Institute with GHS 75 million in seed funding, and is preparing to roll out free primary health care.
At the continental level, he pointed to the Africa CDC and African Medicines Agency as evidence that Africa can pioneer sustainable, sovereignty-driven solutions.
More than $1 billion in “reset-compatible” pledges from African development finance institutions and private banks have already been secured, President Mahama revealed, with financing instruments such as the Health Investor Multiplier, Synergy Tools, and blended finance deal rooms set to operationalize investments. Platforms like Panerbios, Proxpa, and the AfCFTA Hub will further accelerate innovation and scale.
“But health is only the beginning. Africa is only our starting point. The reset looks beyond today’s crisis and identifies new pivots of growth—biodiversity, climate resilience, nutrition, and empowerment economies. These are trillion-dollar opportunities for inclusive prosperity.”
President John Dramani Mahama
Anchoring the Reset in Governance
To sustain the Reset, President Mahama announced the creation of a Presidential Council, composed of sitting and former heads of state from Africa, Asia, Latin America, and beyond, tasked with providing political leadership.
A high-level panel of experts from health, finance, innovation, and business will supply intellectual depth and evidence. “This is not a talking shop. The Presidential Council will be accountable, the Expert Panel measurable, and together they will ensure that commitments translate into results,” President Mahama assured.
With the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) far off-track, President Mahama stressed that the Reset must help shape a new post-2030 global agenda. “The question is not simply what new targets should replace the SDGs, but how we design institutions and financing systems that can actually deliver,” he argued.
The Reset, he said, should guide the world in confronting critical questions: how to govern in an era of permanent shocks, how to unlock trillions in climate finance without drowning countries in debt, and how to turn sovereignty into a multiplier of value rather than a barrier to cooperation.
A Global Movement Rooted in the South
President Mahama emphasized that while the Reset originated in Africa, it is global in reach. Leaders from Asia, Latin America, and the Caribbean, alongside Western partners, business leaders, and multilateral institutions, have already expressed support. “Their backing affirms that the reset is not only African in its origins, but global in its relevance,” he said.
He reminded the audience of the Monterrey Consensus of 2001, which sought to re-engineer development around partnerships and gave birth to institutions such as the Global Fund and Gavi. Just as Monterrey responded to the HIV/AIDS crisis, President Mahama said, today’s crises demand a new reset with health again at the forefront.
“The world again faces a choice: crisis or reset. Africa’s invitation is to co-create a new operating system for world progress.”
President John Dramani Mahama
In his closingremarks, President Mahama invoked the legacy of leaders such as the late Kofi Annan, former Secretary-General of the United Nations, and Olusegun Obasanjo, who mobilized the world during the HIV/AIDS crisis. He urged today’s generation to summon the same courage.
“History will ask whether this generation, in the face of crisis, rose to the occasion. Let this be a positive turning point where we rise as partners and take our destiny into our own hands for the present and future generations of the world.”
President John Dramani Mahama
President Mahama’s launch of the Accra Reset at the UN General Assembly signals a turning point in Africa’s push for sovereignty and fairness in global governance.
By urging a mindset, focus, and reality shift, and by backing words with concrete initiatives and over $1 billion in early commitments, Mahama framed the Reset not as another declaration but as a global movement rooted in action.
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