President John Dramani Mahama has called for urgent reforms to the global health system, warning that recent geopolitical tensions and declining donor support have exposed major weaknesses in international health cooperation.

Addressing delegates at the 79th World Health Assembly in Geneva, Mr Mahama said the world could no longer depend on a fragile health financing structure vulnerable to political and economic shifts.

“The World Health Organisation’s budget has been gutted by the withdrawal of US assistance, forcing the organisation to scale down programmes and undertake steep staff retrenchments,” he said.

According to him, humanitarian assistance globally has declined by about 40%, while some major Western economies have significantly reduced overseas development assistance.

The President argued that these developments had created uncertainty around the future of global healthcare delivery, especially in low and middle-income countries that depend heavily on donor-funded programmes.

He said African countries were already experiencing the consequences, citing Ghana’s loss of $78 million in health support and disruptions to HIV programmes in South Africa following cuts to PEPFAR funding.

Mr Mahama warned that millions of lives could be at risk if governments and international institutions failed to respond decisively.

“These troubling statistics are known, and we’re not here to lament or wring our hands over them,” he told the Assembly.

“We’re here to decide whether the architecture we supervise is still fit for purpose.”

The President said his administration remained focused on transforming lives and strengthening resilience within Ghana’s health sector despite the difficult global environment.

He linked the current crisis to discussions held during the African Health Sovereignty Conference, also known as the Accra Reset, which brought together African leaders and policymakers to examine ways of reducing dependence on external health financing.

The World Health Assembly is the decision-making body of the World Health Organization and brings together health ministers and heads of state from member countries to discuss global health priorities and policy reforms.

Mr Mahama’s remarks add to growing calls from African leaders for stronger domestic investment in healthcare, local pharmaceutical production and reforms to global financing mechanisms to ensure long-term sustainability.