The Global Strategy Lab welcomes the new Global Action Plan on Antimicrobial Resistance, adopted at the 2026 World Health Assembly and World Organisation for Animal Health (WOAH) Assembly and particularly appreciates the inclusion of a new objective on One Health Governance.
This new objective recognizes that effective AMR action requires more than technical interventions. It depends on the laws, institutions, coordination mechanisms, incentives, and relationships that enable countries to act across human health, animal health, agriculture, food systems, and the environment.
GSL and its AMR Policy Accelerator have contributed to this shift by advancing research, policy analysis, and practical tools that frame AMR as a social, political, equity, and governance challenge.
Through our work on new conceptions of AMR, we brought together social science and AMR policy experts to examine how antimicrobial use and resistance are shaped by structural inequities, institutional conditions, economic pressures, environmental factors, and complex human decision-making. A related policy brief, Using Social Sciences to Inform the Global Action Plan on AMR, highlighted how social science perspectives can strengthen the design and implementation of national and global AMR strategies.
GSL’s research on One Health governance also informs the implementation of the new GAP-AMR objective. It shows that there is no single model for effective governance. Instead, countries need adaptable approaches grounded in local realities, institutional contexts, political conditions, and multisectoral priorities.
To support implementation at the national level, the AMR Policy Accelerator has also developed the Smart Choice Process, a transparent, multisectoral process that helps governments prioritize National Action Plan activities. By facilitating structured dialogue across One Health sectors, the Process helps countries identify feasible, high-impact, and context-specific AMR interventions.
As countries and partners move from renewed global commitment to implementation, GSL will continue to support efforts to strengthen One Health governance, integrate social science evidence into AMR policy, and help governments translate the updated GAP-AMR into practical national action.
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