Hanan H. Balkhy, Abdullah M. Assiri, Haifa Al Mousa, Seif S. Al-Abri, Huda Al-Katheeri, Huda Alansari, Najiba M. Abdulrazzaq, Awa Aidara-Kane, Didier Pittet, Elisabeth Erlacher-Vindel, Hail Mater Al Abdely, Adel Al Othman, Sameera M. Al Johani, Abubaker Fadlelmula, Aiman El-Saed, Gregory Poff, Abdulrahman Al Habrawy, Yousuf Al Omi, Alaa Saeed Mutlaq, Ahmed Hakawi, Mohammed Al Zahrani, Sami Al Hajjar, Sahar Al Thawadi, Ali M. Somily, Hosam Al Zowawi, Saeed Al Shahrani, Mohamed Al Quwaizini, Ali Al Sahaaf, Mohammed Fayez Ahmed Salim, Kamal Hossein Zidan, Safaa Abdulaziz El Khawajah, Jameela AlSalman, Nermin Kamal Hasan Mohamed Saeed, Noura Al Qalloushi, Abeer Aly Omar, Najiba Abdulrazzaq, Zaina Maskari, Faryal Ali Khamis Al Lawati, Hilal Al Hashami, Mubarak Al Yaqoubi, Khalifa Al Shaqsi, Huda Al Harthi, Khalid Hamid Youif Elawad, Wael Ezzeldin Said Hussein, Yasser Mohamed Abdelkader Morsy, Salah Ahmed Abdalkarim Taha, Eman Abdulrahman Al Maslamani, and Maryam Al Sulaiti
Summary: The Gulf Cooperation Council Center for Infection Control (GCC-IC) has placed the emergence of antimicrobial resistance (AMR) on the top of its agenda for the past four years. The board members have developed the initial draft for the GCC strategic plan for combating AMR in 2014. The strategic plan stems from the WHO mandate to combat AMR at all levels. The need for engaging a large number of stakeholders has prompted the GCC-IC to engage a wider core of professionals in finalizing the plan. A multi-disciplinary group of more than 40 experts were then identified. And a workshop was conducted in Riyadh January 2015 and included, for the first time, representation of relevant ministries and agencies as well as international experts in the field. Participants worked over a period of two and a half days in different groups. International experts shared the global experiences and challenges in addressing human, food, animal, and environmental aspects of controlling AMR. Participants were then divided into 4 groups each to address the human, animal, microbiological and diagnostic, or the environmental aspect of AMR. At the end of the workshop, the strategic plan was revised and endorsed by all participants. The GCC-IC board members then approved it as the strategic plan for AMR. The document produced here is the first GCC strategic plan addressing AMR, which shall be adopted by GCC countries to develop country-based plans and related key performance indicators (KPIs). It is now the role of each country to identify the body that will be accountable for implementing the plan at the country level. Keywords: Strategic plan, Antimicrobial resistance, AMR, GCC, Saudi Arabia, United Arab Emirates, Qatar, Bahrain, Oman, Kuwait