FORTRESS-SSA

The challenge

Emerging and re-emerging infections pose a constant threat to countries in sub-Saharan Africa. Small clusters of cases can rapidly escalate into national-level outbreaks, spread to new countries, and trigger global public health emergencies and pandemics.

The public health workforce is central to pandemic preparedness and outbreak control. However, many countries in the region have insufficient numbers of epidemiologists and other public health specialists. Furthermore, many public health professionals have not been trained in the latest data analytics techniques, such as infectious disease modelling and the use of AI/machine learning, which are playing an increasingly important role in infectious disease control.

Nevertheless, some centres of excellence and specialist networks exist, which can provide a foundation to build the skills of the public health workforce in sub-Saharan Africa.

The project

The FORTRESS-SSA project is extending the existing capacity-building work being carried out by the Sub-Saharan Africa Consortium of Advanced Biostatistics (SSACAB), a multi-institutional network that develops cutting-edge statistical and data science methods, trains the next generation of African biostatisticians, and strengthens evidence-based health policy across the continent. SSACAB already provides master’s, PhD and postdoctoral-level training and has strong partnerships with national, regional and international partners. The FORTRESS project will support additional partnerships with national public health institutes in Mozambique, South Africa and Zambia, as well as with research centres in Mozambique and Zambia.

To support English-, French- and Portuguese-speaking trainees, the project will provide full-time master’s training at three hubs in anglophone South Africa, francophone Benin and lusophone Mozambique. Trainees will have the opportunity to specialise in epidemiology and biostatistics, infectious disease epidemiology, or field epidemiology. The programme will support the training of 15 early to mid-career health professionals, five at each hub, with trainees selected in collaboration with national institutions.

The first year of the programme will be classroom-based. The second year will include a six-month research internship at a national public health institute, research centre or NGO, providing opportunities for trainees to apply their theoretical knowledge to practical public health challenges. In addition, training will cover areas such as leadership and policy engagement. The project is establishing a structured supervision and mentorship framework to support trainees, who will also be attached to technical working groups to gain further experience.

In addition, the project will provide short-term training courses for 90 members of staff from national public health institutes and ministries of health. These will cover areas such as infectious disease modelling, surveillance and outbreak response. Courses will be co-designed in collaboration with country health policymakers, and a train-the-trainer model will be used to promote knowledge transfer within public health bodies. 

Impact

The FORTRESS-SSA project will strengthen epidemiology and biostatistics capacity in sub-Saharan Africa. It will:

• Provide intensive master’s training to 15 health professionals/researchers.
• Ensure that training provides a rigorous theoretical grounding in epidemiology and biostatistics as well as practical application to address public health challenges.
• Build institutional capacity by delivering technical training to significant numbers of staff members from national public health institutes and ministries of health.
• Promote workforce retention and integration of trainees into national and regional systems after graduation.
• Strengthen relationships between academic and public health institutes to facilitate further collaboration and application of modelling to public health challenges.

The FORTRESS-SSA project will increase the pool of African experts to support efforts to detect, prevent and respond to pandemic threats, and enhance capacity for data-driven decision-making to strengthen outbreak detection and health system preparedness.