Country Grants

The Fleming Fund Country Grants programme will assist countries to collect high quality data relevant to antimicrobial resistance (AMR). This data will cover AMR and drug resistant infections, and the use of antimicrobial medicines in human and animal health, agriculture and aquaculture.

By 2022, the Fleming Fund will have helped 24 low and middle income countries to start building a sustainable national surveillance programme to fight AMR. The increase in data, shared nationally and globally, will form the basis of changes in policy and practice for the use of antimicrobial medicines.

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Why focus on surveillance?

The Fleming Fund is one of the largest international aid investments dedicated to improving AMR surveillance. The most cost-effective contribution we can make is to support countries to begin to implement global recommendations on surveillance, such as the Global Antimicrobial Resistance Surveillance System (GLASS). This is because:

• countries need robust surveillance data on AMR and the use of antimicrobial medicines in order to make informed decisions on their priorities and allocate often scarce resources to tackle AMR. Good quality surveillance data is key to delivering effective national responses to AMR.
• effective policy, practice and investment needs to be guided by evidence. AMR evidence can only be generated through robust and functional surveillance programmes collecting representative data.
• a sustainable and effective surveillance system will have the ability to monitor trends in resistance, prevalence and the consumption and use of antibiotics. This data can only be provided through effective national surveillance networks.
• a functional surveillance system can be used to detect and alert authorities to new types of resistance and help to identify outbreaks of resistant infections.

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What and who can be funded?

The Fleming Fund Country Grants programme has prioritised 24 countries that meet criteria based on risk, capability and context.

Country Grants will be used to support key priorities around surveillance identified in national action plans. These grants can be used for five main investment areas:

• improving laboratory capacity
• workforce training and development
• upgrading AMR surveillance architecture
• increasing use of AMR surveillance data
• reducing inappropriate use of antimicrobial medicines

Grants will be awarded competitively following a published request for proposals. The request for proposals will be developed hand-in-hand with national AMR Coordination Committees after a detailed needs assessment.

The Fleming Fund management grant for Country Grants will engage with countries through a phased approach. Request for proposals will be published as they are ready.

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