Antimicrobial resistance (AMR) is among the most significant global health concerns of our time. In 2019, 1.27 million deaths were attributed to resistant bacterial infections, and by 2050 it is predicted that AMR will cost upwards of $100USD trillion to the global economy, and account for 10 million deaths a year worldwide if no action is taken.
Antimicrobial resistance transcends borders, affecting communities in every region of the world. Poor and marginalized populations, where the burden of infectious diseases is highest, are among the most impacted by AMR, yet global discourse on policies and solutions often overlooks the challenges faced in these settings. Containing the spread of AMR, and avoiding a future where antimicrobials no longer work and common infections become potentially lethal, will require urgent and system-wide change.
Just Transitions for AMR brings together social science and humanities researchers from diverse backgrounds and differentially affected regions to discuss what a just and equitable transition will mean for containing and mitigating AMR.
Led by Dr Sonia Lewycka and Professor Phaik Yeong Cheah from the University of Oxford, the project centres around ‘Just Transitions’, a conceptual framework developed by the International Labour Organisation to guide climate action. The Just Transitions for AMR programme will explore how the concept could be adapted and used in the context of AMR.
The Just Transitions framework represents a different way of approaching systemic change, placing importance on effective social dialogue as a way to minimize challenges and maximize social and economic opportunities.
The aim is to mobilise the power of interdisciplinary thinking and multiple perspectives to develop a Just Transitions framework for AMR, opening new avenues of enquiry that allow us to identify and define what will be needed to mitigate AMR while also minimizing its negative impact on health, ecosystems, the economy and society. AMR is not simply a biological phenomenon, but a complex social problem, and meeting this challenge will require innovative methodologies but also global coordination and mobilisation of resources.
The ‘Just Transitions for AMR’ project will reframe AMR in social terms, transforming how governments and societies collectively respond to this global problem. Alongside its core team of researchers, key stakeholders (policy makers, civil society groups, intergovernmental organizations, local community leaders, industry) will also be actively engaged and involved in the co-creation of knowledge, that will then be fed directly into global AMR policy discourse. Harnessing synergies with Just Transitions for agriculture and climate will have wider planetary health benefits.
Six global meetings will be convened at the British Academy over the three-year project period with regional dialogues in Asia, Africa and Latin America. The ‘Just Transitions for AMR’ project is supported by the British Academy and was one of three projects awarded £1.5 million under the new Global Convening programmes.
