From dialogue to progress: Strengthening global AMR governance

2026-05-20

Antibiotic resistance is a global catastrophic risk already causing over 1.1 million deaths annually and threatening global health and economic development. ReAct’s latest policy brief, From Dialogue to Progress, argues that while the global governance architecture has expanded, the current system remains fragmented with unclear mandates, funding shortages, and significant accountability gaps.

Ahead of the fifth Global High-Level Ministerial Conference on AMR convening in Abuja, this ReAct brief takes stock of the ministerial meeting mechanism as a distinct and increasingly significant element of the global AMR governance architecture.

This brief focuses specifically on how the ministerial process has evolved, what previous meetings have delivered, and how it can be further institutionalized to strengthen accountability and continuity.

It also draws on lessons from the history of AMR ministerial meetings since 2014 as well as comparative experiences from other global health and development areas.

Ultimately, AMR should be reframed as a systemic development challenge integrated within the wider global health architecture. The outcome of the Abuja Ministerial Meeting, and what happens in the following years, will shape not only the trajectory of the AMR response, but will likely also influence the evolution of the broader multilateral governance system for complex cross-sectoral development challenges. Addressing AMR effectively requires the kind of sustained, coordinated and inclusive global health and development governance architecture that the international community has long struggled to establish. Strengthening the ministerial meeting mechanism is one important part of that effort – and of the wider challenge of ensuring that global health governance can evolve to meet increasingly interconnected risks.