A consultation meeting, held on 12 March, has heard a report on the progress of the FAO-implemented Action to support implementation of Codex AMR texts (ACT) project over the last year. In the meeting, the ACT project team detailed to representatives from the project donor, the Republic of Korea, the activities and achievements that took place in 2024. The project aims at improving monitoring and surveillance, governance and awareness of foodborne AMR and is being implemented in Bolivia (Plurinational State of), Cambodia, Colombia, Mongolia, Nepal and Pakistan. However, as the meeting heard, the ACT project work is being felt beyond these countries and has the capacity for far reaching impact.

The meeting with representatives from the project donor, the Republic of Korea, heard opening remarks from FAO’s Assistant Director-General and Head of the Animal Production and Health division, Thanawat Tiensin, who recalled that the United Nations General Assembly (UNGA) in 2024 stressed the urgent need for multi-stakeholder collaboration, particularly in low- and middle-income countries, to address the issue of AMR, and that the related UNGA declaration acknowledges Codex standards as a crucial basis for managing the spread of AMR within the food and agriculture sectors. “The ACT project directly supports UNGA’s call for action by supporting countries in complementing Codex standards to strengthen their AMR management strategies,” said Tiensin. “By enhancing national capacities, promoting responsible antimicrobial use, and raising wider awareness, ACT aligns with the global AMR agenda.”

Kim Hyun-Jung, Director-General of the Food Safety Policy Bureau of the Korean Ministry of Food and Drug Safety (MFDS) delivered opening remarks from Seoul, saying: “AMR is a global challenge that cannot be resolved by a single country alone. And I believe that FAO efforts, in collaboration with countries around the world, to overcome this issue are crucial and critical. The Korean government is actively supporting work to strengthen the capacity of countries, including Bolivia, Cambodia, Colombia, Mongolia, Nepal and Pakistan so that they can better manage AMR issues and build a global response.” She praised the work of the ACT team “for their many accomplishments.” In acknowledging that the project is nearing its conclusion, she addressed the team, saying: “we look forward to your continued efforts to ensure that we are well on our way to reaching the goals we set out to achieve … I look forward to working closely together to achieve a safer food safety chain in a healthier world for all.”

Junxia Song, Senior Animal health officer, Head, One Health Coordination and AMR Cluster in FAO’s One Health and Disease Control Group, introduced the work being done at FAO to combat AMR, before ACT team members detailed the progress of the project itself over the last year.

Alejandro Dorado Garcia, Technical Officer for AMR surveillance, started the presentation by reporting on the operationalization of FAO’s InFARM monitoring system and IT platform, which issued its first call for data in 2024. The ACT project contributed to the development of the system and the related training of 167 participants from 46 countries in Africa, Asia and Latin America. The collection of data for submission to this platform requires national level coordination, and monitoring and surveillance capacities, which, in the case of each project country, have been assessed through FAO’s Assessment Tool for Laboratories and AMR Surveillance Systems (FAO-ATLASS). ATLASS has identified different gaps in capacity and priority areas in each country, allowing ACT to provide targeted support aimed at national data collection capacities. Each project country has made progress on monitoring and surveillance, according to the needs identified.

Masami Takeuchi, Food Safety Officer and lead of the Residues of Veterinary Drugs in Food (RVDF) tool, outlined FAO’s efforts to enhance countries' capacity for active antimicrobial (AM) residue monitoring. She explained that AM residues are critical food safety concerns and are strongly linked to AMR, which results from the inappropriate use of antimicrobials. Reliable residue data—such as identifying which antimicrobials are present in food and in what quantities—provide a strong foundation for better AMR management. She added that the RVDF tool is now ready for wider use to assess countries’ capacity to test AM residues and to strengthen their monitoring systems.

Carmen Bullon, FAO Legal Officer, then went on to explain the outputs and outcomes of the ACT Tool, which has been developed to help countries to assess their legal infrastructures with regard to AMR governance, and the priority areas for reform. Again, each country has conducted an assessment, and each has identified a different priority area for legislative updates. In an indication of the value of this tool, other countries, for example, Kyrgyzstan, have expressed an interest in an ACT Tool assessment.

Myoengsin Choi, ACT project coordinator, provided an overview of awareness-raising activities that have been conducted, including communicating on the project through success stories, news and publications, and the development of communications tools for sharing key messages with different stakeholders. She also presented the results of the awareness survey in Bolivia, which showed that around of 90 percent of respondents are aware of antimicrobial resistance, but do not have a clear understanding of its impact and control measures. This finding underscored the need for further training. She concluded that since its inception in 2021, the ACT project has laid strong foundations for AMR management in the six project countries.

In closing the meeting, which concluded with many questions and points of interest from the representatives of the MFDS, Sarah Cahill, Codex Secretary and project budget holder, said “Thank you for your continued commitment to and engagement with Codex in battling and addressing antimicrobial resistance, because together, I believe, we can ensure that there’s robust, science-based and adaptable solutions that will help us to address the evolving challenges posed by antimicrobial resistance.”

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ACT project
InFARM
ATLASS Tool