Ghana to Take Accra Reset Agenda into AU Policy Framework in 2027 – Mahama

President John Dramani Mahama has said Ghana will use its upcoming chairmanship of the African Union (AU) to advance the Accra Reset agenda within wider continental policy discussions.

Ghana is scheduled to assume the chair of the African Union in January 2027, providing an opportunity for the country to place issues around health sovereignty, self-reliance and reforms in global development cooperation higher on the continental agenda.

Speaking at the “Full Circle: Making Global Development Work Again” side event of the 81st United Nations General Assembly in New York, President Mahama said Ghana would carry the principles of the Accra Reset into Africa’s collective policy framework.

“As Ghana prepares to assume the chair of the African Union next year in January 2027, I assure you we will carry this Accra Reset agenda into the heart of Africa’s collective policy framework,” he said.

President Mahama said Ghana would work closely with the Non-Aligned Movement and the G77 Plus in pursuing the initiative and promoting reforms that give developing countries greater capacity to shape their own development priorities.

The Accra Reset was launched in New York a year ago as a platform for addressing challenges facing the Global South, including geopolitical vulnerability, geostrategic marginalisation and dependence on external development financing.

According to President Mahama, the initiative seeks to promote stronger domestic productive capacity, financial resilience and greater control over critical sectors, while maintaining international cooperation based on equality.

He said the agenda was not intended to encourage countries to isolate themselves from the global system, but rather to build what he described as “pragmatic interdependence”—partnerships in which countries engage each other as equals.

“Stronger, self-reliant southern partners are not a threat to the global North. On the contrary, resilient health systems in Africa, Asia, and South America make the entire world safer for all of us,” he said.

The President said health had been chosen as an initial area for the Accra Reset because of its importance to human development and the vulnerability of health systems to external shocks and financing pressures.

He said the recently launched A Sovereign Future for Health report, which contains 10 recommendations for reforming global health governance, would provide a framework for advancing the initiative.

President Mahama also linked the Accra Reset to Ghana’s domestic Resetting Ghana Agenda, which focuses on strengthening fiscal management, governance, industrial capacity, local value addition and public health systems.

He argued that continental and global reforms must be matched by stronger domestic accountability.

“There can be no ownership without control,” he said, while adding that greater control must also be accompanied by accountability to citizens.

As Ghana prepares to take up the AU chairmanship, the President said the country would seek to move the Accra Reset from international discussions into practical continental action, with a focus on building stronger and more resilient systems across Africa.