The World Health Organization (WHO) and Ghana urged urgent reform of global health governance to better serve Africa’s needs. WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus spoke at the Africa Health Sovereignty Summit in Ghana on Tuesday. He warned that sudden, steep aid cuts are causing the most severe disruptions in African health systems since the height of the COVID-19 pandemic.
“Health aid is projected to decline by up to 40% this year compared to two years ago,” Tedros said, calling the drop a “cliff edge.” He emphasized that the flawed global health architecture must be fixed, adding that more money alone is not enough without effective use.
Ghanaian President John Mahama stressed that global health governance has failed to keep pace with a rapidly changing world. He called for a redesign of the system that has long excluded African voices and ignored Africa’s urgent health needs.
The sharp fall in development aid has halted maternal health programs, delayed vaccines, and emptied medicine shelves across Africa, Mahama explained. Ghana’s community-based health program (CHPS) suffered heavily from abrupt funding withdrawals, he added.
Mahama proposed a new health governance model, democratic and just, reflecting a multipolar and digitally connected 21st century world. He urged African nations to scale up homegrown solutions and announced two key initiatives to boost health governance and sovereignty.
These include a presidential high-level task force on global health governance and a sustained initiative to strengthen sovereign transitions and institutional networks. African leaders, health experts, and policymakers met in Accra to discuss building resilient, self-sustaining health systems for the continent’s future.