UNFSS+2 Side Event: Global Leaders Group (GLG): Country progress and political action on AMR in agrifood systems: Building towards the UNGA High-level Meeting on AMR in 2024 - Opening Remarks

UNFSS+2

Side Event:

Global Leaders Group (GLG): Country progress and political action on AMR in agrifood systems: Building towards the UNGA High-level Meeting on AMR in 2024 

Opening Remarks

By

Dr QU Dongyu, FAO Director-General

Delivered on his behalf

By

Ms Maria Helena Semedo, FAO Deputy Director-General 

Monday 24 July 2023 (18:00-18.30)

 

Excellences,

Ladies and Gentlemen,

 

Agrifood systems are the point where the health of people, animals, plants and ecosystem converge, with multiple interlinkages.

 

I commend the Global Leaders Group for strengthening global political momentum and leadership on the prevention of AMR.

 

In November 2022, the 3^rd Global Conference on AMR in Oman issued a call to reduce the need for antimicrobials, and I expressed FAO’s support for this call.

 

FAO’s Action Plan on AMR guides the Organization in supporting Members to raise awareness, increase surveillance, share good practices, and promote responsible use and governance.

 

Now, FAO is stepping up its work with a ten-year initiative to reduce the need for antimicrobials in agrifood systems. This initiative will lead the transformation of producer-level services, to achieve better productivity and improved safety.

 

To achieve this we must ensure that the science and innovation needed are accessible to all, not just to fight AMR, but also to advance all the Sustainable Development Goals.

 

Sustainable and resilient agrifood systems will provide healthy diets, enhance livelihoods, and safeguard the quality of our planet’s water, soil and air.

 

FAO will continue advocating for a reduction in the need for antimicrobials and supporting their prudent and responsible use, as part of the holistic transformation of global agrifood systems. However, this will require stronger commitment at all levels.

 

The expected high-level declaration on AMR during the UN General Assembly 2024 will influence global action on AMR in the years to come.

 

The first Global Conference on Sustainable Livestock Transformation, to be organized by FAO in September this year, aims to identify pathways to efficiently produce more nutritious, safe and accessible animal source foods. This includes practices adapted to small-scale producers that reduce the need for antimicrobials, while increasing productivity and profitability.

 

As part of its Blue Transformation Initiative, FAO works to intensify and expand sustainable aquaculture production, through the promotion of effective biosecurity and best husbandry practices that reduce the need for antimicrobials.

 

Furthermore, to help guide our work and better serve our Members we have recently designated five FAO Reference Centers on AMR in Aquaculture.

 

In collaboration with the One Health Quadripartite, we have established the AMR Multi-Stakeholder Partnership Platform. This global, inclusive and collaborative mechanism unites partners from across the One Health spectrum: from farmers to civil society, from academia to the private sector, from governments to international organizations, and financial institutions.

 

FAO has assisted Members to leverage financing of approximately 1 billion US Dollars and will implement 12 Pandemic Fund projects, covering all regions, working together with partners, including WHO, UNICEF and the multilateral development banks (MDBs).

 

There is still much work to do to tackle the complex and intensive challenges linked to AMR.

 

But through the kind of commitment and collaboration demonstrated by the Global Leaders Group, we can ensure that these life-saving medicines remain effective for decades to come, for better production, better nutrition, a better environment and a better life for all, leaving no one behind.

 

Thank you.