29 Aug 2023

Botswana commits to be part of and fully support the proposed Regional Strategy for expediting the implementation and monitoring of the National Action Plan on the Anti-Microbial Resistance (AMR) for the year 2023-2030 in the World Health Organisation (WHO) Africa Region.

The AMR strategy was adopted yesterday by the Ministers of Health and other health representatives from different African countries during the 73rd session of WHO Regional Committee for Africa (RC73) session in Gaborone yesterday.

The strategy was set to enable countries to strengthen health systems, find ways to tackle AMR related challenges and pave way for sustainable solutions to global threats.

It was also intended to facilitate collaboration among African countries, share best practices and innovative solutions.

Key priority interventions of the strategy were to raise awareness and disseminate information, build knowledge and evidence on AMR, make efforts to reduce the incidence of new infections and optimise the use of antimicrobials, among others.

In his presentation when adopting the strategy, the director of Public Health in Botswana, Mr Samuel Kolane said the country had embarked on a multi-sectoral approach to combat the emergence of antimicrobial resistance.

He said efforts to support and commit to the AMR strategy, a comprehensive National Action Plan (NAP) was established to contain common bacterial infections, HIV and AIDS, Malaria and Multi-Drug-Resistance (MDR) Tuberculosis among others.

“Botswana commits to be part of the regional AMR strategy which aims to guide member states efforts to curb AMR challenges and continue to apply key interventions to enhance the NAP implementation in line with the One Health Approach.”

Mr Kolane said national governance structures were set up and some technical groups had also been formed to support the strategy.

He said the multi-sectoral approach also provided a framework for countries in the region to work collectively towards a common goal of tackling issues of AMR matters.

Mr Kolane further appreciated the progress made by different member states in contributing towards the development of the National Action Plan (NAP) on AMR.

He said through the AMR attributable morbidity and mortality in the African region and the daunting possibility of countries across the region, efforts made by some African states in addressing the AMR challenges would make a difference.

“The progress made by some member states in finding solutions to the AMR challenges is notable and evidenced by a high number of African countries (45)endorsed by national authorities and contributing towards the development of National Action Plan on Antimicrobial Resistance.” he said. ENDS