President John Dramani Ma­hama has called on his colleague African leaders to rise to the occa­sion and redesign the continent's health architecture.Addressing the opening session of the Africa Health Sovereignty Summit in Ac­cra yesterday, President Mahama said the platform must be the springboard for sus­tainable health financing on the continent."In this moment, we are called to redesign the architecture that has, for too long, excluded Africa's voices, needs, and innovations.

We are called to build systems that do more than respond to crises-we must build systems that generate resilience, produce equity, and amplify dignity," the President said.President Mahama (fourth from right) with some dignitaries at the summitThe summit seeks to launch the Accra Compact and galvanise a coalition of Afri­can leaders and global partners committed to a new health and development para­digm anchored on mutual accountability, shared investment, and systemic reform.Its objectives include repositioning health financing as a sovereign, economic, and investment agenda, moving beyond aid dependency, promote Ghana's Sustain Initiative as a scalable model for sustain­able health systems, strengthening and fa­cilitating political dialogue among African Heads of State on strategies to transi­tion from external funding and increase domestic and private sector financing amongst others.According to President Mahama, the summit comes at a time of overlapping and intensifying global crises - war, pan­demics, climate shocks, economic volatili­ty, and widening inequalities - which have exposed the health fault lines.He said though the continent had a history of overcoming health crisis as a result of bold partnerships, when global development assistance declined in 2023, Africa felt the shock immediately as maternal health programmes were halted, vaccine supplies delayed, and medicines disappeared from clinic shelves."This is not merely a funding gap.

It is a crisis of imagination, a vacuum of solidarity, and a deep failure of shared responsibility.

Above all, it is a question of sovereignty-the right of African nations to determine their health priori­ties, marshal their capacities, and lead with their own vision.