President John Dramani Mahama has begun his engagements on the sidelines of the 81st United Nations General Assembly (UNGA) with a meeting with Alex Soros, Chairman of the Open Society Foundations (OSF).
The meeting, held on Sunday, September 20, 2026, focused on possible partnerships and support for efforts to strengthen regional integration within the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS). OSF expressed interest in exploring areas where it could support the regional integration agenda.
New York: President Mahama engages Alex Soros on ECOWAS Integration Support.
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The engagement also served as a precursor to a presidential roundtable being coordinated by the Open Society Foundations, bringing together leaders of major global foundations and organisations.
Expected participants include representatives of the Gates Foundation, Ford Foundation, Open Society Foundations, Hewlett Packard, Hilton, Rockefeller Foundation, Humanity United, Anglo American, Chandler and UBS Optimus, among others.
The roundtable provides an opportunity for Ghana to engage major philanthropic institutions on potential partnerships around regional integration, institutional development, governance and other development priorities.
At the subsequent roundtable on Monday, President Mahama called on international philanthropic organisations to move beyond short-term interventions and place greater emphasis on building sustainable national and institutional capacity.
He also urged foundations to support public goods, institutional development and programmes that can eventually be integrated into national systems and sustained through long-term financing.
The discussions form part of President Mahama’s broader diplomatic and development engagements in New York, where Ghana is participating in the 81st UN General Assembly under the theme “Restoring Trust, Managing Transformation: A United Nations that Delivers for All.”
President Mahama is scheduled to deliver Ghana’s statement during the UN General Debate on Thursday, September 24, 2026.
