The World Health Organisation (WHO) has warned that inadequate funding, weak surveillance and poor coordination are undermining global efforts to tackle antimicrobial resistance (AMR), calling on governments to translate international commitments into measurable action.
The organisation said antimicrobial resistance, associated with more than 4.7 million deaths globally in 2021, remains a major public health and development threat, requiring urgent intervention across human, animal, agricultural and environmental health sectors.
Director of WHO’s Department of Antimicrobial Resistance and Director of the Quadripartite Joint Secretariat on AMR, Dr Jean-Pierre Nyemazi, gave the warning at the 6th Annual Global Media Forum on AMR ahead of the 2026 World AMR Awareness Week (WAAW), scheduled for November 18 to 24 themed, “One Health, One Action: Prevent AMR Now.”
Nyemazi said although world leaders had made commitments to reduce deaths associated with bacterial AMR, implementation remained a major challenge.
At the 2024 United Nations General Assembly High-Level Meeting on AMR, world leaders adopted a Political Declaration pledging to reduce bacterial AMR-associated deaths by 10 per cent by 2030, against a 2019 baseline of 4.95 million.
They also committed to ensuring that at least 60 per cent of countries have funded national AMR action plans by 2030 and called for at least $100 million in catalytic funding.
He said: “However, let’s be honest. The gap between commitments and pledges versus implementation remains wide.”
Nyemazi who identified limited financing, fragmented coordination and weak surveillance as major obstacles.
According to him, AMR was driven by the misuse and overuse of antimicrobial medicines, gaps in infection prevention, poor water and sanitation, as well as environmental contamination.
He said: “AMR is one of the most urgent global health threats and development challenges. It threatens our ability to treat infections, protect animal and plant health, and produce safe food, and also has an impact on the environment.”
Nyemazi urged journalists to sustain public attention on the issue through accurate and evidence-based reporting, stressing that global commitments must produce tangible results at community level.
“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.
He disclosed that an updated Global Action Plan on AMR covering 2026 to 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 from December 6 to 8, 2026.
The proposed Independent Panel on Evidence for Action against AMR is also expected to be launched during the conference.
Similarly, WHO Senior Technical Officer and Lead of Multisectoral Coordination in its AMR Department, Dr Kefas Samson, identified inadequate financing, weak nationwide surveillance, limited diagnostic capacity and shortages of health workers as major barriers to tackling the challenge.
Samson said progress among countries remained uneven, adding that shortages of quality-assured antimicrobials and weak infection prevention practices in healthcare facilities further complicated the response.
He said WHO was supporting governments to assess their needs, cost interventions and adapt implementation strategies to local realities and available resources.
According to him, the updated Global Action Plan would strengthen the One Health approach by bringing together human, animal, agricultural and environmental sectors.
Other priorities include improved laboratories, responsible antimicrobial use, equitable access to medicines, resilient supply chains, research, innovation and sustainable financing.
On the agricultural front, Deputy Chief Veterinarian and Chief of the One Health and Disease Control Branch of the Food and Agriculture Organisation of the United Nations (FAO), Dr Junxia Song, 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 and farm management practices could reduce antibiotic use by up to 57 per cent.
“Prevention must become central to the global fight against antimicrobial resistance (AMR), with farmers placed at the heart of the response,” Song said.
She noted that agricultural priorities remained inadequately integrated and funded in many national AMR action plans, while nearly half of countries had either no or only partial legislation regulating antimicrobial use in animal and plant health.
Song said FAO was addressing the challenge through its 10-year initiative, Reduce the Need for Antimicrobials on Farms (RENOFARM), which focuses on improved health services, production practices, alternatives and innovation, incentives and connections.
She disclosed that more than 400 partners, including over 80 FAO member countries, were already participating in the initiative.
Meanwhile, the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) warned that the global response to AMR could be undermined if environmental pollution was not adequately addressed.
AMR Coordinator, Chemicals and Health Branch of UNEP, Aitziber Echeverria, said the environment played a critical role in the emergence, transmission and spread of drug-resistant microorganisms.
She identified pharmaceutical manufacturing, agriculture and food systems, healthcare, and municipal waste and wastewater management as priority areas requiring urgent intervention.
“Environmental action on AMR is not an optional addition to the response. It is a prerequisite for success,” she said.
Echeverria called for stronger environmental monitoring, wastewater treatment, safe disposal of antimicrobial medicines and improved laboratory capacity, urging governments to integrate funded environmental objectives into their national action plans.
Also speaking, Programme Officer at the World Organisation for Animal Health (WOAH), Dr Jane Lwoyero, called for increased investment in animal health systems, saying preventive interventions could deliver significant economic benefits.
“For every US$1 that is invested in prevention of animal diseases and for better animal health systems, we are ensured of getting a return of US$28,” she said.
She identified vaccination, farm biosecurity, surveillance and veterinary services as critical measures for preventing infections and reducing antimicrobial use.
Lwoyero said animal diseases caused estimated annual losses of up to $300 billion globally, while less than 20 per cent of WOAH member countries vaccinated animals against notifiable diseases.
She, however, disclosed that global antimicrobial use in animals declined by three per cent between 2019 and 2024.
According to her, 74 per cent of countries no longer used antimicrobials for growth promotion, while 19 per cent still reported the practice and seven per cent had not disclosed their position.
Chairperson of the Global AMR Media Alliance (GAMA) and host of the forum, Shobha Shukla, urged countries to strengthen preventive measures and ensure responsible use of medicines, including antibiotics, antifungals, antivirals and antiparasitics.
She warned that even everyday injuries, including cuts and needle pricks, could expose people to drug-resistant infections that may become difficult or impossible to treat.
Shukla said the challenge was no longer simply getting countries to recognise AMR or develop national action plans, but ensuring that they had the funding, surveillance systems, laboratory capacity and accountability mechanisms required to implement them.
She called for a people-centred and multisectoral response that would prevent unnecessary antimicrobial use while ensuring that people who genuinely needed effective medicines could access them.
