By Fatima Saka
More than 4.7 million deaths were associated with bacterial antimicrobial resistance (AMR) globally in 2021, prompting the World Health Organisation (WHO) to call for urgent, coordinated action across human, animal, agricultural and environmental health sectors to contain the growing threat.
The organisation warned that inadequate funding, weak surveillance systems and poor implementation of national policies were undermining global efforts to tackle antimicrobial resistance, urging countries to translate political commitments into measurable action.
The Director of WHO’s Department of Antimicrobial Resistance and Director of the Quadripartite Joint Secretariat on AMR, Dr Jean-Pierre Nyemazi, raised the concern at the 6th Annual Global Media Forum on AMR ahead of the 2026 World AMR Awareness Week (WAAW), scheduled for November 18 to 24.
The 2026 awareness week is themed, **“One Health, One Action: Prevent AMR Now.”**
Nyemazi described AMR as one of the most urgent global health threats and development challenges, warning that it threatens the ability to treat infections, protect animal and plant health, produce safe food and safeguard the environment.
He identified the misuse and overuse of antimicrobial medicines, inadequate infection prevention, poor water and sanitation services and environmental contamination as major drivers of the growing threat.
According to him, although world leaders adopted a Political Declaration on AMR at the 2024 United Nations General Assembly High-Level Meeting, implementation remains far behind commitments.
Under the declaration, countries pledged to reduce deaths associated with bacterial AMR by 10 per cent by 2030, using the 2019 baseline of 4.95 million deaths, while ensuring that at least 60 per cent of countries have funded national AMR action plans by the same year.
The declaration also called for at least 100 million dollars in catalytic funding, including through the AMR Multi-Partner Trust Fund.
“However, let’s be honest. The gap between commitments and pledges versus implementation remains wide,” Nyemazi said, identifying limited financing, fragmented coordination and weak surveillance as major obstacles.
He disclosed that an updated Global Action Plan on AMR for 2026–2036 had been finalised and was expected to be launched at the Fifth Global High-Level Ministerial Conference on AMR scheduled to hold in Abuja, Nigeria, from December 6 to 8, 2026.
He added that efforts were also advancing towards establishing the Independent Panel on Evidence for Action against AMR (IPEA), which is also expected to be launched during the Abuja conference.
The WHO official urged journalists to sustain public awareness and hold governments and relevant stakeholders accountable for their commitments.
“You make visible what is often invisible. Your accurate, evidence-based and solution-focused reporting shapes public understanding, sustains political attention and holds all of us accountable,” he said.
Also speaking, Dr Kefas Samson, Senior Technical Officer and Lead of Multisectoral Coordination in WHO’s AMR Department, said inadequate financing, limited laboratory capacity, shortages of health workers and unequal access to quality-assured antimicrobials continued to hinder progress.
He stressed the need for countries to assess their needs, cost interventions and adapt implementation strategies to local realities, while strengthening primary healthcare and community-based services.
Samson said the updated 2026–2036 Global Action Plan would provide a renewed framework for translating international commitments into measurable national interventions.
He identified among the 2030 targets the need to ensure that 70 per cent of antibiotics used in human health belong to the WHO Access group, while 80 per cent of countries can test for priority bacterial and fungal pathogens included in the Global Antimicrobial Resistance and Use Surveillance System.
On the agricultural sector, Dr Junxia Song, Deputy Chief Veterinarian and Chief of the One Health and Disease Control Branch at the Food and Agriculture Organisation of the United Nations (FAO), warned that global antibiotic use in livestock could increase by nearly 30 per cent by 2040 without urgent intervention.
She, however, said improved animal health services and farm management practices could reduce antibiotic use by up to 57 per cent.
Song said farmers must be placed at the centre of AMR prevention, noting that inadequate funding and weak integration of agricultural priorities into national action plans continued to undermine progress.
She disclosed that FAO’s 10-year initiative, Reduce the Need for Antimicrobials on Farms (RENOFARM), had attracted more than 400 partners, including over 80 FAO member countries.
She also said FAO’s InFARM surveillance system had engaged 80 countries in strengthening AMR monitoring across agri-food systems.
On the environmental dimension, Aitziber Echeverria, AMR Coordinator in the Chemicals and Health Branch of the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP), warned that the global response would remain incomplete without tackling pollution and environmental contamination.
She identified pharmaceutical manufacturing, agriculture and food systems, healthcare, and municipal waste and wastewater management as priority areas requiring urgent intervention.
According to her, antimicrobial residues, resistant microorganisms and resistance genes released into the environment contribute to the emergence and spread of drug-resistant infections.
Echeverria called for stronger environmental monitoring, investment in wastewater treatment, safe disposal of antimicrobial medicines and improved laboratory capacity.
She also urged governments to ensure that environmental authorities are represented in national AMR governance structures and that environmental objectives receive adequate funding.
Similarly, Dr Jane Lwoyero, Programme Officer at the World Organisation for Animal Health (WOAH), called for increased investment in animal health systems, vaccination, farm biosecurity and veterinary services to reduce infections and the need for antimicrobial medicines.
She said every one dollar invested in preventing animal diseases and strengthening animal health systems could generate a return of 28 dollars.
Lwoyero disclosed that fewer than 20 per cent of WOAH member countries vaccinate animals against notifiable diseases, while animal diseases cause estimated annual losses of up to 300 billion dollars globally.
She also cited WOAH findings showing that global antimicrobial use in animals declined by three per cent between 2019 and 2024.
However, she expressed concern over antimicrobial use for growth promotion, noting that countries permitting the practice use 45 per cent more antimicrobials than those that do not.
Earlier, Shobha Shukla, Chairperson of the Global AMR Media Alliance (GAMA) and host of the forum, warned that everyday injuries, including cuts and needle pricks, could expose people to drug-resistant infections that may become difficult or impossible to treat.
She called for responsible use of antibiotics, antifungals, antivirals and antiparasitic medicines, alongside stronger efforts to prevent infectious diseases.
Shukla stressed that the global response must move beyond developing national action plans to ensuring adequate funding, surveillance systems, laboratory capacity and accountability mechanisms.
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She also called for a people-centred, rights-based and gender-transformative approach to tackling AMR, while ensuring that people who genuinely need effective medicines have access to them.
The Quadripartite Joint Secretariat on AMR brings together WHO, FAO, UNEP and WOAH to coordinate global efforts against antimicrobial resistance through the One Health approach.
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