FAO supported the Pakistan government to organize a workshop on October 24-26, 2022 in Islamabad, to assess the implementation status of Pakistan’s national action plan (NAP) on AMR in agrifood sectors. The 3-day workshop also aimed at identifying gaps and engaging food and agriculture stakeholders in the implementation of the NAP through participatory discussions of key stakeholders, including government sectors, academia and research institutions, private sectors, civil society organizations and FAO. More than 50 delegates participated in the workshop.

Mr. Farrukh Toirov, Deputy Representative FAO Pakistan, Dr. Peter Flanagan, Regional Coordinator, FAO RAP Office, Dr. Jorge Pinto Ferreira, Food Safety Officer FAO Head Quarter, Rome, Dr. Muhammad Akram, Animal Husbandry Commissioner/ Chief Veterinary Officer (CVO), Ministry of National Food Security and Research (MoNFSR), Dr. Muhammad Abubakar, National AMR Focal Person (Livestock), Dr. Muhammad Farooq Tareen, Director Planning, Livestock and Dairy Development Department, Balochistan, Dr. Qurban Ali, Veterinary Representative, Drug Regulatory Authority of Pakistan (DRAP) Dr. Zaffar Mahmood, Food Safety Consultant, Dr. Muhammad Afzal, Livestock Advisor, FAO Pakistan, and Dr. Farooq Tahir, National Project Coordinator, FAO Pakistan were among the other guest speakers at the workshop. Collectively, all these speakers highlighted the complex nature of AMR, identified key areas, need for surveillance, and the importance of active involvement and engagement of all the stakeholders.

The assessment was conducted using the FAO Progressive Management Pathway for AMR (FAO-PMP-AMR) tool. The assessment contains specific topics focusing on the agrifood sectors. These topics can be broadly categorized into 9 subjects and 4 focus areas (enhancing governance, raising awareness, collecting evidence, and enabling good practices). Under each topic, it lists four activities that correspond to each of the four stages that can be implemented by countries through a stepwise manner to progress towards optimal management of the AMR risk in the agrifood system. The assessment included plenary discussions among participants to reach agreement on each PMP activity whether it was included in the NAP and the status of implementation. The percentages of the results (coverage and implementation) were aggregated under each focus area and shown on the dashboard of the PMP tool.

The assessment was facilitated by Dr. Yu Qiu and Dr. Jorge Pinto Ferreira from the FAO headquarters. All the participants were actively engaged in the discussions during the assessment workshop. The assessment results showed that Pakistan has made progress in the NAP implementation in agrifood sectors, but still wide gaps existed across all the focus areas. The results were shared with all the participants for consensus post the workshop.

The workshop was funded by the Republic of Korea through the FAO AMR Codex Texts (ACT) project.