Targeted Action and Financing the Fight Against Antimicrobial Resistance in Asia 2025

Additionally, inappropriate storage of antimicrobials can expose them to environmental conditions such as higher temperatures, humidity or light, which degrade their potency. When these compromised antimicrobials are administered to humans or animals, the pathogens that are targeted may not be eradicated effectively and completely, leaving them within the body. Non-eradication despite exposure to antimicrobials would cause pathogens to evolve and develop resistance. Extreme weather events, which are becoming more frequent due to climate change, trigger a cascade of additional risks.32 Flooding can overwhelm sanitation and wastewater treatment infrastructure, increasing human exposure to pathogenic bacteria and viruses. This can lead to outbreaks of waterborne diseases such as cholera, typhoid and polio. Floodwater also serves as a vector for the spread of antibiotic resistance and can transport resistant organisms to new locations, potentially introducing them to previously unaffected areas. Climate change is impacting food production systems as well, leading some farmers to increase their use of antimicrobials in an attempt to boost yields amid changing weather conditions. This practice, while potentially beneficial in the short term, contributes to the acceleration of AMR in both animal and human pathogens. A significant proportion (60%-90%) of antimicrobials used in medicine and farming ends up as active residues in the environment, potentially promoting the growth of antimicrobial resistance in microorganisms present in the environment.33 The complex interplay between climate change and AMR will require a coordinated global effort calling on actors from across healthcare, agriculture, business and government to work together in solving the crisis. 60-90% of antimicrobials used in medicine and farming end up as active residues in the environment, potentially promoting the growth of antimicrobial resistance. In 2015, the World Health Assembly endorsed a Global Action Plan on Antimicrobial Resistance, the first globally coordinated effort to address the growing problem of AMR.34 Introducing the initiative, Margaret Chan, the Director-General of WHO at the time, wrote: “This action plan underscores the need for an effective “One Health” approach involving coordination among numerous international sectors and actors, including human and veterinary medicine, agriculture, finance, environment and well-informed consumers. The action plan recognizes and addresses both the variation in resources nations have to combat AMR and the economic factors that discourage the development of replacement products by the pharmaceutical industry.” Since then, regional as well as national action plans (NAPs) have been adopted and the issue has gained increasing attention at the global level. However, although 178 countries had drafted plans by November 2023, “only 25% are effectively implementing and monitoring their NAPs; LMICs in particular, face substantial barriers”, according to Nigerian microbiologist Iruka Okeke and her team, writing in The Lancet.35In 2019, in response to a request from the UN Secretary-General, the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO), WHO and WOAH established a coordinating mechanism on AMR. This formally became the Quadripartite Joint Secretariat (QJS) on AMR, with the incorporation of the UN Environment Programme (UNEP) in 2022.36 QJS coordinates the work of these four organizations on AMR and works to establish global governance structures and coordinating efforts to control AMR across human, animal and planetary health.37 QJS has developed a joint strategic framework for collaboration on AMR as well as the One Health Joint Plan of Action, with AMR as one of the six action tracks. In September 2024, a significant new push at the UN General Assembly saw global leaders adopting a political declaration in which they committed to reducing deaths from bacterial AMR by 10% a year by 2030.38 The declaration called for $100 million of catalytic finance to ensure at least 60% of countries are able to fund their national action plans on AMR by the end of this decade. The aim is to diversity funding sources and steer more finance towards the Antimicrobial Resistance Multi-Partner Trust Fund,39 and is a call-to-action for more actors – corporates, funders of catalytic capital and philanthropies – to join the efforts to address this silent pandemic. 1.6 The global response 9 Targeted Action and Financing the Fight Against Antimicrobial Resistance in Asia