By Maxwell Awumah, GNA
Ho, Nov 02, GNA-Professor John H. Amuasi, Head of Department of Global Health, Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology, Kumasi, has said innovations needed in the global ecosystem are the ‘One Health’ in frame, adaptable by design, and delivered with communities.
He said a global health ecosystem born to protect trade now must be rebuilt to protect people, animals and the planet, and again adapt as fast as the world changes.
Prof Amuasi said these in a keynote during the Fourth Annual International Research Conference 2026 of the University of Health and Allied Sciences (UHAS) in Ho.
The three-day gathering, which was attended by researchers, health professionals, policymakers, industry partners, students and guests was themed, “Innovating for Resilient Healthcare Delivery in a Changing Global Health Ecosystem.”
Its expected outcomes entails mapping of the 2030 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) targets; shared scientific understanding and audit of global ecosystem achievements and identifying precise gaps; co-designed innovation by developing evidence-based quality primary care solutions built with and for communities rather than imposition.
He said development assistance for health dropped from $49.6 B in 2024 to $39.1 B in 2025, about 21 per cent as figures cited under Accra Reset initiative shows.
Prof Amuasi said a total Official Development Assistance from Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development fell 23.1 per cent in real terms in 2025, described as the steepest annual fall on record.
He said the new Lancet Commission forecast indicates that about 70 per cent of avoidable health burden linked to a collapse in health aid would fall on sub-Saharan Africa.
He said innovation in the past five years has moved at an unprecedented rate, largely, due to AI inclusion in health with the same speed as risk.
He said studies done by Lancet One Health Commission shows how climate, land use, food systems, urban health, AMR, biodiversity and both infectious and non-communicable diseases are connected to one health approach, and must underpin the framework to drive resilient delivery.
He said health threats do not respect the boundaries between people, animals and the environment or between sectors.
He therefore called for integrated approach that aims to sustainably balance and optimize the threat of people, animals and ecosystems built on four Cs, albeit, communication, coordination, collaboration and capacity-building, across sectors, disciplines and communities.
The new Lancet Commission lists 17 threats to health in the 21st century and lays out a foresight-driven approach to identifying and prioritising them. In the pyramid, the second category is major catastrophic risks: air pollution, antimicrobial resistance, childhood malnutrition, climate change, collapse of development assistance for health, conventional conflict, high alcohol use, high blood pressure, income inequality, low educational attainment, naturally occurring pandemics, obesity, poor mental health, smoking and unhealthy ageing.
On air pollution, Prof Amuasi said global figures as of 2024 average PM2.5 was 36.3 micrograms per cubic metre, 7.2 times the WHO guideline of 5 with Ghana’s 2025 national average was 4.3 times the guideline, arguing that the innovation could deploy measurement with cheap sensors and city air-quality plans to make the invisible visible.
Again, AMR rates are highest in sub-Saharan Africa and South Asia, where insufficient access to quality care and high antibiotic misuse drive resistance. The Ghanaian stewardship example is a delivery innovation: no new drug, just audits, quality improvement and training, and outpatient prescribing fell from 36 to 18 percent between 2021 and 2023.
He said the global health ecosystem was born to protect trade and to protect economic interests, insisting there was a need to find ways of rebuilding with emphasis on protecting people, animals, and the environment and be adaptable.
He called for building threat-ready health systems with durable domestic financing in Public Health Care, CHPS task-shifting trials and community-readiness before any emerging shock consumes the population.
Prof Amuasi said the threats as poor mental health, obesity, high systolic blood pressure, nuclear conflict and potential nuclear famine, malicious use of AI, low educational attainment, income inequality, high alcohol use, conventional conflicts, climate change, childhood malnutrition among others, must be surmounted.
He highlighted that in a rapidly changing global health ecosystem, innovation, resilience and flexibility must be prioritized to protect people, animals and the planet, and again adapt as fast as the world changes.
GNA
Edited by: Kenneth Odeng Adade