News and Opinions  –  2023

Community engagement – education and advocacy materials!

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2024-01-30

In the fall of 2023, ReAct, Uppsala Antibiotic Center and Antibiotic Smart Sweden arranged a webinar and workshop series for promoting a systematic and meaningful engagement of communities and civil society groups as key stakeholders in the global response to antibiotic resistance.

Learn more below and access educational material from the initiative: the summary report, two webinars, two keynote speeches and a podcast episode about community engagement and antibiotic resistance.

Below you find educational material from the community engagement series held during the fall of 2023.

Why community engagement and antibiotic resistance?

Community engagement and civil society mobilization is critical for a robust health response, and especially critical for:

  • promoting people-centered services in health
  • supporting quality of services
  • assuring the sustainability of health advocacy and
  • the responsiveness of health systems.

Hence, communities are key actors in holding stakeholders accountable, advocating for behavior change, and identifying solutions that meet their specific needs.

The meeting series featured two online webinars in September and October, and a hybrid workshop in November 2023. Some participants also joined us in a podcast episode on their view of community engagement.

EDUCATION & ADVOCACY MATERIALS

1. Summary report:
Impactful approaches for community-wide engagement on antibiotic resistance

Social media card for the report. Click to download report.
Click image to learn more and download the Summary Report of the Community Engagement Series.

The summary report “Impactful approaches for community-wide engagement on antibiotic resistance” summarizes key ideas from discussions between participants at the workshop and webinars.

2. Webinar 1:
A conversation about approaches to community engagement on antibiotic resistance across the globe

Click image for larger version.

Date: 26 September 2023

Look at recording

A conversation about approaches to community engagement on antibiotic resistance across the globe

Together we explored approaches and key learnings from community engagement initiatives on antibiotic resistance worldwide.

The webinar

  • Provides an overview of existing community engagement initiatives in the context of antibiotic resistance
  • Presents insights into ongoing initiatives from both high- and low-and-middle-income countries
  • Explores key learnings from related fields

Panelists

  • Camilla Björn, Researcher and Project leader at the Research Institute of Sweden (RISE)
  • Rebecca King, Associate Professor in International Health in the Nuffield Centre for International Health and Development at University of Leeds
  • Florence Anam, Co-Executive Director at the Global Network of People Living with HIV (GNP+)
  • Daniel Waruingi, Co-founder and Head of Programs at Students Against Superbugs Africa (SAS)

Moderator: Kerstin Åkerfeldt, ReAct

3. Webinar 2:
A conversation on evaluation and impact of community engagement on antibiotic resistance

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Date: 25 October 2023

Look at recording

A conversation on evaluation and impact of community engagement on antibiotic resistance

Together we explored what “success” looks like for community engagement initiatives.

Building on the learnings from webinar 1, we discussed potential ways and indicators for measuring and evaluating the impact and benefits that these initiatives have for society and in addressing global challenges such as antibiotic resistance.

Panelists

  • Satya Sivaraman, Communications Coordinator at ReAct Asia-Pacific
  • Diane Ashiru, Lead Pharmacist at the UK Health Security Agency and Deputy Chief Scientist at the Royal Pharmaceutical Society
  • Sonali Johnson, Head of Knowledge, Advocacy and Policy at the Union for International Cancer Control (UICC)
  • Till Bachmann, Chair of Molecular Diagnostics and Infection at the Center of Inflammation Research at University of Edinburgh and Diagnostics for One health and user driven Solutions for AMR

Moderator: Rebecca King, CE4AMR

The key learnings from the webinars set the basis for the final workshop, where they were integrated into discussions to inform future work on community engagement on antibiotic resistance.

4. Workshop:
An exchange on effective strategies for impactful community engagement in the global response to antibiotic resistance

Participants of the workshop held at Uppsala University. There were also additional participants joining the workshop online. Photo: ReAct

Date: 29 November 2023
Place: Uppsala, Sweden, and online

  • The aim of this workshop was to facilitate in-depth discussions on current challenges and gaps, potential solutions and strategies related to community engagement for a strong whole-of-society approach to antibiotic resistance.
  • The workshop also provided a platform for discussing community engagement on antibiotic resistance within a wider political context, such as the 2024 UN General Assembly High-level Meeting on Antimicrobial Resistance.

Watch recordings of keynotes

Keynote presentation: Reha Lobo, award winning filmmaker and TB survivor

Keynote presentation: Dr. Tiina Likki from the WHO Regional Office for Europe behavioral insights unit

More about the workshop

Community Engagement Workshop on AMR

More about the Summary report from the workshop and the two webinars (article and link to PDF)

5. Podcast episode about community engagement to address antibiotic resistance

How can we prevent antibiotic resistance together? Listen to a pod-episode about community engagement and how important this is in acting on antibiotic resistance. In the episode you meet eigh guests bringing their perspectives on what communities and community engagement are, how community engagement can be essential on the road to mitigate the effects of resistance globally, and what they hope happens in this area in the short future.

Podcast episode: Community Engagement in AMR

About the initiative

Building on current work and experiences involving community engagement and civil society mobilization, this initiative aimed to explore impactful and effective approaches for community engagement to address antibiotic resistance in diverse settings and contexts across the globe. It showcases different methods used, highlighting barriers and enablers for community engagement as well as success factors and ways to measure impact. A key purpose was also to support student learning and exchanges on community engagement and antibiotic resistance, actively involving students and highlighting youth ideas and perspectives.

Organizers:

Antibiotic Smart Sweden – a collaborative initiative led by the Swedish Public Health Agency, RISE Research Institutes of Sweden, the Swedish Strategic Program against Antimicrobial Resistance (Strama) and ReAct Europe.

Uppsala Antibiotic Center at Uppsala University – An international center for research, education and innovation in the area of antibiotics and antibiotics resistance.

ReAct – an independent global network for concerted action on Antibiotic Resistance.

The initiative was supported with funding from Uppsala University (including from the Undergraduate and Master’s Education Committee at the Faculty of Medicine (GRUNK)), the Swedish International Development Cooperation Agency (Sida), and Vinnova. The organizing team involves staff from the Faculty of Humanities and Faculty of Medicine at Uppsala University.

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