A high-level ministerial conference adopted a set of practical, actionable steps stakeholders across sectors can take to address the “global health and socioeconomic crisis” of antimicrobial resistance (AMR). AMR occurs when bacteria, viruses, fungi, and parasites no longer respond to medicines, making infections difficult to treat, which increases the risk of severe illness and death.
The Fourth Global High-Level Ministerial Conference on Antimicrobial Resistance convened in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia, from 15-16 November 2024, under the theme, ‘From Declaration to Implementation: Accelerating Actions Through Multisectoral Partnerships for the Containment of AMR.’ Its outcome document – the Jeddah Commitments – builds on the Political Declaration on AMR adopted at a UN General Assembly (UNGA) high-level meeting in September.
The participants and endorsing Member States of the Conference recognize that the AMR crisis is “threatening people of all age groups in every region,” disproportionately affecting low-income countries (LICs) and middle-income countries (MICs) and jeopardizing the achievement of the SDGs, and that it requires “a coordinated One Health approach” to address its drivers and challenges.
They further recognize the need for: strengthened local, national, regional, and international governance; and improved stewardship and surveillance, capacity development, as well as research and development (R&D), manufacturing, access, and disposal.
In an effort to translate the Political Declaration on AMR into “practical commitments for urgent actions,” the Member States attending and endorsing the Conference commit to support the Quadripartite organizations – the World Health Organization (WHO), the Food and Agriculture Organization of the UN (FAO), the World Organisation for Animal Health (WOAH), and the UN Environment Programme (UNEP) – in coordinating a timely, open, and transparent process towards the establishment of an Independent Panel for Evidence on Action Against Antimicrobial Resistance in 2025.
They commit to, among other actions:
- Create and assure operational national AMR coordinating mechanisms;
- Support collection of accurate data and report regularly into global surveillance systems;
- Support the periodic convening of national food, drug, and environmental regulatory bodies and agencies;
- Encourage the widespread country-specific implementation of the Codex Alimentarius Commission’s guidelines and codes of practice;
- Encourage WOAH, through consultation with its members, to develop science-based global stewardship guidance framework to facilitate improved guidance, targeting, and measuring appropriate use of antibiotics in animals; and
- Recognize the whole-of-society approach to contain AMR by putting the patient at the center of AMR policymaking.
The Member States also welcome the establishment of an AMR One Health Learning Hub and a Regional Antimicrobial Access and Logistics Hub, both based in Saudi Arabia.
According to the outcome document, the Jeddah Commitments “are considered under the category of non-legally binding instruments.”
The Conference was preceded by a Non-State Actor Day on 14 November. The AMR Multi-Stakeholder Partnership Platform convened on 16 November. [Fourth Global High-Level Ministerial Conference on Antimicrobial Resistance] [UN News Story]