Country and regional level advocacy and coalition-building against antimicrobial resistance

Antimicrobial resistance (AMR) is one of the greatest public health threats today, causing an estimated 700,000 deaths annually. If unchecked, AMR is likely to cause 10 million deaths per year and cost up to $100 trillion by 2050. Awareness and advocacy regarding this global threat are still low in most resource-constrained countries. Recognizing this gap, the USAID-supported Systems for Improved Access to Pharmaceuticals and Services (SIAPS) program and its predecessors developed and implemented an approach to jump-start and expand local coalitions to fight AMR. This approach was first implemented in Zambia and based on its success was subsequently implemented at country level in Ethiopia and Namibia, and spearheaded at regional level by Ecumenical Pharmaceutical Network (EPN), an Africa-based stakeholder alliance. Ethiopia, Namibia, and EPN mobilized multi-disciplinary coalitions against AMR through call-to-action meetings and written declarations, followed by specific actions. For example, the University of Namibia integrated AMR and rational medicine use topics into their pre-service pharmacy curriculum. Ethiopia’s Food, Medicines, and Healthcare Administration and Control Authority trained journalists on the topic, leading to 90 radio, television, and newspaper spots on AMR and rational medicine use in 10 languages in 2014 alone. After hundreds of AMR-related actions by its constituencies in over a dozen countries, EPN has further institutionalized AMR containment by including it as a priority in its 2016-2020 strategic plan. The experiences and lessons learned from these initiatives show that bringing together local stakeholders for advocacy and coalition‐building can generate multifaceted, concerted, and sustainable responses to contain AMR and preserve antimicrobial effectiveness.