Accelerating action to fight AMR in the Asia-Pacific region
Overview
Initiated by the Government of Japan and co-organised by WPRO and SEARO, the initiative to Accelerate Action to Fight Antimicrobial Resistance in the Asia-Pacific region included a virtual Member States consultation held on 6 May 2024 and a Ministerial Side Meeting held on 28 May 2024 in Geneva, Switzerland during the week of the Seventy-seventh session of the World Health Assembly.
The initiative built on the 2016 Tokyo meeting of Health Ministers on antimicrobial resistance in Asia and aimed to demonstrate political commitment in the Asia-Pacific region to accelerate action to fight AMR. Health Ministers from Asia-Pacific Member States were invited to endorse a Joint Position Paper on AMR in the human health sector in the Asia-Pacific region to submit to the United Nations General Assembly high-level meeting on AMR in September 2024.
All Member States in the Asia Pacific region were invited to contribute to the development of the position paper. Participants from Ministries of Health, Agriculture and Environment from 34 Member States attended the consultation on 6 May. Health ministers or their representatives from 17 Member States attended the Ministerial Side Meeting in Geneva to formally endorse the Joint Position Paper and a further 13 Member States endorsed the Joint Position Paper by email, bringing the total to 30 Member States out of 48 Member States in the Asia-Pacific region, as of 11 June 2024.
The Joint Position Paper focuses on the urgency of addressing AMR in the human health sector, presents information on AMR and progress of the response in the Asia-Pacific region, identifies challenges, and notes the importance of the One Health approach and the role of WHO. It expresses the collective determination to accelerate implementation of comprehensive countermeasures, and commitment to fostering high-level leadership across the region, while acknowledging common challenges and variability in context and capacity across the region.