The WHO costing and budgeting tool for national action plans on antimicrobial resistance—a practical addition to the WHOle toolkit

OBJECTIVES: The development of national action plans (NAPs) for antimicrobial resistance (AMR) has been promoted and supported by the WHO, with recent support in the form of costing and budgeting tools to aid in finance-allocation decisions within governments. METHODS: In this brief report we review this WHO costing and budgeting tool, discuss the strengths and weaknesses, and consider its place alongside other health economics and policy-support tools developed. RESULTS: We call for future analyses of the costs of AMR NAPs to consider costs beyond that of only implementation, through use of other available, open-access data and tools. These include the Global Antimicrobial Resistance and Use Surveillance System (GLASS) data and One Health tools already within the existing ‘WHO toolbox’. CONCLUSIONS: We suggest that future work on evaluating AMR along the impact pipeline use this toolbox where possible, ensuring empirical work is in turn open access.