ICARS joined the ReAct Asia Pacific Conference 2026 in Jakarta, Indonesia, on 9-10 November. Danilo Lo Fo Wong, Head of Human Health, attended alongside former Executive Director Sujith J Chandy, who represented the organisation as its first ICARS Goodwill Ambassador.
Convened by ReAct Asia Pacific and Indonesia’s Ministry of Health, the conference focused on “Bridging Policy, Practice and People to Accelerate Regional Action on AMR”. The two-day programme covered antimicrobial resistance (AMR) governance and financing, barriers to implementation, equitable access to antibiotics and diagnostics, and community participation.
Designing research that fits the context
Sujith delivered the opening presentation for “Break it, then rebuild it: An interactive implementation research session on contextual fit and pragmatic design”, moderated by Danilo.
The session focused on how implementation research can account for the settings in which interventions will be used. This is central to ICARS’ work with country partners: understanding local priorities, resources and working practices when developing and testing solutions to mitigate AMR.
Danilo also contributed a framing presentation to the action group on preventing infections and reducing antimicrobial need across One Health. This was one of three parallel groups examining implementation gaps, alongside groups on antimicrobial stewardship and the use of surveillance and laboratory data to inform decisions.
Connecting with project partners from across the region
The conference provided an opportunity to meet colleagues working on ICARS-supported projects in Lao PDR, Pakistan, Cambodia, Vietnam and Malaysia.
Danilo met Nida Khan from the Association for Social Development, whose project examines antibiotic prescribing for upper respiratory infections and diarrhoea in rural Punjab, Pakistan.
He also met Channarath Sreng from Cambodia’s National Institute of Public Health and Sophany Koy from Calmette Hospital. Their project assesses organisational readiness for antimicrobial stewardship and antimicrobial prescribing across six Cambodian hospitals. Touch Nay from Cambodia’s Ministry of Health also joined the meetings.
In discussions with Wan Munira Wan Jaafar from Universiti Putra Malaysia, the focus was the ICARS-supported project examining gender and equity in antimicrobial stewardship in Malaysian shrimp aquaculture.
Gender, equity and community perspectives on AMR
Contributions from Lao PDR included work on integrating gender and equity into good pharmacy practice for antimicrobial stewardship, presented by Phoutsathaphone Sibounheuang from the Faculty of Pharmacy at the University of Health Sciences.
Sychareun Vanphanom from the Lao Tropical and Public Health Institute presented work on community-responsive dialogue to address drug resistance.
These contributions brought pharmacy practice, community participation and the different roles people hold in antimicrobial use into the regional discussion, alongside research from hospitals, primary care and aquaculture.
