Delivering on AMR Commitments: The Evolving AMR Accountability Index

15 September 2026, 10:00 to 11:30 (CEST)

Event highlights

This online side event, held in the weeks preceding the 76th session of the WHO Regional Committee for Europe, outlined the background, methodology and progress in developing an AMR Accountability Index – a new tool designed to track progress on addressing antimicrobial resistance (AMR) and to identify priority interventions

The index was piloted in 6 Member States (Ireland, Kazakhstan, Malta, Serbia, Sweden and the United Kingdom) by WHO/Europe in partnership with the London School of Economics and Political Science (LSE) Health and an independent expert group.

Event participants, including Member State focal points on AMR, infection prevention and control (IPC) and antimicrobial consumption, learned about the experiences of 2 countries involved in the pilots – Ireland and Kazakhstan – and had the opportunity to ask questions about the Index and plans for its future implementation.

The need and purpose of the AMR Accountability Index

Kicking off the event, Dr Ihor Perehinets, Regional Emergency and Health Security Director, WHO/Europe, underlined the sizeable burden of AMR in the WHO European Region, estimated at 133 000 deaths each year, and stressed the urgent need to translate policy commitments into effective actions.

Although Member States have set out their ambitions through national action plans, and collectively, through the Roadmap on Antimicrobial Resistance for the WHO European Region 2023–2030, these alone are not sufficient to monitor implementation.

Indeed, as Dr Emily O’Neill, a research fellow at the LSE stated, worldwide 178 countries have adopted national action plans on AMR, yet only 11% have sufficient funding and are monitoring their implementation. Despite the breadth of different data available, there is no single tool allowing countries to review progress over time across a comprehensive set of indicators measuring AMR action. Bridging this gap, the new AMR Accountability Index:

• builds on and aggregates data from existing tools;
• showcases best practices;
• highlights areas needing attention;
• motivates countries to adopt best practices to strengthen their AMR Accountability Index scores;
• increases accountability in AMR policy;
• improves AMR policy awareness and transparency; and
• facilitates a knowledge transfer between sectors and countries.

How the Index works

Comprising 63 indicators, aligned with the 5 action areas and 6 enablers in the Roadmap on the Antimicrobial Resistance, the Index helps countries answer 3 practical questions:

• Where are we making progress on AMR? 
• Where are our commitments not yet translated into practice?
• Where should we focus our next efforts? 

As Dr Perehinets pointed out, it is also important to be clear on what the Index is not:

• It is not intended to rank countries. 
• It is not intended to reduce complex national realities to a single score, given countries have different health systems, resources, capacities and starting points.
• It is not intended to compare for the sake of comparison; it is about making informed choices, following them through and seeing the progress itself. 

Dr Malin Grape, Chair of the AMR Accountability Index independent expert group also stated: “The first and key guiding principle is, of course, to make this tool as useful as possible for countries in implementing their national action plans, to use the existing data and really turn it into actionable recommendations, and not just to measure, but to really drive change”.

Learning from the pilot countries

Speaking at the event, representatives from Ireland and Kazakhstan highlighted the value of the Index in enhancing multisectoral collaboration and bringing together fragmented data sets into one place to facilitate a One Health approach to tackling AMR.

Participation in the pilots also helped countries identify both data collection gaps and practical opportunities to strengthen national strategies, such as improving surveillance across sectors and health-care settings, and better understanding AMR and IPC workforce capacity. Countries saw the Index as a useful tool to support evidence-based policy-making and to strengthen accountability and transparency regarding commitments made in AMR plans.

The process of Index development and implementation

Taking learnings from trials of the Index in 6 pilot countries in spring 2026, the independent expert group met in June 2026 to finalize the indicators and scoring approach.

It is planned that the Index and its accompanying guide will be published by the end of 2026, supported by a digital platform that will draw on existing data sources to make the data collection and reporting process as efficient and as low burden as possible. Countries should therefore be able to use the Index to support implementation of their national action plans from 2027.

Event notice

At the 73rd session of the WHO Regional Committee for Europe in 2023, Member States endorsed the Roadmap on Antimicrobial Resistance for the WHO European Region 2023–2030. The endorsement included a request to WHO/Europe to establish a monitoring, evaluation and accountability framework to oversee the Roadmap’s implementation.

In response, WHO/Europe and the London School of Economics developed the Antimicrobial Resistance Accountability Index, with guidance from an Independent Expert Group and input from Member States. The Index comprises 63 indicators aligned with the Roadmap’s five action areas and six enablers. It is designed to support countries in reviewing the implementation of their national AMR action plans, helping them to identify gaps and priorities, highlight good practices and strengthen accountability.

Following pilots in six Member States and wider consultations across the Region, the side event will take participants through the Index and the next steps towards its implementation. Participants will hear reflections from pilot countries on their experiences of applying the Index, as well as perspectives from members of the Independent Expert Group. Member States will also be invited to share their broader views on how the Index and its results could support AMR action and inform its longer-term application.

This is part of a series of side events to be held in the weeks preceding the 76th session of the WHO Regional Committee for Europe (RC76), engaging delegates, partners and health experts on developments, initiatives, tools and new reports relevant to health across the Region.

This event is being organized for representatives of Member States. Participation is by invitation only.