President John Dramani Mahama has explained why Ghana rejected a proposed health compact from the United States, describing some of its terms as “humiliating” and saying the country would not compromise its sovereignty for health funding.
Speaking at a Council on Foreign Relations engagement in New York on September 25, Mahama said the agreement was presented as a replacement for health funding previously provided through the United States Agency for International Development (USAID).
According to the President, Ghana’s Ministry of Health reviewed the compact before preparing a Cabinet Information Paper. The proposal was subsequently considered by Cabinet, where officials flagged several provisions.
Mahama: US wanted Ghana’s pathogen profile and medical records
Mahama said one of the provisions required Ghana to provide the United States with its “pathogen profile”—information relating to diseases endemic to the country.
He also said the agreement required Ghana to provide access to medical records.
“It states that we shall give the United States our pathogen profile,” Mahama said. “And it also says we should give our medical records.”
He questioned why another country would require access to Ghana’s medical records.
The President’s account of the proposed requirements was also published in the transcript of his Council on Foreign Relations discussion.
Ghana would also provide counterpart funding
Mahama said the proposed arrangement was not solely a US-funded programme, as Ghana would also have been required to commit a certain amount of its own money to healthcare under the agreement.
He also raised concerns over the treatment of medicines and medical products supplied under the programme.
According to Mahama, the compact would have prevented Ghana’s Food and Drugs Authority (FDA) from inspecting certain medical products brought into the country.
“I mean, it was humiliating,” he said.
Mahama said the concerns led Cabinet to reject the agreement unusually quickly.
“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,” he said.
He added that the Health Minister was subsequently instructed to inform the US ambassador that Ghana would not accept the arrangement.
“We didn’t need it. We’ll manage ourselves,” Mahama said.
The proposed compact was reported as being worth more than $100 million and was intended to support Ghana’s health system following changes to US foreign aid arrangements.
Mahama: Ghana will protect its health sovereignty
The rejection forms part of Mahama’s broader argument for greater African capacity to finance and manage health systems.
At the Council on Foreign Relations event, he also spoke about the need for African countries to increase domestic production of medicines and vaccines, arguing that Africa should not again be left at the back of the queue during a future pandemic.
The US compact’s specific terms have been described publicly based on Mahama’s account of the agreement; the President’s remarks do not by themselves establish the full text or legal interpretation of every provision.
