Africa Health Sovereignty Summit: Consider health care as vital capital investment - • President Mahama to African leaders
President John Dramani Mahama has challenged African leaders to consider the continent’s health care as a vital capital investment rather than a basic expenditure.
He said Africa must no longer remain a passive recipient of global health aid, but must lead in designing and financing its own resilient health systems.
“We must urge our Ministers of Finance to treat health as a capital investment,” the President stressed.
President Mahama was addressing an Africa Health Sovereignty Summit in Accra yesterday on the theme: "The Accra initiative: African health sovereignty in a reimagined global health governance architecture."
It was attended by former Nigerian President Olusegun Obasanjo, former Liberian President Ellen Johnson Sirleaf, and former Mauritian President Ameenah Gurib-Fakim.
Also present were policymakers and international partners, including WHO Director-General, Dr Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, and WHO Regional Director for Africa, Dr Mohammed Yakubu Janabi; the Chief of Staff, Julius Debrah; the Minister of Health, Mintah Akandoh, and Health Ministers from across the continent.
The summit, which was aligned with the AU-WHO renewed partnership signed in May, to boost health sovereignty, would produce a landmark Accra Declaration for Health Sovereignty, which would serve as a continental framework for achieving health self-reliance.
Health financing
President Mahama called for innovative financing mechanisms, adding that sovereign wealth funds should allocate substantial resources to biotech development, advanced diagnostics, and resilient health infrastructure.
He further challenged economists to reform national accounting systems to properly reflect health care to what he termed as "a productivity multiplier".
He also emphasised the importance of disease prevention, saying "every malaria case we prevent represents a day of productive work regained.”
“Every maternal death we avoid means preserving a stable family unit. Every child we vaccinate secures a brighter future for our nation," he added.
Initiatives
President Mahama announced two major continental initiatives on health: the establishment of a Presidential High-Level Taskforce on Global Health Governance as a platform to engage international partners in restructuring health governance systems to better serve Africa's needs and scaling up sovereign transitions and institutional networks (SUSTAIN) that would focus on aligning national budgets with health priorities while mobilising diverse funding sources, including sovereign wealth, diaspora investments, and philanthropic contributions.
"Africa must shed its historical role as the perpetual patient in global health. We are determined to become the driver, the architect, and the chief advocate for our own health destiny," he said.
President Mahama expressed appreciation to WHO's Dr Tedros for committing to deploy a technical team to assist Ghana in strengthening its primary healthcare system, drawing on Kenya's successful model developed under President William Ruto.
"In our African tradition, I have already offered my thanks in advance, so I will be expecting your technical team's arrival," he said, a remark that drew warm laughter and applause from the audience.
The President said the summit was more than just another policy discussion, describing it as "a moral call to action" for Africa to assert its rightful place in global health governance.
"Our pursuit of health solutions is not a plea for help but a sovereign rallying cry," he added.
Mr Debrah also said that the summit was a stark warning: "Our hard-won health gains are at risk" due to outdated global systems and funding cuts.
He outlined five key outcomes, including establishing a presidential task force and endorsing the SUSTAIN framework to safeguard health investments.
Herbal medicine
Former President Obasanjo said Africa must revisit the use of herbal medicine and accord it a proper place in the continent’s health systems.
He stated that approximately 80 per cent of all pharmaceutical products were plant or herbal-based, and their adoption would greatly enhance the continent’s healthcare systems.
The former President also called on African leaders to create the African Health Fund to reduce dependence on global aid.
