All AU Member States Africa Epidemic Services Public Health Informatics track (Africa CDC)

About Africa CDC

The Africa Centres for Disease Control and Prevention is an autonomous technical Agency established by the African Union (AU) to enhance the capacity, capabilities, and partnerships of Africa's public health institutions.

 

Africa CDC is mandated through Article 3 of its governing statute to “support Member States in capacity building in public health through medium and long-term field epidemiologic and laboratory training programmes”. To fulfil this mandate, Africa CDC convened the Africa Health Workforce Compact in 2025, with a focus on investment, training, and retaining of skilled health workforce. The Compact builds upon the Africa CDC Framework for Health Workforce Development 2020–2025 and supports the African Union Agenda 2063 through the development of a sufficient, motivated, and well-trained health workforce capable of delivering essential health services across the continent.

About the Fellowship

Africa CDC has developed a continental African Epidemic Service (AES) Program, a flagship training program aiming to enhance the capacity, capabilities, and partnerships of Africa's public health institutions. Its primary goal is to build capacity of mid-level professionals to control, prevent, detect, and respond to disease threats and outbreaks by employing science, policy, and data-driven interventions and programs effectively and efficiently whilst learning from best practices across the continent. The African Epidemic Service has three tracks namely, Epidemiology, Laboratory Leadership Fellowship and Public health informatics.

The mission of the AES- Public Health Informatics (PHI) track is to equip African professionals with public health informatics competencies for the digital age, so they can develop, manage, and lead informatics-savvy health organizations, and improve population health outcomes in Africa. The PHI fellowship aligns with the Africa CDC’s Digital Transformation Strategy and addresses programmatic goals set within the Framework for Workforce Development. The AES-PHI training is designed as a full-time, two-year applied fellowship program featuring 80% practical and 20% didactic training delivered as in-person and virtual sessions with intervals of practical learning at designated host sites (Ministries of Health, National Public Health Institutes) in African Union Member States. The training adopts a learning by doing competency-based approach to learning and a certificate of completion will be offered to successful participants.

Africa CDC provides all learning and development materials and covers all costs associated with the fellowship, including travel-related costs, stipends, hardware, software and health insurance.

Education

Applicants for the Fellowship must:

1. Be a citizen of an African Union Member State.
2. Be a youth as defined by the African Union, i.e., an individual under the age of 35
3. Possess a bachelor’s OR master’s  degree in health-related or Computer Science, Data Science, or Information and Technology Sciences
4. Have a minimum of 3 years of relevant experience:
   • If the primary degree is health-related, then experience with computer science, data science, or information sciences projects for health must be demonstrated.
   • If the primary degree is in computer science and other applications in health, then experience with Health, Medical, Clinical, or Bio-Informatics Public health, biostatistics, or epidemiology must be demonstrated.
5. Have basic knowledge on; Excel, R, SQL, python, ODK, Kobo, power BI
6. Be currently employed by Ministries of Health (MoH) or National Public Health Institutes (NPHI) or agency working closely with MoH/NPHI, or relevant private sector.
7. At the time of application, be employed in an African country and have written permission from employer to attend the two-year training, with guarantee to return to employment post training
8. Proficiency in at least one of the African Union’s official languages (English, French, Arabic, Portuguese, Spanish, or Kiswahili) is required. Knowledge of an additional AU official language is an asset

Note: Advanced FETP Fellows and Graduates are not eligible to apply.

Requirements

All applications must be submitted using the online application form and include:  

1. A copy of national passport from an African Union Member State.
2. An official letter of permission from current employer to confirm employment and guaranteeing that the candidate will be allowed to attend the two-year training programme with the right to return post training (different from Letter of Recommendation).
3. Letter of support from government institution (Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Health, Civil Service etc or National Public Health Institute or equivalent) to participate in the program  
4. Letters of recommendation from two reputable professional referees.
5. An official copy of degree certificate and transcripts of your bachelor’s or master's degree
6. An updated Resume/CV using the AU Template
7. Motivation statement (maximum 500 words), outlining why this program would be a good fit, and further outlining how this training will impact your country.

Important Information

Completed applications with all supporting documents should be uploaded to the online portal. Incomplete applications will not be considered. The fellowship program will prioritize inclusivity, gender equity, and representation from across the continent.

Key Dates

• Application Deadline: 26 August 2026

• Programme Start Date: November 2026