Africa CDC has opened applications for the epidemiology track of the African Epidemic Service, a full time, two year, competency based applied epidemiology training programme. Applications close on 26 August 2026, which gives you nine days from the date of this issue. If you are a public health professional already working in an African country and you have been waiting for a route into continental outbreak response, this is the most direct one currently open.
Who is behind it
The Africa Centres for Disease Control and Prevention is the autonomous public health agency of the African Union, created to strengthen the capacity of member states to detect, prevent and respond to health threats. The African Epidemic Service is its answer to a structural problem the continent knows well: when an outbreak begins, the shortage is rarely goodwill, it is trained field epidemiologists who can be deployed within days.
What the fellowship involves
The programme runs for two years. It opens with three months of in person didactic training in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, followed by 21 months of applied training at a host site in an African Union member state. Fellows work on real surveillance and response problems rather than case studies, which is the point of the competency based design.
Who is eligible
You must be a citizen of an African Union member state and under 35 years old as defined by the African Union. You must currently be employed in an African country, and your employer must give written permission and guarantee your return after training. Africa CDC requires a minimum of three years of recent full time postgraduate public health experience in Africa, plus a graduate degree from an accredited university in medicine, nursing, veterinary medicine, environmental sciences, public health or a related One Health field. Your coursework must already include epidemiology, quantitative research methods and biostatistics. You need proficiency in at least one African Union official language, that is English, French, Arabic, Portuguese, Spanish or Kiswahili.
Advanced FETP fellows and graduates are not eligible. This is deliberate: the programme is building new capacity, not re-training people who already have it.
What it covers
Africa CDC covers all costs. That includes learning and development materials, travel, stipends, hardware and software, and health insurance. You are not asked to co-fund your own training.
How to apply well
Applications are submitted through the African Union online portal and incomplete submissions are discarded without review. You will need your national passport from an African Union member state, an official letter from your government institution granting permission and guaranteeing your return, two professional recommendation letters, your bachelor’s and master’s certificates with transcripts, a CV of no more than two pages using the African Union template, and a motivation statement of no more than 500 words.
The letter from your employer is the item that most often sinks applications, because it depends on someone else’s calendar. Request it first, today, not last.
Why this matters
Two of the three documents that decide this application are written by other people. Start with those and write your own material while you wait.
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