PRESIDENT John Dramani Mahama has called for urgent global action to tackle rising health threats.
He has therefore outlined three key steps for world leaders to consider while warning of deepening links between climate change, disease, and inequality.
Speaking at the One Health Summit 2026 on Tuesday in Lyon, France, President Mahama stated that the time had come to move beyond rhetoric and deliver tangible outcomes.
“The period of declarations must come to an end. The moment for coordinated effort is here, and let us start from Lyon,” he said.
The first step towards the realisation of same, he said, must be a shift from commitment to action, insisting that global leaders must prioritise implementation over pledges.
Secondly, President Mahama said One Health strategies must be embedded into national development agendas and aligned with a broader global public health framework.
“Let us connect our One Health strategies for our national development agendas to a new global framework for public health,” he said.
On his third call, the President stressed the need for prevention through strong surveillance systems.
“Let us concentrate on building a new preventive shield and an intelligent radar system at its source,” he said, explaining that early warning mechanisms at the community level remain the strongest defence against future pandemics.
He added that such systems must be “smart, dynamic, agile and interoperable” to ensure efficiency and avoid unnecessary bureaucracy.
Beyond the calls to action, the President cautioned that the world is facing an unprecedented convergence of health threats affecting humans, animals and plants.
“Around the world, we are facing an overwhelming surge of health threats across borders. Every species is in the crosshairs, animals, humans and plants,” he stated.
He linked these challenges directly to climate change, saying it is the underlying force intensifying global risks.
Drawing from Ghana’s experience, President Mahama said diseases and pests are affecting smallholder cocoa farmers, while illegal mining continues to degrade forests and pollute water bodies.
Whilst calling for international action to deal with climate change and plastic pollution, he decried “global inequality” as “countries that are most at risk have the least resources to cope. This must change.”
Decisions taken at the summit, he said, would shape the future of global health security so “let us ensure that they result in tangible, measurable outcomes for our people and our planet,” he stated.
One Health, an initiative of the WHO, is an integrated, unifying approach that aims to sustainably balance and optimise the health of people, animals and ecosystems.
BY TIMES REPORTER
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