Ghana’s Minister of Health, Kwabena Mintah Akandoh, has called for a new approach to global health governance, insisting that countries must take the lead in shaping their own healthcare policies and priorities.
Speaking at the World Health Summit in Berlin, Germany, Mr. Akandoh said global health must be driven by country ownership rather than external control.
“Global health must not be designed for countries. It must be designed with countries and led by countries,” he stated.
The minister linked Ghana’s position to President John Dramani Mahama’s Accra Reset initiative, which he said seeks to transform global health cooperation from dependency to dignity, fragmentation to solidarity, and promises of partnership to shared leadership.
“That is exactly the spirit of President Mahama’s Accra Reset, a call to move from dependency to dignity, from fragmentation to solidarity, from the promises of partnership to shared leadership,” he said.
Mr. Akandoh further highlighted Ghana’s domestic health initiatives, including the Free Primary Healthcare programme, MahamaCares and increased investment in immunizations through domestic resource mobilization.
According to him, these initiatives demonstrate Ghana’s commitment to building a healthcare system that is sustainable and less dependent on external assistance.
Emphasizing the importance of national ownership, the minister declared, “Resilience is not imported, and it is not donated. They must be built at home.”
He subsequently called on global health stakeholders to unite in advancing a more equitable and sustainable approach to healthcare.
“Let us all come together to reset to save more lives,” he urged, extending his appeal to stakeholders from Accra to Jakarta and Berlin.
His remarks reinforce Ghana’s call for a global health system in which countries have a stronger voice in decision-making, greater control over their health priorities, and the domestic capacity to protect the well-being of their populations.
