The Centre for Infectious Disease Research in Zambia (CIDRZ) trained Ministry of Health staff on baseline data collection under the Optimizing Antibiotic Usage to Mitigate Antimicrobial Resistance (Opt-AMR) project. The training marks a critical step toward strengthening Zambia’s capacity to generate high-quality data that will inform national and regional antimicrobial resistance (AMR) control strategies.

The Opt-AMR project aims to optimise antibiotic use, enhance surveillance systems, and improve quality of care.

The one-week training equipped participants with practical skills in survey administration, data management, and standardised procedures to ensure accuracy and reliability in health facility-based data collection. The training covered sampling methods, ethical considerations, and approaches for capturing high-quality information to support evidence-based decision-making.

During the training, one of the facilitators, Ms Beauty Siamilandu, highlighted the importance of maintaining global research ethics and integrity standards.

“International requirements in research, data collection, and reporting, as well as the way research data is analysed, must follow Good Clinical Practice and established research standards. This ensures the credibility and reliability of the data collected,” she said.

Participants appreciated the hands-on approach and clarity on research ethics and data quality assurance, describing the training as “a valuable foundation for ensuring credible and comparable data across study sites.”

Trained participant have begun observations, Health Facility Assessments,  exit surveys, and sample collection within their own districts, generating critical insights to guide antibiotic stewardship and strengthen AMR surveillance in Zambia.

The Opt-AMR project is jointly led by CIDRZ and the Liverpool School of Tropical Medicine (LSTM) and funded by the National Institute for Health and Care Research (NIHR). The two organizations have form a consortium of partners with Makerere University and Doctors with Africa CUAMM in Uganda, and the Malawi-Liverpool-Wellcome Programme in Malawi.