Mahama Tells Developing Countries: We Must Break Away From Foreign Aid

President John Dramani Mahama has called on developing countries to break free from systemic reliance on foreign aid, saying greater self-reliance is necessary to strengthen the sovereignty of nations in the Global South.

He made the call at a high-level side event on the Accra Reset in New York, where he launched a report aimed at reshaping global health governance and promoting self-reliance across the Global South.

The report, A Sovereign Future for Health, was compiled by a panel of the Accra Reset and, according to President Mahama, represents a key milestone in the broader Accra Reset Agenda.

Addressing an audience of world leaders, President Mahama said although African countries had attained political independence decades ago, structural inequalities within the global system continued to affect 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,” he said.

The report sets out a roadmap for moving from policy design to immediate execution, with a focus on building domestic industrial capacity, expanding local pharmaceutical manufacturing and establishing state-guaranteed purchasing arrangements to strengthen medicine supply chains across Africa and Asia.

President Mahama said Ghana’s domestic initiatives, including efforts towards local value addition, healthcare investments and the 24-hour economy, reflected the core objectives of the Accra Reset initiative.

He stressed, however, that the initiative was not intended to isolate the Global South from international partners, but rather to promote what he described as “pragmatic interdependence” based on equal terms.

“Stronger, self-reliant Southern partners are not a threat to the Global North,” President Mahama said. “On the contrary, resilient health systems in Africa and Asia make the entire world safer for all of us.”

Rejecting traditional aid models that provide limited local oversight, the President outlined what he described as a new doctrine for future development.“No ownership without control, and no control without absolute accountability,” he stated.

Looking ahead, President Mahama said Ghana would seek to push the transformative agenda of the Accra Reset to the forefront of continental policy when the country assumes the Chairmanship of the African Union in 2027.

The launch attracted prominent international figures, including former  Nigerian President Olusegun Obasanjo, Prime Minister of Barbados Mia Mottley, UN Under-Secretary-General Amina Mohammed, President William Ruto of Kenya and billionaire Aliko Dangote, among others.

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