Africa CDC African Epidemic Services (AES) Epidemiology Fellowship 2026: A Fully Funded Two-Year Applied Epidemiology Programme With Stipend, Health Insurance, and Training in Addis Ababa for Public Health Professionals Across the African Union

Africa CDC African Epidemic Services (AES) Epidemiology Fellowship 2026: A Fully Funded Two-Year Applied Epidemiology Programme With Stipend, Health Insurance, and Training in Addis Ababa for Public Health Professionals Across the African Union

When an outbreak begins, the people who matter most are rarely the ones in the headlines. They are the district surveillance officers who notice an unusual cluster of cases, the field epidemiologists who trace contacts through markets and clinics, and the data managers who turn a scatter of case reports into a map that tells response teams where to go next. The Africa Centres for Disease Control and Prevention (Africa CDC) built the African Epidemic Services (AES) programme to grow and professionalise exactly that workforce, and the 2026 Epidemiology Track is now open for applications until 26 August 2026.

This is not a short course or a webinar series. The AES Epidemiology Track is a full-time, two-year, competency-based applied epidemiology fellowship. Fellows spend three months in in-person didactic training in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, followed by 21 months of supervised applied training at a host site inside an African Union Member State. Africa CDC covers the costs associated with the fellowship, including a stipend, travel, health insurance, and the hardware and software fellows need to do the work. For a mid-career public health professional who wants to move from routine service delivery into the core of continental disease intelligence and outbreak response, it is one of the most substantial development opportunities on the continent.

This guide walks through what the fellowship offers, who it is designed for, the exact eligibility rules, the documents you will need, how the application works, and how to prepare a competitive submission. Where a detail is not published on the official call, this guide says so plainly rather than guessing.

Key Details at a Glance

What the Fellowship Offers

The central offer is training that is hard to buy anywhere else: a structured, mentored pathway into applied field epidemiology at continental scale. The AES Epidemiology Track is competency-based, which means it is organised around the practical skills a working field epidemiologist needs rather than around lectures alone. Fellows are expected to build and demonstrate abilities in disease surveillance, outbreak investigation, epidemiological study design, data analysis and interpretation, and the communication of findings to decision-makers.

The three-month didactic block in Addis Ababa gives fellows a shared foundation in epidemiology, biostatistics, surveillance systems, and outbreak methods, delivered in person alongside peers from across the African Union. The much longer 21-month applied phase is where the fellowship earns its reputation. Fellows are placed at a host site in an AU Member State and do real public health work — investigating outbreaks, strengthening surveillance, analysing programme data, and contributing to response — under supervision, so that learning happens through practice on live problems.

On the financial side, Africa CDC states that it will provide all learning and development materials and meet the costs associated with the fellowship, including travel-related costs, stipends, hardware, software, and health insurance. In other words, fellows are not expected to self-fund equipment, insurance, or the travel the programme requires. The exact stipend figure is not published on the official call, so applicants should treat the amount as “fully funded, figure not disclosed” and confirm specifics with Africa CDC during the process rather than relying on numbers quoted on third-party aggregator sites.

Beyond money and training, the fellowship offers something that endures well past the two years: membership in a continental network of field epidemiologists, a credential recognised by health ministries and partners across the African Union, and a track record of real outbreak work that opens doors into national institutes of public health, Africa CDC itself, and global health organisations.

Who Should Apply

This fellowship is built for public health professionals who are already working inside the system and want to deepen their applied epidemiology capability. The strongest candidates tend to be surveillance officers, epidemiologists, public health physicians, veterinarians working in a One Health capacity, nurses in public health roles, laboratory or environmental health professionals, and data or programme staff in ministries of health, national public health institutes, or related public bodies.

Because the programme requires you to be currently employed and to return to your institution afterwards, it is aimed squarely at people embedded in national systems rather than at recent graduates or those between jobs. If your goal is to bring stronger outbreak-detection and response capacity back to your own country’s health system, and your employer is willing to release you for two years and take you back, you are the intended candidate.

It is worth being honest about fit. This is a demanding, full-time, relocation-heavy programme. If you cannot commit two years, cannot secure genuine employer release, or are looking for a part-time or remote credential, this is not the right opportunity. It rewards people who want fieldwork, not just a certificate.

Eligibility Requirements in Detail

The official call sets out clear, non-negotiable criteria. To be eligible you must:

• Be a citizen of an African Union Member State. You will need to submit a national passport from an AU Member State as proof.
• Be under the age of 35, in line with the African Union’s definition of youth.
• Be currently employed in a public health capacity within an African country, with a formal guarantee from your institution that you will be released for the full two-year training and re-employed afterwards with the right to return.
• Hold a Bachelor’s or Master’s degree from an accredited university in a One Health or related discipline — for example human medicine, veterinary medicine, nursing, environmental sciences, or public health — or equivalent doctoral-level training.
• Have completed coursework in epidemiology or quantitative research methods and biostatistics as part of your education.
• Have at least three years of recent, full-time postgraduate public health experience in an African country.
• Be proficient in at least one African Union official language (English, French, Arabic, Portuguese, Spanish, or Kiswahili).

One important exclusion: advanced Field Epidemiology Training Programme (FETP) fellows and FETP graduates are not eligible for the AES Epidemiology Track. This keeps the programme focused on professionals who have not already completed advanced field epidemiology training. If you have gone through an advanced FETP, this specific track is not for you, though other Africa CDC tracks and programmes may be.

Read each requirement literally before you start. The employer-release condition in particular is where many otherwise strong candidates fall down, because they underestimate how long it takes to get a signed institutional commitment covering a two-year absence and guaranteed return.

Required Application Documents

Prepare a complete document set before you open the portal. Based on the official call, you will need:

• A national passport from an African Union Member State.
• An official letter of support from your government or employing institution, granting permission to attend the two-year programme and confirming your right to return to your post afterwards.
• Two letters of recommendation from reputable professional referees who can speak to your public health work.
• Degree certificates and academic transcripts for your Bachelor’s and, where relevant, Master’s qualifications.
• A curriculum vitae of no more than two pages, prepared using the African Union CV template.
• A motivation statement of 500 words maximum, explaining why the programme is a good fit for you and how the training will benefit your country.
• Optional supporting evidence of any additional qualifications relevant to the fellowship.

Two of these deserve early attention. The AU CV template means you cannot simply upload your existing résumé; you will need to transcribe your history into the required format and keep it to two pages, which forces hard editing. The employer support letter often needs sign-off from senior officials, so start that conversation weeks before the deadline, not days.

How to Apply, Step by Step

1. Read the official call in full. Start on the Africa CDC page for the Epidemiology Track and confirm every eligibility point applies to you before investing time.
2. Confirm employer release early. Speak to your supervisor and human resources department about the two-year commitment and the guaranteed-return requirement, and begin drafting the official support letter for signature.
3. Assemble your documents. Scan your passport, degree certificates, and transcripts; secure two recommendation letters; and rebuild your CV on the AU template within the two-page limit.
4. Write your 500-word motivation statement. Be specific about the public health problem you want to help solve and how the fellowship connects to your country’s needs.
5. Submit through the African Union careers portal. The official call links to the AU jobs portal (jobs.au.int) as the application route. Complete the online application and upload every required document.
6. Submit before 26 August 2026. Do not wait for the final day; portal traffic and last-minute document problems are the most common avoidable reasons applications fail.

Because the application is hosted on the AU recruitment portal, treat it like a formal job application: fill in every field accurately, match the details on your uploaded documents to what you enter online, and keep confirmation of your submission.

Timeline and Deadline

The application window for the 2026 Epidemiology Track closes on 26 August 2026. The programme itself runs for two years once fellows are selected, beginning with the three-month didactic phase in Addis Ababa before fellows move to their applied training sites for the remaining 21 months. Exact cohort start dates, interview stages, and selection notification timelines are not detailed on the public call, so plan for the possibility of interviews or additional verification after the deadline, and keep your referees and employer informed that they may be contacted.

Preparation Strategy and What Reviewers Look For

Selection panels for applied epidemiology fellowships are looking for evidence that you can already do parts of the job and will use the training to do far more. Ground your motivation statement in a concrete public health challenge — an outbreak you helped respond to, a gap in your district’s surveillance, a data problem you tried to fix — and show how the fellowship turns that experience into greater capacity for your country. Vague ambition reads weaker than a specific, credible plan.

Let your quantitative background show. Because the eligibility rules explicitly require epidemiology and biostatistics coursework, reviewers will expect comfort with data. Where your CV or statement can point to analysis you have done, surveillance systems you have used, or reports you have produced, say so plainly. Your referees should be people who have seen your work in the field, not just senior figures with impressive titles; a specific letter from a direct supervisor usually outweighs a generic one from a distant official.

Finally, treat the return-and-serve logic as central, not incidental. Africa CDC is investing in workforce capacity for member states, so the applications that resonate are those that make clear how the fellow will bring skills back into a national system. Frame yourself as someone who will strengthen your institution, not someone leaving it behind.

Common Mistakes to Avoid

• Starting the employer letter too late. The guaranteed-release-and-return condition is a hard requirement, and institutional sign-off is slow. Begin immediately.
• Ignoring the AU CV template and length limit. Uploading a five-page personal CV instead of a two-page AU-template version signals you did not read the instructions.
• Overrunning the 500-word motivation limit. Panels notice, and an over-length statement suggests weak discipline. Edit ruthlessly.
• Applying when ineligible. Advanced FETP fellows and graduates are excluded; being over 35, unemployed, or a non-AU citizen also disqualifies. Confirm every criterion first.
• Relying on aggregator sites for facts. Deadlines, benefits, and rules should be confirmed on the official Africa CDC call and the AU portal, not on third-party reposts.
• Submitting at the last minute. Portal issues and missing signatures surface exactly when you have no time to fix them.

Frequently Asked Questions

Is the fellowship really fully funded? Yes. Africa CDC states it covers the costs associated with the fellowship, including stipends, travel-related costs, health insurance, hardware, software, and all learning materials. The specific stipend figure is not published on the official call.

Can I keep my job during the fellowship? You must remain formally employed and secure your institution’s permission to attend, with a guaranteed right to return afterwards — but the programme is full-time, so you will be released from your day-to-day duties for the two years.

Do I need a medical degree? No. Eligible fields include human medicine, veterinary medicine, nursing, environmental sciences, and public health, among other One Health or related disciplines, provided you have completed epidemiology and biostatistics coursework and meet the experience requirement.

Where will I be based? The first three months are in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, for didactic training; the remaining 21 months are at an applied training site hosted by an African Union Member State.

I completed an advanced FETP — can I apply? No. Advanced FETP fellows and graduates are explicitly not eligible for this track.

Official Links and Next Steps

Begin at the official Africa CDC call for applications for the African Epidemic Services – Epidemiology Track: https://africacdc.org/career/call-for-application-the-africa-epidemic-services-epidemiology-track/. From there, follow the link to the African Union careers portal to complete and submit your application. Confirm the 26 August 2026 deadline, download the AU CV template, and start the employer-release conversation today — that single document, more than any other, is what separates completed applications from missed opportunities. If the Epidemiology Track is not the right fit, note that Africa CDC also runs parallel AES tracks in Laboratory Leadership and Public Health Informatics, each with its own call for applications.