Dear Partners and Friends,
The President of the United Nations General Assembly has announced that the UN Multi-stakeholder Hearing on Antimicrobial Resistance (AMR) will take place on Wednesday, 15th May, 2024 at UN Headquarters in New York. The registration form for the Hearing can be accessed here. The deadline to register is 24 April 2024 at 12pm ET.
The Hearing will provide an opportunity for all relevant stakeholders to contribute to the ongoing preparatory process for the UN High-Level Meeting (UNHLM) on ARM and share the challenges faced by civil society and other stakeholders and the key actions needed in the fight against AMR.
The meeting will be a key opportunity to highlight the drug-resistant TB (DR-TB) emergency, which is a leading cause of death among antimicrobial resistant infections, with 410,000 people developing DR-TB and 160,000 deaths caused by DR-TB in 2022.
We note the significant challenges posed by the announcement of the meeting only five weeks before it takes place, and that the short notice will prevent many partners from securing visas and making travel arrangements in time to attend. Despite these challenges, we encourage all relevant stakeholders to register to participate in the meeting, whether in-person or virtually.
Below are additional details provided by the President of the UN General Assembly.
Format: The hearing will take place from 10am-4:45pm and include an opening segment, three interactive panel discussions, and a closing segment. Each panel discussion will include statements from panelists, to be followed by an interactive segment. There will be no pre-established list of speakers and participants will be invited to indicate their interest to intervene during the panels.
Panel 1: Adequate, predictable, and sustainable financing of and investments in the AMR response to support country-level implementation
Panel 2: Addressing antimicrobial access, research and development (R&D), and innovation
Panel 3: Effective governance, leadership, and coordination of the AMR response at the national, regional and global levels
Outcomes: The President of the General Assembly will prepare a summary of the hearing prior to the UN High-Level Meeting on AMR.
Audience: The multi-stakeholder hearing will bring together representatives of regional organizations, non-governmental organizations in consultative status with the Economic and Social Council, invited civil society organizations, philanthropic foundations, academia, medical associations, and the private sector including the agriculture and food industry, broader communities, as well as appropriate senior-level representatives of Member States, observers of the General Assembly, parliamentarians, representatives of local governments, and relevant United Nations entities.
In addition, The Stop TB Partnership is currently coordinating the development of Key TB Asks for the UNHLM on AMR, which we will share by the end of this month. We encourage all partners to share these key asks once they launch with their political leaders and to request their inclusion in the Political Declaration that is expected to be agreed at the UNHLM on AMR on 26th September during the UN General Assembly in New York.