The initial pilot study engaged 2,550 participants from representative samples of the public in six low- and middle-income countries: Brazil and Colombia; Nigeria and Tanzania; and India and Indonesia. The samples were polled before and after they deliberated about the policy trade-offs posed by antibiotic resistance. Participants met in moderated small groups and posed questions to panels of competing experts. At the end of the process, they expressed their considered judgments about what needs to be done in confidential questionnaires. 

Participants considered trade-offs such as prioritising the use of antibiotics in food production systems versus a higher price for antibiotic-free meat, how antibiotics should be accessed by humans in farming/agriculture, and which policy interventions should be prioritised for the greatest public benefit. 

Deliberative Polling® is a methodology developed by Professor James Fishkin of the Stanford Deliberative Democracy Lab. It has been applied in 150 cases around the world. It gathers insights not only about what the public already thinks but on what it would think about a given issue after engaging in depth with competing arguments and expert opinions about what should be done.

Find out more about the Deliberative Polling methodology.

Contact

For more information on the summit outcomes, resources, or to ask questions, feel free to contact Jennie Smith: [email protected]