Global health experts have warned that unless countries urgently implement and fund their antimicrobial resistance national action plans, drug-resistant infections will continue to claim millions of lives and weaken health, food and environmental systems. 

Speaking during the global media forum, experts from the Quadripartite Joint Secretariat, the WHO Task Force of AMR Survivors, the Global Leaders Group on AMR, FAO, WOAH and the European Commission stressed that political declarations alone are no longer enough. 

Countries must fund, operationalise, and monitor their national AMR strategies if the world is to avert a deepening crisis.

Dr Jean-Pierre Nyemazi, Director of the Quadripartite Joint Secretariat on AMR, painted a stark picture of the scale of the crisis.

“Bacterial AMR already kills over a million people every year. That’s two lives lost every minute,” he said. “In the next 90 minutes of this call, more than 180 people will die because of drug-resistant infections.”

He emphasised that AMR is not just a health issue—but a threat to animals, plants, food systems, economies and the environment. Despite global commitments since the adoption of the Global Action Plan on AMR in 2015, the gap between planning and practical implementation remains wide.

“Over 90 percent of countries now have national AMR action plans,” Nyemazi noted. “But only 22 percent are fully implementing them with monitoring and financing in place.”

This implementation gap undermines progress and leaves populations exposed to preventable infections. AMR is fuelled by antimicrobial overuse, poor infection prevention and control, and persistent gaps in water, sanitation and hygiene, waste disposal, and biosecurity.

Last year, global leaders adopted the 2024 UN Political Declaration on AMR, setting a target for 60 percent of countries to have fully funded and operational national action plans by 2030. They also committed to mobilising at least US$100 million through mechanisms such as the AMR Multi-Partner Trust Fund.

Dr Nyemazi stressed that this must be a turning point.

“The declaration is a powerful signal that the world understands the urgency. But technical solutions alone won’t win this fight. We need shared responsibility—and that is where the media plays a crucial role.”

Professor Ernst Kuipers, a member of the Global Leaders Group on AMR and former Dutch Health Minister, echoed this sentiment. He described AMR as “one of the most serious and complex health and development challenges of our time.”

He warned that despite political momentum, financing remains dangerously inadequate.

“Nearly every country now has a plan, but only 11 percent have allocated the necessary funding for implementation,” he said. “Declarations only matter when they lead to measurable change. Our challenge now is to translate political commitment into practical, sustained action.”

Kuipers urged countries to raise domestic financing, strengthen coordination mechanisms, and integrate AMR into broader health and development funding frameworks.

While scientists and policymakers highlighted structural gaps, survivors brought human urgency to the discussion.

Rob Purdie, a member of the WHO Task Force of AMR Survivors, reminded journalists that behind the statistics are real, visible people whose lives have been upended by resistant infections.

“AMR is an invisible disease — but I am not,” he said.

Purdie, who contracted a fungal infection in 2012, explained that fungal AMR is tightly linked to agricultural practices such as pesticide use—an example of why One Health policies must be implemented at national level.

“One of the best ways to humanize a difficult and often theoretical discussion like AMR is through lived experiences,” he said. “Stories, when amplified by the media, help connect data to real consequences and to actionable policies.”

Experts from FAO, WOAH, the European Commission and WHO Zimbabwe reinforced that national AMR strategies must embrace the One Health approach, linking human health, animal health, agriculture, and the environment.

Implementing national plans is not optional, they argued—it is the only viable path to protecting current antimicrobials, preserving modern medicine, safeguarding food systems, and preventing economic losses.

Countries that fail to act risk:

• rising deaths from untreatable infections
• compromised animal health and food production
• higher healthcare costs
• weakened pandemic preparedness
• environmental contamination from pharmaceutical and agricultural wa

As WAAW 2025 progresses, experts insist the next five years will determine whether the world gets ahead of AMR—or loses ground irreversibly. Implementation, not intention, will make the difference.

Countries must:

• Fully fund their AMR national action plans
• Strengthen surveillance and research
• Improve IPC, WASH and biosecurity systems
• Regulate antimicrobial use in humans, animals and crops
• Invest in awareness and behaviour change
• Integrate AMR into national development agendas