The United States Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), in collaboration with the African Field Epidemiology Network (AFENET) has been supporting Ministries of Health in Sub Saharan Africa to implement field epidemiology training programs (FETPs) for public health workers at national and subnational levels of the health systems. FETPs are field-based trainings with participants spending 25% of the time in the classroom and 75% in the field providing public health services while acquiring core competencies in field epidemiology. In order to address the need to improve field epidemiology capacity at all levels of the health system, US CDC developed a three-tiered pyramid model for FETP implementation. At the base of the pyramid is the 3-month Frontline FETP that targets public health workers at the local level, the middle of the pyramid is the 9-month Intermediate FETP for regional level health workers and at the peak is the 2-year Advanced FETP for national level public health managers.
