Movement building in practice
Community and civil society mobilization is critical for a strong and sustainable action on antibiotic resistance. To be able to reach the strategic objectives in this plan, ReAct has identified community and civil society mobilization as a critical enabler and way of working.
Why?
Communities and civil society are often not sufficiently included in the National Action Plan (NAP) implementation and decision-making processes. Many of the interventions employ top-down approaches, where local communities’ particular challenges are not well accounted for, especially in poorer, low-resource settings. Actors with the potential to anchor initiatives and create bottom-up action are typically not mobilized, resulting in missed opportunities for champions from non-governmental organizations, civil society and professional societies, to take part in the implementation of national action plans.
Community engagement
ReAct is a unique organization with presence on five continents and with links to civil society, communities, as well as academia, international organizations and governments. By developing evidence-based narratives on how areas such as universal health care, sustainable food production and poverty reduction are intimately tied to and impacted by antibiotic resistance, ReAct can encourage and inspire movements, organizations, individuals, professional societies and experts working on these issues to start addressing antibiotic resistance in their spheres of work.
Addressing antibiotic resistance across sectors
As more organizations, movements and communities start to engage with antibiotic resistance, ReAct will seek to use existing or create new forums that can facilitate the building of strategic connections and collective mobilization to address antibiotic resistance across sectors. Several of ReAct’s initiatives are using this bottom-up approach, such as Antibiotic Smart Communities, health in the hands of the community, empowered communities against antimicrobial resistance (AMR), etc.
How can ReAct achieve change?
ReAct will seed and develop new opportunities for broader community engagement using an antibiotic resistance-specific lens to their issue areas, from professional society, communities, and patient groups to relevant actors working in the animal and environmental fields.
We will encourage collective action by civil society actors, through the continued work of the Antibiotic Resistance Coalition, and by developing joint positions and campaigns that influence policy making and accountability by global, regional or national governance structures.
ReAct will support the training and cultivation of future champions of antibiotic resistance, particularly among those entering the healthcare professions. This includes helping the establishment of regional networks of champions in Africa, Asia and Latin America to establish a collective voice and build capacity, in order to hold governments accountable and engage in national and global governance structures.