Youth leadership in One Health: AMR Awareness seminar

Spotlighting World Antimicrobial Awareness Week 2025

Background

The World Organisation for Animal Health (WOAH) actively supports the global effort to combat antimicrobial resistance (AMR), a growing threat to human, animal, and environmental health. WOAH’s Strategy on Antimicrobial Resistance and the Prudent Use of Antimicrobials aligns with the WHO Global Action Plan on AMR and recognises the importance of a “One Health” approach involving human and animal health, agricultural and environmental needs.

World AMR Awareness Week (WAAW) is observed annually from 18 to 24 November to promote awareness and encourage best practices among stakeholders to reduce the emergence and spread of AMR. In 2025, the WAAW theme is: “Act Now: Protect Our Present, Secure Our Future”, emphasising the urgent need for cross-sectoral action to address AMR.

However, though Members in the Asia Pacific and international organisations such as WOAH and United Nations agencies FAO, UNEP, and WHO have taken significant action to address AMR, public awareness still varies widely throughout the region and faces challenges. These include uneven education about AMR, and challenges in gathering official data for measuring awareness and behavioural change. Additionally, while many national strategies and activities have been drafted with a One Health approach, many still have gaps or fall short when addressing the animal health sector (focusing heavily on AMR with regards to human health).

A hybrid seminar for AMR awareness, for students and young professionals

Given this background, we organised a hybrid seminar at the University of Tokyo, Japan, to raise further awareness of AMR and international organisations’ efforts to address it through a One Health approach, focusing on the younger generation who are developing their careers.

The main audiences were students in Tokyo-based universities (in-person) and in the Asia Pacific region (online), as well as young professionals and any members of the public interested in AMR. The event aimed to introduce youth to how they can address AMR using One Health solutions, and how that matters for their careers.