A Just Transitions framework for equitable and sustainable mitigation of antimicrobial resistance
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Antimicrobial resistance (AMR) is a significant global concern, with 10 million annual deaths and US$100 trillion projected cost to the global economy by 2050 if no action is taken. Like climate change, AMR is a multi-sectoral, borderless problem that disproportionately affects the poorest, and requires collective action and coordinated efforts. Urgent, system-wide change is needed to avoid a future where antimicrobials do not work, and common infections become life-threatening. Current efforts focus on solutions developed in high-income settings, which neglect structural challenges, particularly for poor communities where the disease burden is highest. We aim to develop a framework for Just Transitions toward equitable and sustainable solutions to mitigate AMR. Our proposal outlines strategies to engage diverse groups of stakeholders to devise fair policies and regulatory tools, and has the potential to transform approaches to tackling AMR. Synergies with Just Transitions for agriculture and climate will have wider planetary health benefits.
Follow @JT4AMR for updates from the programme.
For further information contact the Press Office on [email protected] / 020 7969 5273 / 07500 010 432.
Latest
Interview with Sonia Lewycka on One Health interventions
September 30, 2024
Sonia Lewycka, co-lead of the global convening programme, talks about how One Health interventions in the community can help combat antimicrobial resistance. Antimicrobial resistance can be viewed through a One Health lens across humans, animals and the environment. Focussing on primary care, tests offered at point-of-care in Vietnam to curb antibiotic overuse yielded promising but nuanced results. The Just Transition initiative, examining justice implications of AMR policies globally, aims to align efforts with climate change mitigations for mutual benefits.
Responsive dialogues on experiences with AMR in South Africa
August 30, 2024
Researchers from Stellenbosch University facilitated five dialogue sessions with participants from the fields of health, food science, agriculture, animal health, and the environment as well as science communication and journalism. The dialogues, made possible through a Knowledge Translation Grant from the British Academy, provided an opportunity for sharing insights and concerns with one another as well as co-create solutions for the mitigation of AMR that are just and equitable and suitable for the local context of South Africa.
Workshop in Bangalore on AMR, gender inequity, caste, and climate change
This two-day workshop, hosted by One Health Trust, and funded by WHO and the British Academy, focused on how social and economic inequities related to gender and caste in India can affect the emergence and spread of drug-resistant infections. It also investigated how gender inequity and climate change influence AMR. A diverse group of researchers looked at potential solutions and strategies to ensure gender, caste and climate considerations are included in important policies and health practices.
Interventions to address antimicrobial resistance: an ethical analysis of key tensions and how they apply in LMICs
3 April 2024, BJM
This article (with Phaik Yeong Cheah and Tess Johnson as contributors) delves into the ethical tensions that might make it difficult to address or solve the complex issue of AMR. The ethical analysis reveals multiple competing interests and unresolved ethical tensions, drawing from existing evidence and the experiences of the contributors living and working in low-income and middle-income countries. To be effective, AMR policies need to take all these tensions into account and find solutions that service those who are worst affected by AMR.
Press releases
Events
Publications
Antibiotic prescription, dispensing and use in humans and livestock in East Africa: does morality have a role to play?
October 17, 2024, Monash Bioethics Review
A paper, by Edna Mutua and contributors, that deals with the question of morality in AMR discourse as seen through data collected on antibiotic prescription, dispensing and use in human and livestock health in Tanzania.
Microbes and marginalisation: ‘Facing’ antimicrobial resistance in bedridden patients in a peri-urban area of Thailand
October 5, 2024, SSM - Qualitative Research in Health
An ethnographic study (with Clare Chandler as contributor) looking at the present and everyday realities of AMR for frail bedridden patients through the theoretical lenses of precarity and care.
C-reactive protein testing in primary care for acute respiratory infections: a cost-effective strategy to mitigate antimicrobial r
September 18, 2024, The Lancet Global Health
A comment piece (with Sonia Lewycka and Rogier van Doorn as contributors) about access to diagnostics (CRP testing) in low-income and middle-income countries to prevent overuse of antimicrobials.
The social lives of point-of-care tests in low- and middle-income countries: a meta-ethnography
June 22, 2024, Health Policy and Planning
A study on Point-of-care tests (with Clare Chandler as contributor) that reveals social and temporal intersections between processes of technological innovation and health systems.
Interventions to address antimicrobial resistance: an ethical analysis of key tensions and how they apply in LMICs
3 April, 2024, BMJ Global Health
This article (with Phaik Yeong Cheah and Tess Johnson as contributors) delves into the ethical tensions that might make it difficult to address or solve the complex issue of Antimicrobial resistance (AMR). The ethical analysis reveals multiple competing interests and unresolved ethical tensions, drawing from existing evidence and the experiences of the contributors living and working in low-income and middle-income countries. To be effective, AMR policies need to take all these tensions into account and find solutions that service those who are worst affected by AMR.
Antimicrobial resistance is a silent killer that leads to five million deaths a year. Solutions must include the poor
November 17, 2023, The Conversation
An article by Marina Joubert, Phaik Yeong Cheah and Sonia Lewycka, written for World AMR Awareness Week, on the threat of AMR and why the global response needs to be fair to all. It includes the call for a new approach to solutions that prioritise equity and sustainability and the importance of embedding public and community voices.
A just transition for antimicrobial resistance: planning for an equitable and sustainable future with antimicrobial resistance
September 08, 2023, The Lancet
A comment piece written by the Just Transitions for AMR Working Group outlining the need for a just transition approach for antimicrobial resistance in order to prioritise justice, sustainability, inclusivity and equity in the planning for a future with AMR.