Strengthening and Development of Sustainable Regional Public Health and Epidemiological Workforce Capacity through Collaboration, Program Development, and Implementation

The purpose of NOFOs is to address public health workforce (PHW) development needs and strengthen capacity to prevent, detect, and respond to diseases and address public health priorities including outbreaks by strengthening epidemiologic workforce and programs capacity at the regional and country levels. Close collaboration and networking among country PHW development programs at a regional level, along with collaboration with other global and regional networks and relevant partners is critical as the globe faces new and re-emerging public health threats. The recent outbreaks of COVID-19, Ebola and other diseases clearly demonstrate the need for strong country, regional, and global programs that can work together, collaborate, and share resources. Field Epidemiology Training Programs (FETP) are proven to be critical part of the workforce needed to detect and respond to disease and they remain strong focus of this NOFO. There is also a need to identify other workforce development programs that contribute to this end. Networking among these PHW programs needs to be supported through training, scientific conferences, meetings, establishing standards, monitoring and evaluation, and strong communication. Awardees will work and collaborate with CDC and other partners to assess PHW needs at region and country levels and develop plans to fill gaps and strengthen existing programs such as the FETP. Focus will be on Ministries of Health and public health institutions at regional, and country levels. The common goal is to improve surveillance systems, outbreak investigations, disease prevention and response, networking, communication, evaluation, and reporting. There will continue to be strong focus on Field Epidemiology Training Programs as important instruments to strengthen PHW. assist countries in sustaining workforce development programs.