{"id":112232,"date":"2026-01-22T19:24:52","date_gmt":"2026-01-22T19:24:52","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sotnews.agency\/?p=112232"},"modified":"2026-01-22T19:24:52","modified_gmt":"2026-01-22T19:24:52","slug":"full-text-president-mahamas-speech-at-davos-convening-on-accra-reset","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sotnews.agency\/?p=112232","title":{"rendered":"Full text: President Mahama\u2019s speech at Davos Convening on Accra Reset"},"content":{"rendered":"
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\n \t<\/i> Read Time:<\/span>9 Minute, 5 Second <\/div>\n\n <\/div>
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President John Mahama has called on African countries to invest boldly in skills, industrial capacity and unity, warning that the continent risks underdevelopment in a fast-changing global economy if it fails to act decisively.<\/p>\n

Addressing global political and business leaders at the Accra Reset Davos Convening Event on the sidelines of the World Economic Forum on Thursday, January 22, President Mahama said the world was entering \u201can era where countries must compete, innovate, and build or be left behind \u201d.<\/p>\n

Read full text below:<\/strong><\/p>\n

Your Excellencies and my disWnguished colleagues, friends, and partners in global transformaWon.<\/p>\n

Let me begin by thanking the World Economic Forum for creating space for this Session, and to our various Strategic Partners, not least the African Development Bank, Global Fund, AfroChampions, Georgetown University, and the Rockefeller Foundation, for stepping forward at a moment when the world\u2019s health and development systems are being tested by disruption, conflict, and a new atmosphere of intellectual retreat.<\/p>\n

Of course, my appreciation goes to the Guardians\u2019 Circle of the Accra Reset, led by President Olusegun Obasanjo, the Alliance for African Multilateral Financial Institutions and the Confederation of Indian Industry.<\/p>\n

This aXernoon, I stand before you as an African leader born in the heady days of post-independence Africa.<\/p>\n

Growing up, I could feel the excitement of my parents and their generaWon about the possibiliWes of our newly won freedom and the right to manage our own a\ufb00airs.<\/p>\n

My country, Ghana, will celebrate its 70th anniversary of independence from colonial rule in March next year.<\/p>\n

In the relaWvely short span of seven decades, we have been through a lot.<\/p>\n

We\u2019ve seen coup d\u2019etats and periods of democraWc governance. We lived through the Cold War and witnessed the fall of the Berlin Wall. We were excited about the advent of globalisaWon, and we came together as a global family to work on the MDGs and climate change.<\/p>\n

Today, as I address you here in Davos, one thing is clear. Our world as we know it is at an in\ufb02exion point. The global mulWlateral governance system, universally agreed and accepted aXer the 2nd World War, is breaking down.<\/p>\n

Bilateral relaWons among naWons are increasingly transacWonal, and many state and non-state actors are acWng unilaterally in pursuing their own naWonal and parochial interests.<\/p>\n

Africa has lagged behind in the past decades, following liberaWon from colonialism, and has been trapped in cycles of con\ufb02ict and mulWdimensional poverty. Africa has thrived on handouts and humanitarian assistance from the developed world.<\/p>\n

While no speci\ufb01c name has not been coined yet for the new global system that will emerge, Africa intends to be at the table in determining what that new global order will look like.<\/p>\n

Africa must pull itself up by its own bootstraps.<\/p>\n

Global humanitarian assistance is shrinking. Many developed countries, including Europe, are compelled to cut ODA and increase defence spending by the new reality of an unpredictable ally across the AtlanWc.<\/p>\n

The COVID experience was a wake-up call. Africa was the last continent to begin receiving vaccines amid a global pandemic. But for the immunological pro\ufb01le and resilience of the African populaWon, many millions would have died in the pandemic.<\/p>\n

That is why I am very grateful, your excellencies, ladies and gentlemen, that you made the Wme to be a part of this aXernoon\u2019s Davos Convening of the Accra Reset IniWaWve on the sidelines of the World Economic Forum.<\/p>\n

Just months ago, at the UN General Assembly, I introduced the Accra Reset IniWaWve. Not as another declaraWon. Not as a wish list. But as a pracWcal answer to a quesWon millions of young Africans are asking: What should Africa\u2019s response be in a changing global order?<\/p>\n

Today, in Ghana, we\u2019re answering that quesWon. We\u2019re resefng our country\u2014 cufng waste, restoring hope, building systems that work.<\/p>\n

In my \ufb01rst year of being back in the o\ufb03ce, we\u2019ve shown that democracy works and that change is possible when leadership is focused and accountable to the people.<\/p>\n

From a debt-distressed, crisis-ridden economy, we have achieved an impressive turnaround, with a stable macroeconomy characterised by single-digit inflation, a strengthened currency, and increased business con\ufb01dence.<\/p>\n

But here\u2019s what keeps me up at night: Ghana\u2019s success alone is not enough.<\/p>\n

However admirable Ghana\u2019s turnaround story is, we cannot be a jewel in the dirt. We must work together as Africa. We must knit together the patchwork of success stories.<\/p>\n

That\u2019s why we\u2019re here in Davos. To take what\u2019s working across many countries in Africa and the Global South and scale it across other countries. To move from resefng one country to resefng the enWre development model.<\/p>\n

Let me be direct about what we\u2019re up against. Too many of our countries are caught in what I call triple dependency:<\/p>\n

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  1. We depend on others for our security choices<\/li>\n
  2. We depend on donors for our health and educaWon systems<\/li>\n
  3. We supply the world\u2019s criWcal minerals but capture almost none of the value This isn\u2019t sovereignty. It is a trap. And it is gefng worse.<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n

    In my quiet moments, as I try to \ufb01nd soluWons, here\u2019s what I\u2019ve learned: Crisis creates Clarity. The clarity is this: We must build our own capacity to act.<\/p>\n

    There\u2019s precedent for what I am proposing.<\/p>\n

    Twenty years ago, UN Secretary General Ko\ufb01 Annan and several courageous world leaders, including President Obasanjo here, made a simple, powerful case: HIV\/AIDS was killing millions in Africa, and a global response was needed.<\/p>\n

    This courage created the architecture of the Global Fund, which saved millions of lives in Africa and across the world.<\/p>\n

    That \ufb01ght succeeded because leaders decided to act together, with urgency and without excuses. Today, I am not so sure.<\/p>\n

    The US is cufng funding for the United NaWons system and other global organisaWons that have saved millions of lives. We face an unpredictable world.<\/p>\n

    This is why Africa must be responsible for its desWny. Today, we face a di\ufb00erent pandemic: the pandemic of unful\ufb01lled potenWal.<\/p>\n