President Mahama unveils “Accra Reset” at UN General Assembly, proposing revolutionary approach to global development

Delivering a stirring address at the United Nations General Assembly, Ghana’s President John Dramani Mahama called for a fundamental transformation of global development, unveiling the ambitious “Accra Reset” initiative that reimagines how the world tackles its most pressing challenges.

Speaking to world leaders and development partners, President Mahama declared that “the world needs a reset, a re-engineering of the very logic of development itself.” The initiative, born from the recent Africa Health Sovereignty Summit in Accra, proposes moving beyond traditional aid dependency toward sovereignty-led development models.

President Mahama painted a stark picture of current global realities while positioning them as unprecedented opportunities. “The covid 19 pandemic erased two decades of poverty reduction in less than two years, climate change has driven nearly 735 million people back into chronic hunger,” he noted, before pivoting to the transformative potential ahead.

The President emphasized that “developing countries now spend more on servicing external debt than they do on health care and education combined,” with Africa’s external debt stock alone exceeding $1 trillion in 2023. However, rather than viewing this as insurmountable, the Accra Reset frames these challenges as catalysts for innovation.

“The reset looks beyond today’s crisis and identified new pivots of growth, biodiversity, climate, resilience, nutrition and empowerment, economies. These are not only moral imperatives, but trillion dollar opportunities for inclusive climate positive prosperity,” President Mahama declared

The Accra Reset is anchored on what President Mahama described as “three fundamental shifts.” First, “a mindset shift… recognizing that we live in an era of unpredictability.” Second, “a focus shift, moving from beyond crafting new list of global goals to building executable business models.” Third, “a reality shift, accepting that diverse, even contradictory interest are now a permanent feature of our system.”

This approach represents a departure from traditional development thinking. “This new model demands resource multiplication and not rationing. 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,” the President explained.

The economic implications are staggering. President Mahama cited IMF estimates that “emerging markets and developing economies will require $2.5 trillion annually in climate finance by 2030.” Rather than viewing this as an impossible burden, the Accra Reset positions it as unprecedented investment opportunity.

The initiative has already gained significant traction, with “more than $1 billion in reset compatible edges from African development finance, institutions and private banks” already aligned with the new approach through innovative “pooled pledged and deal rooms arrangements.”

Central to the initiative is the proposed formation of “a Presidential Council comprising heads of state and government from Africa, Asia, Latin America and beyond which will provide political leadership to this movement.” This will be supported by “a high level panel drawing from health, finance, innovation and business” to provide intellectual depth.

President Mahama emphasized that “the reset is not only African in its origins, but global in its reach and its relevance.” He added, “it is indeed right that the global south should take the lead. For it is in our countries that the collapse of the old world model will be felt most acutely, and it is from our innovations that the world can find new answers and solutions.”

The initiative uses health as its initial testing ground, building on lessons from successful models like the Global Fund and GAVI. “Health, long the most aid dependent sector is our proof of concept,” President Mahama explained, noting that through innovative frameworks and platforms, they are “pioneering models that move from dependency to sovereignty.”

The President concluded with a powerful call to action: “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.”

Looking Ahead:

As the world approaches 2030 with many Sustainable Development Goals off-track, the Accra Reset offers a bold alternative to traditional development approaches. Rather than simply setting new targets, it proposes building “institutions and financing systems that can actually deliver.”

The initiative represents what President Mahama called “a next phase of global development” – one that transforms systemic challenges into collaborative platforms for shared prosperity, positioning the Global South not as aid recipients but as innovation leaders in creating sustainable solutions for worldwide challenges.

The Accra Reset initiative will continue to be developed through sector strategy labs and geo-strategic deal rooms, with health serving as the initial pilot before expanding to climate resilience, nutrition, and economic empowerment sectors.