The UN Member States have a crucial role in the efforts against antimicrobial resistance (AMR). Antimicrobials, which include antibiotics, antivirals, antifungals, antiseptics, and antiparasitic, are vital tools in our defense against pathogens. However, their misuse and overuse in public health and agrifood systems further fuels AMR.    

The impact of AMR extends beyond public health sector, affecting communities, national, regional and global economies and food security. AMR claims millions of lives yearly, surpassing HIV/AIDS and malaria deaths, disproportionately affecting low and middle-income countries (LMICs) and young children. Moreover, evidence is mounting that environmental drivers play a significant role in the development, transmission and spread of AMR and are linked to the triple planetary crises of climate change, biodiversity loss and pollution. Consequently, infections become harder to treat, heightening the likelihood of disease transmission, illness, mortality and morbidity. If we do not curb AMR, current antimicrobials will become ineffective against infections. Put more drastically, we will be turning back the clock on modern medicine as we know it.

The upcoming UN High-Level Meeting on AMR in September 2024 presents a pivotal opportunity to redefine our collective action on AMR.

In response to the 2019 Interagency Coordination Group (IACG) on AMR recommendations, the AMR Multi-Stakeholder Partnership Platform, a global, inclusive, and collaborative mechanism was established by the Quadripartite organizations (FAO, UNEP, WHO, and WOAH). The Platform has over 200 members from governments, civil society organizations, private sector, research and academia, financial institutions, philanthropic organizations, UN agencies and intergovernmental organizations - all committed to working together in tackling AMR.

The Platform’s members, organized in a dedicated Action Group, have developed a series of key recommendations aimed at informing the forthcoming Political Declaration. These recommendations embrace and leverage a global collective intelligence on AMR, incorporating diverse expertise, knowledge, and best practices from the One Health sectors represented in the Platform to facilitate measurable, impactful, and sustainable action on AMR. Jointly we advocate for UN Member States to include the outcome of our discussions in the negotiations on the 2024 Declaration.

We recommend that UN Member States:

1. Enhance the One Health governance and collaboration on AMR through effective cross-sectoral, transparent, inclusive, multilateral, multidisciplinary, multi-stakeholder coordination, communication, and follow-through.
2. Accelerate the implementation of AMR National Action Plans (NAPs), building on country context, capacity and capabilities.
3. Strengthen capacity for AMR efforts by mobilizing sustainable financing for research, infrastructure, and AMR NAPs implementation.
4. Strengthen health systems through comprehensive primary and secondary prevention strategies, such as infection prevention and control (IPC), stewardship programmes, water, sanitation and hygiene (WASH), vaccination, early diagnosis and prompt treatment and environmental management of air, water, soil, food and vectors for better human, animal and environmental health.
5. Better leverage preventive measures such as vaccination by expanding the evidence base on their impact against AMR, developing mechanisms to increase access and utilization of existing vaccines, improving regulatory pathways, facilitating market authorization and distributing products across sectors and countries.
6. Strengthen sector-specific AMR and antimicrobial use (AMU) surveillance, building towards integrated surveillance for evidence-based action to reduce the risk and impact of AMR.
7. Transform agrifood systems to significantly reduce AMU while optimizing animal health and welfare.
8. Ensure universal, equitable, affordable, and sustainable access, including in rural areas, to quality essential medicines, vaccines, and diagnostics for humans and animals.
9. Encourage high-income countries and other stakeholders to commit to taking an end-to-end approach to sustainable antimicrobial research and development (R&D), including by increasing public investment in push and pull incentives to catalyze the global R&D efforts necessary to deliver new treatments and tools that target global priority pathogens.
10. Prevent and address the drivers, sources, and challenges of the environmental dimensions of AMR.

These efforts should be supported by a collaborative, cross-sectoral and whole-of-society strategy encapsulated in the ‘One Health' approach.

From our perspective, it is not only a strategic and vital necessity but a moral imperative to protect antimicrobials—these invaluable resources—for the health and well-being of current and future generations, as well as for the sustainability and welfare of animals, plants, ecosystems, and our planet.

Read the full recommendations (and their brief version), watch the public release event and join our global movement for action against AMR, including on social media (LinkedIn).