Ghana’s President John Dramani Mahama is to lead discussions on the Accra Reset initiative at its first meeting in Davos, Switzerland, on 22 January 2026.
The gathering will take place on the sidelines of the World Economic Forum’s annual meeting and will bring together current and former leaders from Africa and beyond.
President Mahama chairs the Presidential Council of the Accra Reset, a Global South-led initiative aimed at strengthening national sovereignty and rethinking international cooperation at a time of growing global uncertainty.
Other members of the council expected at the meeting include Egypt’s President Abdel Fattah el-Sisi, Kenya’s President William Ruto, and the Democratic Republic of Congo’s President Félix Tshisekedi. Nigeria will be represented by Vice-President Kashim Shettima, while Papua New Guinea’s Prime Minister James Marape is also due to attend.
Several former heads of government will take part as members of what is known as the Guardians Circle. They include former Nigerian President Olusegun Obasanjo, former New Zealand Prime Minister Helen Clark, former Mauritian President Ameenah Gurib-Fakim, and Liberia’s former President Ellen Johnson Sirleaf.
The Davos meeting is expected to formally launch priority programmes under the Accra Reset, following the initiative’s introduction at the United Nations General Assembly in 2025 and its endorsement at the G20 leaders’ summit in Johannesburg.
Supporters of the Accra Reset say the initiative comes at a critical moment, marked by rising geopolitical rivalries, strains on global trade, declining international aid, and mounting challenges from climate change, conflict, pandemics and the cost-of-living crisis.
President Mahama has described the Accra Reset as complementing his domestic reform agenda, known as the Resetting Ghana Agenda. Ghana, as a founding member, argues that effective national governance depends not only on internal reforms but also on a fairer and more balanced global system.
The president has repeatedly stressed that sovereignty involves the ability of states to pursue their own development goals while building strategic partnerships, particularly within Africa and across the wider Global South.
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