Guide for the development of national One Health roadmaps on antimicrobial resistance in the Western Balkans

The overall aim of this joint ECDC and European Food Safety Authority (EFSA) initiative is to strengthen national capacities to implement EU acquis on AMR as part of the EU enlargement process. It is suggested that the technical recommendations provided in the country visit report are addressed in a comprehensive and prioritised national action plan.

This guide presents the methodology and supporting documents that can be used to develop a comprehensive, time-bound and budgeted national One Health roadmap on AMR. The goal of the methodology is to develop one cohesive national plan to support country-wide adherence to international policies and strategies, in line with guidance on AMR from the World Health organization (WHO), the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) and the World Organisation for Animal Health (WOAH) [2,3,4]. The guide also outlines the roles and responsibilities of national and external stakeholders, as well as the external contractor, in the roadmap’s development.

A national One Health roadmap on AMR presents a list of costed activities organised by goals and objectives with indicators to monitor the implementation of the recommendations proposed following country visit. The roadmap could also serve to identify actions that are compromised by insufficient national funding, offering insight into where implementation could be supported by the EU, other partners, external stakeholders, donors or international organisations.

The content, dates and time frames of the roadmap development should be defined in close communication with the country-designated contact points so that the resulting roadmap accurately represents the current regional and national initiatives related to AMR.