Sierra Leone National Strategic Plan for Combating Antimicrobial Resistance 2018-2022.

The National Strategic Plan for Combating Antimicrobial Resistance 2018-2022 is a national cross-sectoral plan of Sierra Leone. Its main objective is to ensure, for as long as possible in Sierra Leone, continuity of successful treatment and prevention of infectious diseases with medicines that are quality-assured, prescribed and used responsibly, and accessible to all who need them at a price that they can afford.
More specifically, the Plan provides to define the strategic priorities, key actions, responsibilities, timelines and budget for AMR activities, define and strengthen organizational & management structures for intra- and inter-sectoral coordination within a One Health approach; to achieve better understanding and awareness of AMR, strengthened surveillance, prevention of emergence and spread of resistant microbes through infection prevention and control, optimized use of antibiotics in all sectors, and enhanced investments for AMR activities, communications, research and innovations; to improve international collaboration and capacities for antimicrobial resistance prevention, surveillance, control and antibiotic research and development; and to enable monitoring and evaluation (M&E) of the NAP implementation.
Notably, the Plan aims to establish evidence based public communication programmes targeting audiences in the human, animal health and crop production sectors; to improve awareness on AMR among food and agriculture stakeholders; to strengthen laboratory and diagnostic capacity to monitor AMR and antimicrobial residue at national and regional level in the animal health and agricultural sector; to strengthen laboratory capacity to monitor AMR at national and regional level in the environment sector; to develop a Geographic Information System (GIS) Map indicating contaminated and sampling sites in Sierra Leone; to establish antimicrobial use surveillance in animal health and agriculture sectors; to establish AMR surveillance in environmental sector; to introduce infection prevention and control programmes in agricultural settings and animal husbandry; to encourage continued increases in vaccination rates at veterinary and human health facilities to prevent infection; to reduce environmental contamination with resistant pathogens and antimicrobial residues; and to ensure prudent use of antimicrobial agents in terrestrial and aquatic animals and agriculture.
Individual Ministries/ institutions/bodies will have the responsibility for keeping tract on the relevant strategic plan activities and feeding information, findings and recommendations into the overall M and E process. A mid-term review will be done after two years to monitor the implementation of the strategic plan. End of year one review will be done in 2019 and end of term evaluation will be conducted in 2022.