President John Dramani Mahama has called for a fundamental shift in global health financing, urging countries in the Global South to take greater control of the resources, policies and priorities that shape their health systems.
He said the era in which developing countries depended heavily on foreign donors to determine their health priorities must end, arguing that sustainable healthcare systems require greater domestic ownership and control.
President Mahama made the remarks in New York during the launch of the High-Level Panel Report of the Accra Reset: A Sovereign Future for Health, held on the sidelines of the 81st United Nations General Assembly.
He said the Accra Reset had challenged the longstanding dependence of developing countries on external donor support for critical health programmes.
“A year ago through the Accra Reset, we rejected the idea that the health, dignity, and future of our people should remain perpetually tied to foreign donor magnanimity,” he said.
The President argued that countries could not claim full ownership of their health programmes while foreign donors continued to exercise significant influence over funding, priorities and major policy decisions.
He called for increased domestic capacity to finance health systems, produce essential medicines and other health commodities, and make policy decisions based on national priorities.
According to President Mahama, greater control by Global South countries would help build health systems that are more sustainable, resilient and responsive to the needs of their populations.
Call for a new global partnership
The High-Level Panel report proposes what it describes as a New Global Bargain for health, based on stronger national ownership and greater control over resources and production capabilities.
The framework also calls for international cooperation centred on human dignity and more mature and equal partnerships between developing countries and their global allies.
President Mahama stressed that greater domestic ownership must also be accompanied by accountability.
He said governments in the Global South must ensure that public resources allocated to healthcare are effectively used to serve citizens.
The report therefore places emphasis on “absolute domestic accountability” to ensure that public resources reach the people for whom they are intended.
The President’s call comes amid continuing debates over the sustainability of donor-dependent health financing models and the need for developing countries to strengthen domestic health financing, local production and decision-making capacity.
He said the proposed approach was intended to create a more balanced global health system in which countries in the Global South have a stronger voice and greater control over decisions affecting the health and wellbeing of their populations.
