5.3 Assessment of existing infrastructure

Countries are likely to be at different stages of development and implementation of their AMR NAPs. An assessment of existing policies, activities, surveillance systems, and local and national cross-sector collaborative frameworks is an essential step in understanding the local context of AMR surveillance. An assessment of this kind is also likely to be the first step needed when initiating plans for an AMR surveillance system, so that technical working groups and stakeholders can get an overview of the current status of AMR and AMC in a given country. A checklist of activities can then follow, based on the GAP-AMR framework, prioritising any discrepancies identified in the country’s assessment. These can then be incorporated into a NAP.

This assessment will also assist in the selection of NCC, NRL and surveillance sites (see Section 3), together making up a functional national AMR surveillance system. Utilising and/or building on, wherever possible, existing expertise allows national AMR surveillance systems to rapidly develop the ability to systematically collect the relevant information.