Expanding the Kenya Public Health Workforce

In 2017, the Kenya FELTPExternal continued making substantial strides through accreditation from the Training Programs in Epidemiology and Public Health Interventions NetworkExternal (TEPHINET). The Kenya program joined the ranks of other globally accredited programs (the United States’ Epidemic Intelligence Service, and the national FETPs in Canada and the UK). The Kenya FELTP, along with Brazil and Cameroon, were the three programs globally to receive TEPHINET accreditation this year.

The Kenya FELTP has fully implemented the pyramid approach since 2015 to build field capacity in Kenya. This approach includes training epidemiologists within the MoHExternal at the national and sub-national level over three tiers: frontline, intermediate and advanced. Kenya recruited 20 advanced-level residents into the 14th Kenya FELTP cohort in 2017 — with the majority of participants joining from county governments.

All Kenya FELTP advanced-level residents take part in classroom education as part of a 2-year Masters of Science degree program offered through Moi University.External Like all accredited FETPs, 25% of residents’ time is spent in the classroom, while 75% is spent in the field participating in outbreak investigations, leading human and animal disease surveillance activities, and evaluating public health systems.

The FETP style of training by service and field experience has been identified by the Food and Agriculture OrganizationExternal (FAO) and partners as a successful model in globally expanding the veterinary workforce in conjunction with a One Health approach