UNGA80: Mahama launches ‘Accra Reset’ in New York to reimagine global governance for health and development

President John Dramani Mahama, the African Union
Champion for African Financial Institutions,has
launched The Accra Reset:Reimagining Global
Governance for Health and Development in New
York,on the sidelines of the 80th United Nations
General Assembly(UNGA80)

The initiative, unveiled at a landmark high-level
event he hosted,proposes a bold and actionable
framework to transform global governance,
ensuring it is responsive to today's challenges in a
post-SDG era.

Delivering the keynote, President Mahama said his
mandate as AU Champion for African Financial
Institutions places him at the heart of reshaping
Africa's financial future.He added that his advocacy
for reparations had also deepened his resolve to
champion the Reset

“As a continent’s advocate for reparations, I’m also deeply aware of the failings of the world’s moral order. That responsibility is also why I’m passionate about the Accra Reset,” he said.

He stressed that without new governance, business, and financing models, the world cannot achieve sustainable health systems, resilient economies, or lasting global solidarity.

According to him, the consensus from the Accra Summit was clear: “The health crisis we face is not only a crisis of disease, vaccines, and hospitals, but also a crisis of social and economic inequality. It is a symptom of a deeper malaise in the global development architecture itself.”

The President pointed to collapsing aid systems,
crushing debt in the global south,and fractured
supply chains as evidence that the current logic of
global development was no longer fit for purpose.
“From Accra,a message went out to the world. If we
are to heal our health systems,we must first reset
development itself,”he declared.

Highlighting progress over the past three decades,
President Mahama noted that extreme poverty had
fallen from 36 percent in 1990 to eight percent by
2019,global life expectancy had risen by nearly a
decade,and maternal mortality had declined by a
third.Expanded access to vaccines, HIV treatment,
and malaria prevention had also saved more than
50 million lives.

Institutions such as the Global Fund and Gavi, he
said,were proof of what global solidarity can
achieve.Yet, he warned, cracks in the system are
widening.COVID-19 erased two decades of poverty
reduction in just two years,while climate change
has pushed 735 million people into chronic hunger.

The Accra Reset is anchored on three shifts: a
mindset shift that embraces global unpredictability,
a focus shift from drafting new goals to building
executable business models,and a reality shift that
accepts conflicting interests as inevitable but
necessary drivers of cooperation.

“This new model demands resource multiplication,
not rationing,”President Mahama said. “Instead of
limiting resilience,let us multiply it. Instead of
setting new spending targets,let us measure the
additional value that health,climate resilience, and
food security can contribute to the global
economy.”

He proposed the creation of a new global coalition — a partnership of the willing — beginning with a presidential council of leaders from Africa, Asia, Latin America and beyond, to provide political leadership. A high-level panel of experts from health, finance, innovation, and business would also give intellectual depth to the Reset.

Together, he said, this coalition would help the world rethink development itself and provide a pathway for pragmatic cooperation and mutual investment.