Heads of State return to New York to take stock of a year of the Accra Reset
Kenya’s President William Ruto during the launch of the MasterKey at the Accra Reset side event at UNGA81 2026 in New York. Picture courtesy. September 21, 2026.
The Accra Reset Presidential Council today convened Heads of State and global leaders in New York to launch a major new blueprint for reforming the global health architecture, developed from the perspective of the countries the system is intended to serve, as well as other major initiatives, including Masterkey, a digital youth employment facilitator, and Mother Africa, a maternal and child health platform.
The Principal Report of the Accra Reset High-Level Panel sets out recommendations to transform how global health priorities are set, financed, delivered and governed. Its origins lie in a “health sovereignty summit” convened by Ghana’s President, John Mahama, in August 2025. The Principal Report is the culmination of a year-long process mandated by Heads of State amid major cuts to international aid and growing pressure on countries to take greater ownership of their health systems.
The Panel presented its Principal Report to the Presidential Council today, alongside early blueprints for HINGE, a financing mechanism designed to translate the strategy into implementation, and RIO, a new global accountability mechanism intended to track progress and results.
Together, the proposals set out both a strategy for reform and mechanisms to finance its implementation and strengthen accountability. They were launched at Full Circle: Resetting Global Development, marking one year since the Accra Reset was launched on the sidelines of the UN General Assembly. The gathering at the New York Marriott Marquis brought together serving and former Heads of State and Government from four continents, alongside the heads of the World Health Organization, the OECD, the Commonwealth, the AfCFTA Secretariat and the International Finance Corporation, as well as the Chair of the Group of 77 and China.
The event also marked the launch of the Global Reset Dialogues, a standing platform for geopolitical and geoeconomic cooperation between the Global South and Global North, with migration, critical minerals and trade finance among its early priorities.
The Dialogues will provide a forum for governments to negotiate around shared economic interests and global public goods, with the aim of developing new forms of cooperation based on mutual interests and sovereign priorities.
Heads of State also considered a Sovereign Prosperity Spheres concept, which explores a new model for governments and businesses to work together to mobilize private-sector investment around development priorities determined by countries themselves.
Maternal and child health will provide an early test of the approach proposed by the Accra Reset. The Mother Africa call to action, championed by President Samia Suluhu Hassan of Tanzania was unveiled alongside a global business-sector covenant focused on maternal health in the workplace.
Maternal and child health will provide an early test of the approach proposed by the Accra Reset. The Mother Africa call to action, championed by President Samia Suluhu Hassan of Tanzania was unveiled alongside a global business-sector covenant focused on maternal health in the workplace.
The Accra Reset also launched initiatives focused on closing the gap between development commitments and delivery, including addressing barriers that prevent countries from making full use of existing skills and human capital.
Masterkey, a new initiative championed by President William Ruto of Kenya, focused on human mobility, will seek to remove barriers that prevent skills and talent from moving to where they are most needed, helping countries better connect human capital with development and economic opportunity.
The event also marked the opening in Kigali of SIGN, a new institute for sovereign negotiators with the G7’s CONNEX initiative and the African School of Governance as strategic partners, under the high patronage of President Paul Kagame of Rwanda. SIGN is designed to strengthen governments’ capacity to negotiate complex international economic and development agreements and secure outcomes aligned with their own sovereign priorities.
The initiatives launched at Full C that a more sovereign led model requires more than a change in rhetoric, it requires the institutions, financing mechanisms, negotiating capacity and partnerships capable of turning national priorities into results.
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