Building Bridges for Antimicrobial Resistance: Malawi–Kenya Community of Practice Exchange

A week-long peer learning visit—hosted by Kenya’s Ministry of Health and the Kenya National Public Health Institute (KNPHI), and supported by the ECSA Health Community through the World Bank–funded Health Emergency Preparedness, Response and Resilience (HEPRR) project—brought Malawi’s AMR Coordinating Committee together with Kenya’s National Antimicrobial Stewardship Interagency Committee (NASIC) to translate One Health AMR National Action Plans from paper to practice.

Our Community of Practice (CoP) in action

• Curating peers & defining “good”: turning lessons into ready-to-use tools across countries.
• Practical problem-solving: governance, IPC, laboratory capacity, antimicrobial stewardship, and regulation.
• Twinning & mentorship: continuous support and a living library of best practices for scale.

Week’s Highlights

• Joint sessions with NASIC/KNPHI on governance, IPC, surveillance, stewardship, and regulation.
• Front-row seat at Kenya’s annual AMR surveillance convening (ILRI): 22 Fleming Fund sites across human, animal, and environmental sectors shared a six-year journey implementing the National AMR Surveillance Strategy, including solutions for sustainable financing.
• Technical walk-throughs: Central Veterinary Investigation Laboratory and the National Public Health Laboratory (KNPHI), home to the AMR Central Data Warehouse.
• Regulatory dialogue: with the Pharmacy and Poisons Board on antimicrobial consumption surveillance and market oversight, including the Kenya Surveillance System of Antimicrobial Consumption (KESAC).
• Subnational practice in Nyeri County: It was a pleasure to learn about the County Antimicrobial Stewardship Interagency Committee (CASIC) and its role in coordinating AMR activities. The visit also highlighted the integration of AMR, IPC, AMS, and quality improvement at the County Referral Hospital, as well as the Karatina Veterinary Laboratory’s commitment to providing seven-days-a-week laboratory services

What’s next

Through CoP-led twinning and mentorship, Malawi–Kenya pairs will keep sharing fixes that stick—sustaining action, accelerating adoption, and delivering measurable outcomes.

With gratitude to all partners and teams who made this collaboration possible. The ECSA Health Community remains committed to fostering regional cooperation for better health.

Photos Link: https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1oX9OAc8JrOzmbDQs7EAF_f6-g7F7u2gP?usp=sharing