3 Global Organizations Namely Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO), World Organisation for Animal Health (OIE) and World Health Organization (WHO) launched a global group called ‘One Health Global Leaders Group on Antimicrobial Resistance’ to tackle the rising AntiMicrobial resistance (AMR).The Group will be co-chaired by Prime Minister of Barbados, Mia Mottley & Prime Minister of Bangladesh, Sheikh Hasina Wazed.
Objectives of the Group:
i.To capture the global attention and take actions to preserve antimicrobial medicines.
ii.To help in prevention of disastrous consequences of antimicrobial resistance.
Antimicrobial resistance:
i.According to WHO, Antimicrobial Resistance (AMR) occurs when bacteria, viruses, fungi and parasites change over time and no longer respond to medicines. It will make infections harder to treat and increases the risk of disease spread, severe illness and death.
ii.As a result, antibiotics and other antimicrobial medicines become ineffective and infections become increasingly difficult or impossible to treat.
Members of the Global Group:
i.The group will comprise of 20 members which includes heads of states, current and former ministers of different countries, leaders from private sector and civil society.
ii.From India, Sunita Narain, the Director-General of Centre for Science and Environment, a New Delhi-based think tank is a member of the Group.
iii.The group will meet twice a year to discuss agendas.
Ex-Officio members:
The heads of FAO, OIE and WHO are ex-officio members of the group.
Responsibilities:
The group will have the following responsibilities
- Monitoring Global Response to Antimicrobial resistance
- Maintaining public momentum
- Regular reports on Science and evidence related to AMR to the United Nations (UN) Member states
- Advocate for the inclusion of AMR ‘lens’ in investments on agriculture, health, development, food and feed production
- To Push for multi-stakeholder engagement on the issue.
Background:
The group has been created based on the recommendation of Interagency Coordination Group on Antimicrobial Resistance (IACG) which submitted its report to the Secretary-General of UN in April, 2019.
Recent Related News:
i.August 22, 2020, In order to provide rapid, fair and equitable access to COVID-19 vaccines worldwide, WHO invited countries to join its Covid-19 Vaccine Global Access (COVAX) facility by August 31, 2020.
ii.On May 12, 2020 According to WHO’s Global Nutrition Report 2020, India is one among 88 countries to miss global nutrition targets by 2025 & is with highest rates of domestic inequalities in malnutrition.
About Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO):
Director General – Qu Dongyu
Headquarters – Rome, Italy
About World Organisation for Animal Health (OIE):
President – Mark Schipp
Headquarters – Paris, France
About World Health Organization (WHO):
Director General – Dr Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus
Headquarters – Geneva, Switzerland
