President John Dramani Mahama has announced that Ghana is on course to exit financial support from Gavi, the Vaccine Alliance, by 2030 as the country strengthens efforts toward self-reliance in healthcare financing and vaccine delivery.
Delivering the keynote address at the 79th World Health Assembly in Geneva, Switzerland, President Mahama said Ghana’s progress in healthcare financing and access to vaccines reflects the country’s commitment to health sovereignty and long-term reforms in the global health system.
“Ghana, I am also happy to report, is on track to exit Gavi funding for vaccines by the year 2030, and we hope to transition into a donor in the not-too-distant future,” he stated.
Gavi, the Vaccine Alliance, is a global public-private partnership that works to improve access to vaccines for children in lower-income countries. Since its establishment in 2000, the organisation has helped immunise more than 1.2 billion children and is credited with preventing over 20 million future deaths worldwide.
The alliance brings together donor governments, the World Health Organisation (WHO), UNICEF, the World Bank, vaccine manufacturers, civil society organisations and private sector partners to support immunisation programmes across developing countries.
Health Sovereignty Agenda
President Mahama said Ghana’s domestic healthcare progress forms the basis of what he described as the “Accra Reset Initiative” — a broader campaign aimed at reforming the global health system and strengthening healthcare delivery in developing countries.
“These domestic achievements are the foundation of my leadership of the Accra Reset Initiative,” he said.
He explained that the initiative seeks to promote health sovereignty by helping countries strengthen their ability to finance healthcare, regulate standards, produce essential medicines locally and manage their own health systems effectively.
The President noted that Africa continues to face significant vulnerabilities in healthcare delivery despite carrying a large share of the global disease burden.
“A continent that manufactures less than one per cent of its vaccines while carrying 25 per cent of the global disease burden is not sovereign,” he said. “It is vulnerable. It is, at best, a ward of the international system.”
However, he clarified that health sovereignty should not be interpreted as isolationism.
“By sovereignty, we do not mean isolationism,” he stated. “We are advocating the practical capacity of a nation to finance its own core functions, regulate its own quality, produce its own medicines and govern its own data.”
Call for Global Health Reforms
President Mahama also called for meaningful reforms to the global health architecture, expressing concern about efforts to preserve existing institutional structures instead of pursuing transformative change.
He welcomed ongoing discussions at the World Health Assembly on proposals to reform the international health system and noted Ghana’s role in co-chairing the Working Group for the Lusaka Agenda.
“As a committed apostle of reform of the world health architecture, I’m concerned about whispers I have heard that the current draft resolution seeks to protect existing organisational mandates and prohibits the recommendation of actual reforms,” he said.
Using a proverb from Mali’s Dogon people, he warned against reforms that fail to produce real results.
“In Mali, the Dogon people warn that: ‘Do not let the sight of those eating roasted maize force you to cook your maize seeds.’ If we launch a process of reform that is prohibited from recommending actual reform, we are merely performing a ritual,” he said.
The President stressed that global health institutions must prioritise human lives over bureaucratic interests.
“We cannot prioritise institutional comfort over human survival,” he stated. “The WHO’s legitimacy is not served by protecting silos. It is served by a fearless analysis of what works.”
Building a New Health Framework
President Mahama recalled hosting WHO Director-General Dr Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, former Nigerian President Olusegun Obasanjo and other global leaders in Accra in 2025 to advance discussions on health sovereignty and healthcare reform.
According to him, the Accra Reset Initiative is being implemented through three major pillars aimed at improving coordination and investment in healthcare systems.
The first pillar focuses on high-level reforms, while the second — known as the Reform Interlock Observatory — is intended to improve coordination among global health institutions such as WHO, Gavi and the Global Fund.
“It is a coherent mechanism to ensure that the strategies of the WHO, Gavi and the Global Fund do not clash on the desk of a district health officer in rural Africa. They must be in sync,” he explained.
The third pillar, known as the Health Investment National Gateway Enablers (HING), is designed to turn political commitments into practical investments in local pharmaceutical manufacturing and bio-innovation.
“This will serve as the operational engine that converts political will into bankable, executable investments in local manufacturing and bio-innovation,” President Mahama said.