Call for expression of interest: EU for health security in Africa: ECDC 4 Africa CDC
ECDC invites experts to express their interest to contribute to strengthening Africa CDC capacities in preparedness, surveillance, and response to health threats posed by communicable diseases.
In October 2020, ECDC and DG for International Partnerships (INTPA) has concluded Contribution Agreement to implement a four-year capacity and partnership building project entitled “EU for health security in Africa: ECDC for Africa CDC”. The overall aim of the project is to strengthen Africa CDC capacities in preparedness and response to health threats, facilitate harmonised surveillance and disease intelligence of prioritised outbreak-prone communicable diseases at continental level, and support the implementation of Africa CDC’s public health workforce development strategy. It is expected that the project will result in improved health security in Africa through sharing EU practices and strengthening Africa CDC capacities in preparedness, surveillance, and response to health threats posed by communicable diseases.
The implementation is structured around three technical Work Packages (WP) to deliver key results (and a fourth WP to support their implementation). The implementation of these WPs is preceded by a one-year inception phase in 2021 which entails extensive needs assessments, situation analyses, and fact-finding exercises in Africa CDC headquarters, its Regional Collaborating Centres (RCCs), and a number of African Union (AU) countries.
The inception phase for each WP will include:
- Desk research on selected topics, description and analysis on lessons learned, ongoing activities, partners, donors, tools, materials, and analysis of needs
- Identifying and engaging with key stakeholders, establishing links with technical networks (e.g. African Volunteers Health Corps, Africa CDC laboratory networks, EDCTP)
- Fact-finding and needs identification missions and webinars