Ghana’s President John Dramani Mahama has described as “humiliating” a proposed health compact from the United States that Ghana rejected after Cabinet raised concerns over provisions relating to health data, counterpart funding and the regulatory authority of the Food and Drugs Authority (FDA).
Speaking at the Council on Foreign Relations in New York on Friday, September 25, Mr Mahama said the proposed compact was intended to replace some of the health funding previously provided through the United States Agency for International Development (USAID).
Why Ghana flagged and declined to sign the new USA Health Compact Agreement.
President Mahama disclosed that Ghana flagged several issues in a health compact proposed by the U.S. as a replacement for USAID funding.
He said the Ministry of Health reviewed the document before submitting it to Cabinet, where several provisions were flagged as unacceptable.
According to the President, one of the provisions required Ghana to provide the United States with its pathogen profile and medical records.
“It states that we shall give the United States our pathogen profile. It also says we should give our medical records. I mean, who takes another country’s medical records?” he said.
Mr Mahama said the agreement also required Ghana to commit a specified amount of counterpart funding.
He further raised concerns over a provision which, according to him, would have meant that medicines and other medical products supplied under the programme would not be subject to inspection by Ghana’s FDA.
The President said the provisions contributed to Cabinet’s decision to reject the proposed agreement.
“It was humiliating,” he said.
He added that the compact was rejected unusually quickly after it was presented to Cabinet.
“It was the compact that was thrown out in record time in our Cabinet. I’ve never seen anything thrown out as fast as that. And so, of course, we rejected it,” he stated.
Mr Mahama said the Minister of Health was subsequently directed to inform the US Ambassador of Ghana’s decision.
The proposed arrangement followed the withdrawal and restructuring of US foreign assistance, which Mr Mahama has linked to the emergence of the Accra Reset initiative and renewed calls for greater health sovereignty.
He has argued that the disruption to external health financing exposed the vulnerability of health systems that depend heavily on foreign assistance.
At a separate Accra Reset event in New York, Mr Mahama launched A Sovereign Future for Health, a report containing recommendations aimed at strengthening health systems in the Global South and reducing dependence on external funding.
The President has said the objective is not to isolate Ghana from international partners but to build more equal and sustainable partnerships, with greater investment in local production of medicines and vaccines, research capacity and health systems.
Ghana’s rejection of the proposed compact was reported earlier this year as part of negotiations over new US health assistance arrangements following the restructuring of American foreign aid. Other African countries have also raised concerns over aspects of the new arrangements.
