WHO in collaboration with the Government of Thailand is organizing a 3-day international AMS technical partners meeting, to bring together country representatives, global experts, organizations and funders to establish a global Antimicrobial Stewardship (AMS) network to support country implementation on AMS. The Theme of the meeting will be “Fostering Partnerships and Capacity on Antimicrobial Stewardship” with the aim to accelerate the implementation of the AMS toolkit and turn policies into action at a country level. The event will be held from 24th to 26th February 2020 in Bangkok, Thailand.

The overuse and misuse of antimicrobials is the main driver for the development of antimicrobial resistance. Antimicrobial stewardship has emerged as a critical tool to optimize the antimicrobial use and supports objective 4 of the Global Action Plan on AMR.

In response to the Member States requests for guidance on antimicrobial stewardship in health-care facilities, WHO has developed a WHO practical toolkit for Antimicrobial Stewardship Programmes in Health-care Facilities in Low-and Middle-Income countries.

The toolkit is to support the implementation of integrated antimicrobial stewardship programmes in health-care facilities linked with infection prevention and control, access to quality-assured antibiotics, appropriate antimicrobial use, surveillance and provide guidance on monitoring.

Aim/Objective

The objective of this meeting is to build capacity and partnerships on antimicrobial stewardship that can facilitate the implementation of integrated AMS programmes in health-care facilities and accelerate the implementation of the WHO AMS toolkit.

• to prepare the roll-out of the WHO integrated AMS programme in health-care facilities;

• to establish a global AMS technical network; and

• to create partnerships that can facilitate the implementation of integrated AMS programmes in health-care facilities.

Outcomes

• to identify the roles and responsibilities of different stakeholders to facilitate the implementation of the integrated AMS programmes in countries;

• to foster networks and partnerships between national health-care professionals, AMS experts, academic institutions, civil society, intergovernmental organizations including WHO and other stakeholders;

• to plan the implementation of integrated AMS programmes at country and facility level; and

• to identify an AMS research agenda and additional AMS tools to be developed to support the implementation of AMS in LMICs.

Participation

The meeting will bring together, technical representatives working on AMS programmes from LMICs, potential donor agencies/countries, academic institute active in this field, civil society, WHO (headquarters and regional offices), other intergovernmental organization and other relevant stakeholders.