Overview

Antibiotic resistance disproportionately affects low- and middle-income countries with low levels of health care access, sanitation infrastructure, training for human and animal health care professionals, and public health education. In these countries, the Global Antibiotic Resistance Partnership (GARP) created a platform for developing actionable policy proposals on antibiotic resistance to address the disparities. GARP’s current focus lies in generating and communicating cross-disciplinary evidence describing the impact of vaccines on antimicrobial resistance (AMR) mitigation in country-specific contexts.  

HISTORY 

Since 2008, GARP has played a critical role in advancing country-led national strategies and policies to address AMR in 15 countries in Africa and Asia. The first stage of GARP included three phases of adding member countries into our network of partners to control the spread of drug resistance. Phase one of GARP, which ran between 2008 and 2011, included participants from India, Kenya, South Africa, and Vietnam. Between 2012 and 2015, Mozambique, Nepal, Tanzania, and Uganda joined the second phase. The third phase, which began in 2016, included the countries of Bangladesh, Laos, Namibia, Nigeria, Pakistan, Seychelles, and Zimbabwe.  

In the first stage of GARP, we worked with member countries to contextualize AMR on national scales and provide policy recommendations to help meet World Health Organization goals for developing national action plans for AMR, and roadmaps for implementation. For stage two, we are currently working with member countries are working to highlight the role of vaccines in reducing the spread and emergence of AMR on local and regional levels. 

GARP MODEL 

At the heart of the GARP model is a technical working group of experts representing a range of disciplines in human, animal, and environmental health, ranging from academia and non-governmental organizations to faith-based organizations and the government. GARP country offices typically comprise of a chairperson, a co-chairperson, and a country coordinator, while in some countries, a principal investigator (PI) also joins the core team. Members of this core team, who are affiliated with prominent research institutions and universities in the member countries, facilitate regular interactions with technical working group members, and help organize webinars and in-person meetings on topics of relevance. The One Health Trust directly supports GARP activities in member countries both financially and logistically.