By Hajara Fuseini

Copyright opemsuo

President John Dramani Mahama has launched the Accra Reset, a bold framework for re-engineering global development institutions, financing, and partnerships as the Sustainable Development Goals era draws to a close.

At a high-level side event during the 80th Session of the United Nations General Assembly, Mahama and the African Union Champion for African Financial Institutions led heads of state, multilateral leaders, and private sector partners in unveiling the initiative.

Opening the event, President Mahama stated that the current development architecture is fraying as he reflected on how COVID-19 had erased two decades of progress in less than two years, with extreme climate shocks now threatening nearly 735 million people with hunger, as many developing countries spend more servicing debt than on health and education.

With fewer than half of the 169 SDG targets on track, Mahama argued that “development-as-usual” must end.

“The world is only five years from 2030,” President Mahama said.

“The question is not simply what new targets should replace the SDGs, but how we design institutions and financing systems that actually work. ‘Workability’ is the name of the game now-innovative financing instruments, new business models and smarter coalitions that multiply resources rather than ration them.”

The Accra Reset, led by President Mahama and his co-convenor, former Nigerian President Olusegun Obasanjo, proposes a new architecture anchored in sovereignty, workability and shared value.

Health will serve as an entry point and proof of concept, transitioning from aid dependency to health sovereignty, building on commitments made at the Africa Health Sovereignty Summit in Accra in August 2025. A Club of Accra coalition will initiate work to pilot financing innovations and “geostrategic dealrooms” for investment in health, climate, food security, and job creation.

The launch also saw the unveiling of the Global Presidential Council, which will unite a coalition of Heads of State and Government from Africa, Asia, Latin America, and beyond to provide political leadership and accountability.

A Global College of Advisors, comprising eminent experts from health, finance, innovation, and business, will also be assembled to design and oversee pilots and financing mechanisms.

Concluding the launch, President Mahama recalled the Monterey Consensus of 2001, which helped create GAVI and the Global Fund, and said the world now needs “a new vision of multilateralism” that moves from wish lists to engines of sustainable value creation.

Story by Hajara Fuseini