Ghana has mounted a strong call for a major overhaul of global development cooperation at a high-level OECD conference in Paris.

The government warned that falling aid flows and rising debt burdens are pushing developing countries into deeper economic strain.

Representing President John Mahama, Deputy Chief of Staff Nana Oye Bampoe Addo delivered a keynote address at the OECD Headquarters during a gathering of more than 250 international development leaders.

The conference, convened by OECD Secretary-General Mathias Cormann, focused on the future of global development cooperation.

In her address, Nana Oye Bampoe Addo painted a grim picture of the global aid landscape, revealing that Official Development Assistance from Development Assistance Committee member countries dropped by 23.1 per cent in real terms in 2025.

According to her, the decline represented a loss of about $50 billion in a single year and marked the steepest annual fall ever recorded.

She added that bilateral aid to sub-Saharan Africa fell by more than 26 per cent, while humanitarian aid dropped by nearly 36 per cent.

The Deputy Chief of Staff said African governments now spend more than $80 billion annually servicing debt, compared to roughly $95 billion in total external inflows.

Against that backdrop, she presented the “Accra Reset” as Africa’s response to what she described as a failing global development model.

The initiative, co-founded by President Mahama, seeks to reshape development cooperation through sovereign capacity building, institutional reform and mutual accountability among countries in Africa, Latin America and the Caribbean.

Nana Oye Bampoe Addo outlined several flagship initiatives under the Accra Reset agenda, including reforms to the global health architecture, sovereign industrial coordination platforms and a cross-border digital skills programme targeting 150,000 employment placements within five years.

She also urged the OECD to ensure that initiatives like the Accra Reset are treated as co-authored contributions in future development reports, rather than merely as consultation inputs.

The Ghanaian delegation later held bilateral talks with the OECD Director of Development Co-operation, Pilar Garrido, to explore areas of collaboration between the OECD and the Accra Reset initiative.

During the second day of her visit, Nana Oye Bampoe Addo visited the Ghana Embassy in Paris, where she met officials led by Ambassador Mavis Ama Frimpong.

She briefed embassy staff on the objectives of the Accra Reset and assured them that “Ghana is back on track” under President Mahama’s leadership.

The Accra Reset is a Head-of-State-led initiative aimed at redesigning global development cooperation to better reflect the interests and priorities of countries in the Global South