President John Dramani Mahama has warned that declining international health financing and growing pressure on multilateral institutions are threatening healthcare systems across Africa, with Ghana already losing millions of dollars in critical support.

Speaking at the 79th World Health Assembly in Geneva, Switzerland, Mr Mahama said shifting global geopolitics and cuts to overseas development assistance were undermining global health cooperation at a time many countries were still recovering from the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic.

“Shifting global geopolitics and deliberate assaults on the world’s multilateral system have created doubts about the trajectory of global health cooperation and reform,” he said.

According to the President, Ghana lost about $78 million in health funding following the closure of some US aid programmes since 2025.

He said the affected funding supported key interventions including malaria control, maternal and child healthcare, nutrition, HIV testing and the supply of antiretroviral drugs.

“In Ghana, health financing from bilateral and multilateral partners has significantly decreased since 2025,” he stated.

Mr Mahama also pointed to the impact of aid cuts in other African countries, particularly South Africa, where he said the withdrawal of funding under the US President’s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief (PEPFAR) had forced some clinics to shut down and disrupted HIV treatment programmes.

He warned that projections showed nearly nine million preventable deaths could occur globally by 2030 if the current trend continued.

The President further noted that the reduction in humanitarian assistance and health financing could push an estimated 5.7 million Africans into poverty by the end of 2026.

“It is this gloomy outlook for the future of global health that prompted the convening of the African Health Sovereignty Conference, famously known as the Accra Reset, in August last year,” he said.

Despite the challenges, Mr Mahama said African leaders were not gathered at the World Health Assembly to “lament” but to reconsider whether the current global health system remained effective.

We’re here among others to decide whether the architecture we supervise is still fit for purpose. We’re here to discuss how we can continue to save lives even in the face of adversity,” he stated.

The comments come amid growing concerns over sustainability of healthcare financing across developing countries as donor nations review foreign aid commitments and international organisations face budget constraints.

Ghana has in recent years relied heavily on support from bilateral and multilateral agencies to fund disease control programmes, vaccines, maternal healthcare and emergency health interventions.