News and Opinions  –  2024

ReAct expands its work!

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2024-02-28

2024 is a crucial year to mobilize for stronger action on antibiotic resistance and ReAct is proud to be able to further expand its work this year. We are initiating new collaborations at local, national and global level. The financial support from our donors makes this work possible!

Photo: Shutterstock.

The world is nowhere near being able to prevent or tackle the widespread pain and suffering that difficult-to-treat bacterial infections are increasingly causing to people, animals, environment, the global economy and societies.

2024 is a crucial year for global engagement

2024 is a crucial year requiring renewed commitments to address antibiotic resistance. The UN high-level meeting on Antimicrobial Resistance, to be held in New York in September 2024, offers a unique opportunity. The meeting needs to be a pivotal moment in our common global response to antibiotic resistance. It must be a meeting where global leaders make political commitments that lead to concrete actions.

Time is ticking: Work to be done everywhere and at all times

Time is ticking. Photo: Shutterstock.

Time is ticking and work to address antibiotic resistance needs to happen everywhere and at all times: in local communities, classrooms, in universities, work places, in small scale farms as well as big food production chains, in primary healthcare centers and hospitals – and it can leave no one behind. The response and commitment should include access to effective antibiotics at the core. It is a matter of equity.

ReAct expands its work in 2024

Photo from a ReAct Asia Pacific photo competition. Photo: Ashna Basheer.

ReAct is proud to be able to further expand its work in 2024. The network is initiating new collaborations at different levels, including support to governments and other agencies and their initiatives to drive global, regional, national and sub-national actions. ReAct is ready to do even more!

ReAct Asia Pacific – National & State Action Plans and Antibiotic Smart Communities

Demonstration of soap manufacturing for students by as part of the Antibiotic Smart Communities Project. Photo: Vishak Kumar.

As of beginning 2024, ReAct Asia Pacific is hosted by the Global institute of Public Heath in Kerala, India.

  • ReAct Asia Pacific will engage with National and State Action Plans on AMR in India. The node will also continue to build on and replicate tailored models of “Antibiotic Smart Communities” pilots in the region.
  • The node will also continue to engage students including medical, nursing, and paramedical students as future AMR ambassadors.
  • Discussions are being held with key government functionaries and non-governmental stakeholders such as the Indian Medical Association to decide on future expansion of work among private healthcare providers.
  • Civil society organizations are also being contacted to scale up ReAct’s work in community mobilization.

ReAct Africa – antimicrobial stewardship in focus

Professor Roma Chilengi, Director General of the Zambia National Public Health Institute and Dr. Mirfin Mpundu, Director ReAct Africa, at the launch of the new stewardship programme in Zambia. Photo: Kalichi Pictures.
  • ReAct Africa has expanded its team and will initiate an innovative approach to antimicrobial stewardship. This approach, developed in partnership with LifeArc, is called ASPIRE (Antibiotic Stewardship Programme through Innovation, Research, & Education), which will be implemented in two countries over three years, drawing on many years of learning. AI technology will also be incorporated.
  • The One Health model of antimicrobial stewardship, which was piloted in Zambia through the Zambian Strategic Program for Antimicrobial Stewardship (ZASPARS) and adapted from Sweden’s successful STRAMA program, will be expanded to other countries with local adaptations.
  • ReAct Africa will also continue its partnership with ICARS, to support the implementation of National Action Plans on AMR across the region, also with support from Wellcome Trust.

ReAct Latin America – promoting change from communities to national and global level

Children and grown ups biked together for health in Cuenca, Ecuador. An initiative by ReAct Latin America. Photo: ReAct Latin America.
  • ReAct Latin America will expand in its unique role by driving change from the community level to national and global level, for example through the “Empowered Communities Initiative”, a collaboration with PAHO and South Centre.
  • Children as agents for change is another key area of work, and ReAct will continue engaging school children through its educational initiative “Alforja Educativa”.
  • ReAct Latin America is also engaged in several other initiatives around awareness, education and communications involving community promoters, social activists and artists to generate trust, energy while contributing to the construction of an alternative metaphor to that of the war against bacteria, promoting appropriate of antibiotics and use of a One Health approach.

ReAct Europe – policy processes in EU and globally and Antibiotic Smart Sweden

Her Royal Highness-Crown Princess Victoria and Jakob Forssmed Minister for Social Affairs and Public Health, Sweden, discussing.

Her Royal Highness-Crown Princess Victoria and Jakob Forssmed, Minister for Social Affairs and Public Health, Sweden, discussing in front of a poster about the STRAMA network. This is at an exhibition at the EU high-level meeting on AMR, held in Stockholm, Sweden in 2023. Photo: Photo: Johannes Frandsen, Government Offices Sweden.
  • ReAct Europe will continue to engage in policy processes both in EU and globally for stronger governance on antibiotic resistance and more equitable access to effective antibiotics.
  • With support from the Global Challenges Foundation Sweden, ReAct is gathering key stakeholders to address the issue of global governance.
  • ReAct Europe is also working on Antibiotic Smart Sweden, which promotes a whole-of-society approach, funded by Sweden’s innovation institute Vinnova.

Joint initiatives across the nodes

The four regional ReAct nodes are also working on several joint initiatives and projects, both through knowledge-sharing, building a coalition of dedicated champions, influencing decision-makers and engagement at a high level.

The upcoming UN High-Level meeting on AMR in September 2024 offers an important opportunity to accelerate the efforts in addressing antimicrobial resistance. Across the four nodes, ReAct is now enthusiastically preparing an ambitious plan to mobilize for successful outcomes of the meeting.

Financial support makes ReAct’s work possible!

money in four glass jars with plants growing from the money
Photo: Nattanan23, Pixabay.

The financial support from our donors makes our work possible and ReAct is therefore pleased to continue the collaborations with its main funder, the Swedish International Development Agency (Sida) for the activities in 2024.

ReAct has several other collaborations and in the coming year the network is aiming to develop additional partnerships and diversify its donor landscape further. ReAct is ready to do more to tackle this ongoing health crisis of antibiotic resistance!

Support us!

Every donation – small or large – will help. Private donations to ReAct globally or to the regional nodes will help ReAct fulfill its vision: a world free from untreatable infections.

Learn more: how to support ReAct and our work! 

ReAct does not accept funding support from the pharmaceutical industry. 

ReAct’s Strategic Plan: 3 core focus areas

1. Promoting governance structures on antibiotic resistance, including sufficient funding to implement National Action Plans on AMR, that are transparent, accountable and responsive to low- and middle-income countries needs – with a framework in place to actively engage with civil society.

Learn more about focus area: Governance & funding of the work on antibiotic resistance

2. That a One Health approach is advanced to minimize spread of antibiotic resistance that is responsive to low- and middle-income countries needs, and with a strong focus on One Health AMR National Action Plans implementation, health systems strengthening and community engagement.

Learn more about focus area: One Health AMR National Action Plans – focus on health systems strengthening

3. That a public health driven approach for development and delivery of new antibiotics and diagnostics – where access for people in low- and middle-income countries is central – will take stronger root among governments and international institutions.

Learn more about focus area: Public health driven innovation & access to antibiotics & diagnostics

Critical to involve civil society and communities

To achieve the three above objectives civil society and community mobilization is critical for a strong and sustainable action on antibiotic resistance. To be able to reach the strategic objectives, ReAct has identified community and civil society mobilization as a critical enabler and way of working.

Learn more about the critical enabler: Community and civil society mobilization.

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