AMR is when fungi, bacteria, viruses and parasites evolve to resist the antimicrobial medicines designed to kill them. The most common antimicrobial is antibiotics and are widely misused in high-income countries in human health, animal health, food and agriculture and also pollute our environment. Since 1990, AMR has resulted in at least one million deaths each year.
AMR has been accelerated by the misuse and overuse of antimicrobials in humans, animals and plants.
A global media briefing was held ahead of the 5th high level ministerial meeting on AMR, which will be held in Abuja, Nigeria from 28-30 June, 2026. This will be the first time a ministerial meeting is held on the African continent - and - in a low- and middle-income country (Nigeria). Earlier, such a meeting was held in Netherlands (twice), Oman and Saudi Arabia.
The ministerial meet is being held under the patronage of Nigerian President Bola Ahmed Tinubu. There will be over 15 side events and 20 panels, and seven keynote plenary sessions across the meet.
The 28th of June will be the non-state actor day, focusing on bringing together the media, civil society and partners of the global response to AMR. The 29th June will be the first day which will be focused on the intergovernmental ministerial meeting and will include ministers of health, finance, environment, food and agriculture, and other sectors - from over 100 countries. The 30th June will be for drafting the ministerial declaration, where the ministers will focus on the outcomes of the meeting and aim to reach an agreement on the future of addressing AMR.
“The fifth high level ministerial meeting is a key moment to carry forward the momentum from the UN General Assembly High Level Meeting on AMR,” said Dr Jean Pierre Nyemazi, Director of Quadripartite Joint Secretariat on AMR.
The Quadripartite Join Secretariat on AMR is a cooperative effort between the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) of the United Nations, the United Nations Environmental Programme (UNEP), the World Health Organization (WHO) and the World Organisation for Animal Health (WOAH). The Quadripartite was formed to address the multi-sectoral challenge AMR poses.
The ministerial meeting has received over 100 abstracts (summaries of research papers) that are going through a double peer review process, which separates the names and authors of the papers, so they remain anonymous to the reviewers said Dr Ayoade Alakija, Ministerial Global Envoy on AMR, Government of Nigeria. The results from these abstracts will be released soon and will support the meeting.
The theme for the ministerial meeting is “One Health: Advancing Global AMR Commitments through Local Action.” The meeting will discuss strategies to turn words into action from the shared global responsibility on combating AMR.
A global media briefing was held ahead of the 5th high level ministerial meeting on AMR, which will be held in Abuja, Nigeria from 28-30 June, 2026. This will be the first time a ministerial meeting is held on the African continent - and - in a low- and middle-income country (Nigeria). Earlier, such a meeting was held in Netherlands (twice), Oman and Saudi Arabia.
The ministerial meet is being held under the patronage of Nigerian President Bola Ahmed Tinubu. There will be over 15 side events and 20 panels, and seven keynote plenary sessions across the meet.
The 28th of June will be the non-state actor day, focusing on bringing together the media, civil society and partners of the global response to AMR. The 29th June will be the first day which will be focused on the intergovernmental ministerial meeting and will include ministers of health, finance, environment, food and agriculture, and other sectors - from over 100 countries. The 30th June will be for drafting the ministerial declaration, where the ministers will focus on the outcomes of the meeting and aim to reach an agreement on the future of addressing AMR.
“The fifth high level ministerial meeting is a key moment to carry forward the momentum from the UN General Assembly High Level Meeting on AMR,” said Dr Jean Pierre Nyemazi, Director of Quadripartite Joint Secretariat on AMR.
The Quadripartite Join Secretariat on AMR is a cooperative effort between the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) of the United Nations, the United Nations Environmental Programme (UNEP), the World Health Organization (WHO) and the World Organisation for Animal Health (WOAH). The Quadripartite was formed to address the multi-sectoral challenge AMR poses.
The ministerial meeting has received over 100 abstracts (summaries of research papers) that are going through a double peer review process, which separates the names and authors of the papers, so they remain anonymous to the reviewers said Dr Ayoade Alakija, Ministerial Global Envoy on AMR, Government of Nigeria. The results from these abstracts will be released soon and will support the meeting.
The theme for the ministerial meeting is “One Health: Advancing Global AMR Commitments through Local Action.” The meeting will discuss strategies to turn words into action from the shared global responsibility on combating AMR.
The meeting will not just focus on human health, but all sectors that impact AMR - including animal health, food and agriculture. Ministers of Agriculture, Environment, Livestock and Finance from all over the world will be attending. This multisectoral approach will be crucial to the success of these meetings.
“Nigeria has been involved with the integrated approach for a while as it is important for all sectors to speak to one another and work in concert with one another. AMR has typically been seen often from the lens of high-income countries. We need to address AMR recognising the gaps in all countries and contexts especially low- and middle-income countries – and ways to bridge the gaps in prevention of infectious diseases as well as gaps in stopping misuse and overuse of medicines in food and agriculture sector, animal health sector and environment along with human health sector,” said Dr Alakija.
Another central theme of the meeting will be the disparity in access between high-income and low-income countries, many of which struggle to have access to medicines or antibiotics. A key to the meeting is that the declarations can be turned into local action so each country can address their individual situations, many low-income countries need better access to antibiotics while many high-income countries are misusing them.
One of the biggest barriers to implementing plans is financing, particularly in low- and middle-income countries. “If we invest US$ 1 on AMR, return on investment is US$ 11 – 11 times,” said Dr Alakija. “This upcoming 5th High Level Ministerial Meeting on AMR in Nigeria would focus more on solutions to address the challenge AMR is posing. We also need to ensure AMR response is fully financed including prevention, surveillance, water, sanitation and hygiene. It is strategic investments that our countries and our communities need.”
These statistics will help shift the big focus of the meeting to be on financial “solutions” and “strategic investments”, as AMR could result in significant economic costs, the World Bank estimates that AMR could result in US $1 trillion additional healthcare costs by 2050.
In the 2024 UN political declaration on AMR, member states agreed to a 10 percent reduction of AMR related deaths by 2030. The meeting will follow up this declaration, Dr Nyemazi said that easily implementable strategies will be discussed to help reach this target on time.
The previous ministerial meeting was held in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia. Where they agreed to adopt a troika mechanism. Which is where the past host, current host and future host all work together to create continuity between meetings. Nyemazi said that Nigeria is already working with the troika countries to make sure that the previous discussion informs the current and future discussions.
During the briefing, the media was called upon as a crucial element to the success of the AMR discussions at the meeting. “The media is a strategic partner, to inform, to connect, to hold us accountable,” said Dr Jean Pierre Nyemazi.
Jasper Davis - CNS
(Citizen News Service)
(Jasper Davis is part of CNS team and a Melbourne-based student journalist. He is interesting is music, culture, politics and human rights)
published in:
