Global Action on Antimicrobial, Resistance (AMR): Priorities of Low-and Middle-income countries

Amit Khurana heads CSE’s Sustainable Food Systems Programme. A member of CSE’s top management group for almost a decade, Amit has been working to push for necessary change in policy and practice towards food systems, which are sustainable for livelihood of farmers, health of people and the environment and climate. He mainly focuses on containing antimicrobial resistance from food systems and environmental routes and upscalingagroecology-based and resilient agriculture. He engages with stakeholders in India, Asia and Africa and also informs global discourse and guidance.

Dr Nyemazi works at the World Health Organization (WHO) as the Acting Director of the Global Coordination and Partnership Department. He is also serving as the Interim Director of the Quadripartite Joint Secretariat on AMR, coordinating a quadripartite team (FAO, UNEP, WHO and WOAH) focusing on multisectoral activities against AMR, and supporting the Global Governance Structures for AMR. Before joining WHO, DrNyemaziwas the Permanent Secretary of the Ministry of Health of Rwanda.

Dr Chandy is Executive Director at ICARS (International Centre for Antimicrobial Resistance Solutions), Denmark. He attained his MBBS and MD at Christian Medical College Vellore, a PhD from Karolinska Institutet, Stockholm, and is currently a member of the WHO Strategic and Technical Advisory Group on AMR.

At ICARS, his team works with LMIC governments and research institutions globally to co-develop contextual cost-effective solutions for one health issues using intervention and implementation research. Dr. Chandy’s interests include global health, medicine safety, medicine management and pharmaceutical ethics. His passion however is to focus on tackling AMR through the appropriate use of antibiotics and other relevant strategies.

Ms. Menghaney is a human rights lawyer working in public health, initially through her work to increase access to life-saving AIDS treatment and later expanding into efforts aimed at enhancing access to Viral Hepatitis, DR-TB, antibiotics, vaccines and COVID therapeutics in India and South-East Asia. Presently she serves as the India Head and Global IP Advisor for the Access Campaign at Medecins Sans Frontieres/Doctors Without Borders. In this role, Leena facilitates collaborations between MSF medical and pharmaceutical experts, legal aid lawyers, the people’s health movement, feminist organisations, and patient groups. Her focus is on improving access to affordable vaccines, medicines, and diagnostics in low and middle-income countries, addressing diseases such as HIV, drug-resistant TB, Hepatitis, cancer, and AMR, with a special emphasis on vulnerable and marginalised populations. Alongside her advocacy work, Leena contributes regularly to health journalism, providing insights and articles to independent media outlets.

Dr Alimi is a Doctor of Veterinary Medicine, with a degree from the Universityof Ibadan, Nigeria; she also holds a Master’sin Public Health from the University of Nottingham in UK. She serves as the One Health Unit Lead at Africa CDC and co-leads the Africa Union Task Force on AMR. Dr Alimi has been pivotal in developing and executing comprehensive strategies that seamlessly integrate human, animal and environmental health concerns.

At Africa CDC,she oversees the implementation of various strategies, including the Africa Union Framework for AMR Control and Africa CDC's Framework for One Health Practice. She has also contributed as a One Health Technical Advisor for the Global Emerging Pathogens Treatment Consortium and as a member of the Scientific Task Force to Prevent Pandemics at the Source for the Harvard Global Health Institute (HGHI) and the Harvard TH Chan School of Public Health Center.

With over a decade of expertise, DrAlimi has significantly strengthened the technical capacity of African Union Member States in preventing and controlling infectious diseases using a One Health approach.

Dr Heng graduated with MBBS in 1998 from Universiti Malaya and obtained his post graduate MRCP qualifications in 2003 from the UK. He then specialised in Infectious disease under the Malaysian Ministry of Health training program which culminated in a 1 year attachment with the Victorian Infectious Disease Unit in Royal Melbourne Hospital in 2009. Since then, Dr Benedict Sim has served as an infectious disease consultant in Hospital Sungai Buloh and a visiting consultant to other Klang Valley Hospitals and state hospitals in Malaysia. He currently coordinates technical working group 1 in the National Antimicrobial Resistance committee that oversees education and awareness of AMR in the country.

He has published papers in many fields of infectious disease including HIV, infection control, dengue, TB, antimicrobial stewardship etc. He sits on national and state committees that supervises efforts in prevention and treatment of novel infections, antimicrobial stewardship, antibiotic guidelines, HIV care, dengue mortalities, TB programs and other infectious disease prevention, control and treatment programs.

Rajeshwari Sinha leads the AMR vertical in CSE’s Sustainable Food Systems unit. Her work integrates science and policy aspects of AMR in areas of health, food systems and environment. She engages with global and national stakeholders to research, advocate and push for necessary changes in policy and practice that could help contain AMR. Rajeshwari also contributes frequently to print and other media platforms. She holds a doctor’s degree in microbial biochemistry from the Indian Institute of Technology of Delhi. She is also an alumna of the Indian Institute of Management, Calcutta.