From Declaration to Action: Center stage of the Jeddah conference antibiotic resistance initiative
Interested parties from around the world gathered on Thursday at the Ritz-Carlton in the Red Sea city ahead of the meeting 4th Global Ministerial Conference on AMR for a session focusing on non-state actors – NGOs, private sector, academia and others – working across sectors to address “one of the most pressing global health threats and development challenges.”
The conference is expected to bring together representatives of 57 countries, including 48 Ministers, Deputy Ministers and more than 450 delegates from leading international organizations and civil society, including , an agency of the United Nations.
The aim is to move from “declaration to implementation” through multi-sectoral partnerships in the fight against antibiotic resistance, which has disastrous effects on health, the economy and society. , especially in low- and middle-income countries.
Silent pandemic
When bacteria, viruses, fungi and parasites stop responding to antibiotics, it is called antibiotic resistance. Antimicrobial resistance increases the risk of disease transmission, severe illness, disability and death by making antibiotics and other antimicrobial drugs ineffective and making it more difficult to treat infections. or cannot be performed.
in political statement adopted by the General Assembly, world leaders agreed to reduce the estimated 5 million annual AMR-related human deaths by 10% by 2030. They also called for sustainable national funding and 100 million USD in catalytic funding to help achieve the target of at least 60% of countries funding national action plans on AMR by 2030.
It also formalizes the Four-party joint secretariat on antibiotic resistanceincluding the United Nations World Health Organization (WHO), United Nations Development Program (UNEP) and the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) together with the World Organization for Animal Health (WOAH), which is the central coordinating body to support the global response.
In the opening session of AMR, the urgent global health and socioeconomic crisis is threatening every age group in every region, especially the most affected low- and middle-income countries.
Saudi Arabia’s Minister of Health Fahad Al-Jalajel has emphasized the need to apply “One health” The approach systematically addresses the obstacles that hinder progress as AMR impacts people, animals and the environment. “The meeting in Jeddah is an important opportunity to strengthen our collective global response to the risks of this growing silent pandemic,” he said.
The meeting will address priorities, including monitoring and management, capacity building, funding, governance, innovation, research and development.
Political commitment at the highest level
UN News was in Jeddah to cover this global conference and spoke with Kathrine Urbaez, Executive Director of the Geneva-based nongovernmental organization (NGO), the Alliance for Health Diplomacy.
The coalition focuses on advocacy and diplomacy to advance global health issues. She told us that COVID-19 The pandemic has demonstrated the vital importance of ‘One Health’ policies and of attracting collaboration and awareness across sectors and stakeholders.
Ms. Urbaez emphasized the need to move from commitment to practical action and added that the Political Declaration of the General Assembly and the Jeddah Conference were steps in the right direction and it was essential to ensure political momentum is continued to be maintained. The Executive Director emphasized that implementing commitments is possible if there is political will to do so and that establishing “monitoring and accountability mechanisms” is key.
She added: “We have to look at antibiotic resistance from a truly comprehensive global health perspective. I think it is important to involve politicians at the highest level, not just Ministers of Health, Environment, Agriculture or Finance. We really need political commitment to advance AMR policies and engage in a one health approach.”
More than a health threat
According to Julian Nyamupachitu, Deputy Director, the complexity of the problem, lack of funding and political will in some countries “with competing health issues that governments must address” have made it difficult to move from policy documents to action. ReAct Africa, a global network working to promote action on AMR primarily in low- and middle-income countries.
As countries review and consider new national plans, Ms. Nyamupachitu said ReAct Africa is helping them prioritize more practical activities and use available tools to help inform their actions. their policy making, e.g WHO budgeting and costing tool.
The Deputy Director said the Political Declaration was an improvement over its 2016 predecessor, but it would be “good to see commitments and not just targets” on funding.
She said the theme of “moving from declaration to implementation” was very timely and she hoped to see serious commitment from Ministers in Jeddah.
“I believe awareness has been raised. They appreciated the statistics that were shared. This is truly a global health threat, not only affecting the health sector, not only affecting agriculture, the environment and animals, but also truly an economic issue,” she added.
‘The antibiotic market is broken’
Michiel Peters is the Secretariat Representative of the AMR Industry Alliance, which includes companies and industry organizations in the fields of research and development (R&D), pharmaceuticals, generics, biotechnology and diagnostics. guess. He also represents the broader private sector in the AMR Multi-Stakeholder Partnership Foundation The steering committee was established and supported by four global response support organizations.
Mr. Peters said antibiotics are “Fundamentally different” than any other product launched into the market “with your goal being to sell as much of the product as possible.” He said with antibiotics, the goal is to get “The right medicine for the right person when they need it”It’s not always a lucrative business. He also noted that antibiotic development requires “incredible amount of time and investment” and in many cases the drug does not make it to market, and so “The antibiotic market is broken.”
Mr Peter’s added that the government is severely lacking in funding and incentives for antibiotic R&D, but the bigger concern is “Researchers who really need to do scientific research in the lab are leaving the field,” as opposed to diseases like cancer, for example, where there is robust research.
Private sector representatives say much progress has been made since First summit about AMR took place in 2016, but there is still a lot of work to be done and “No one can solve this problem alone.”
He said the Jeddah conference and the Multi-Stakeholder Partnership Platform plenary meeting, which took place in parallel on the closing day, were both important to watch. “not just what we can put on paper but what we will actually do.”
