The African Volunteer Health Corps (AVoHC) deploys trained public health professionals to support countries during health emergencies. Established after lessons from the 2014–2016 West Africa Ebola crisis, AVoHC brings together epidemiologists, laboratory scientists, clinicians, logisticians, and other specialists to strengthen national response capacity.
The initiative builds on the African Union’s mobilisation of more than 800 professionals during the West Africa Ebola crisis, which demonstrated the importance of having a permanent continental workforce ready to respond to health emergencies. The network covers all 55 African Union Member States and is being developed to enable the deployment of responders within 48 hours of an emergency declaration.
AVoHC forms part of Africa CDC’s broader Emergency Preparedness and Response (EPR) programme, which focuses on improving national and regional readiness, strengthening emergency management systems and coordinating responses to public health threats.
The programme supports Member States through risk assessments, contingency planning, simulation exercises, workforce development and cross-border preparedness initiatives. Its work spans the full emergency cycle, from preparing countries before outbreaks occur to coordinating responses, supporting recovery and applying lessons learned to improve future readiness.
A key priority is strengthening Public Health Emergency Operations Centres (PHEOCs), which serve as national coordination hubs during emergencies. Africa CDC has supported 42 Member States in improving PHEOC functionality, including 24 countries that received state-of-the-art centres between 2024 and 2026. The Public Health Emergency Management Fellowship complements these efforts by developing skilled emergency managers and strengthening institutional capacity.
Launched in 2023, the fellowship has enrolled 57 professionals from 37 Member States, with an emphasis on translating individual training into stronger national emergency management systems. Since 2019, more than 13,000 professionals have benefited from emergency response coordination and readiness capacity-building initiatives.
The programme also coordinates continental responses through Incident Management Support Teams, bringing Member States and partners together under common operational structures. This approach has been applied during major mpox, cholera and Ebola emergencies. During the 2024–2025 mpox emergency, the continental response supported the delivery of more than five million vaccine doses to 16 countries and mobilised over US$1 billion.
To date, in the ongoing 2026 Bundibugyo Ebola outbreak, Africa CDC deployed more than 150 AVoHC responders and supported preparedness in neighbouring countries facing heightened risks of cross-border transmission. This included deploying rapid responders to countries at risk and reinforcing surveillance, laboratory services, infection prevention and control, and community engagement in affected areas.
Building on these efforts, Africa CDC is developing more integrated and sustainable emergency management systems, with priorities including standardised readiness assessments, interoperable information systems, stronger national emergency medical teams and expanded rapid-response capacity.
Planned initiatives include the Africa CDC Emergency Readiness System and a Unified Continental Emergency Management Framework to establish common standards for preparedness and coordination across Member States. The focus is on establishing preparedness as a permanent national capability, enabling Member States to detect threats earlier, coordinate responses more effectively and sustain readiness for future emergencies.
