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African Field Epidemiology Network

Strengthening the Capacity of AFENET

Health Systems 20/20 has completed the second phase of institutional strengthening assistance of the African Field Epidemiology Network (AFENET). Established in 2005, AFENET’s objectives are to strengthen capacity in field epidemiology, enhance public health laboratory practice, strengthen surveillance systems for priority communicable and non-communicable diseases, and advance the sharing of regional expertise in field epidemiology and laboratories.

AFENET’s founding members were four institutions of higher education that house Field Epidemiology Training Programs (FETP). The Centers for Disease Control established FETPs in Ghana, Uganda, and Zimbabwe in 1992 and a fourth one in Kenya in 2004. These members operated under the umbrella of the Training Programs in Epidemiology and Public Health Interventions Network (TEPHINET) from 1997 to 2005 when the founding programs decided to form their own network for Africa. AFENET’s membership currently consists of ten full members and one associate member.

Based in Kampala, AFENET is a non-profit organization and is run by a 19-person secretariat. The organization has grown rapidly, having started with three full-time staff members in 2006. AFENET’s new governance structure calls for a seven-person board of directors drawn from the membership and the private sector.  

As a newly established organization, AFENET had a number of institutional needs to address to ensure its effectiveness and sustainability over the long term and to broaden its activities. Health Systems 20/20 assistance was initiated in March 2007 with a rapid organizational assessment. Based on the assessment findings, Health Systems 20/20 developed an intervention plan for an 18-month program of assistance.

Health Systems 20/20 assistance during Phase I focused on four main areas:

• Development of an Accounting and Administrative Procedures Manual that includes chapters on roles and responsibilities, accounting policies and procedures, operational or administrative procedures, procurement, asset management, and human resource management (i.e., personnel policies).
• Revision of AFENET’s constitution to clarify membership, organizational structure, composition of the board of directors, and the roles, responsibilities, and authorities of the executive director and secretariat.
• Review of communication needs and upgraded the communication infrastructure (and more broadly the information technology infrastructure) of the secretariat. This included professional assistance to the secretariat in installing a new server, establishing a Local Area Network, and a Virtual Private Network (VPN), installing Skype, and converting the database of network resources to an accessible format and making it available to AFENET’s members via the VPN.
• Development of a resource mobilization plan consisting of two documents – Part I, Strategic Direction, and Part II, Priority-Based Resource Mobilization Action Plan.

In Phase II, as AFENET experienced rapid growth, the assistance consisted of the following:

• Development of a strategic plan for 2010-2014 that has been officially approved by the board of directors.
• Building an effective secretariat team by developing a common understanding of AFENET’S vision, mission, and organizational structure and clarification of the extent of interdependence among the different units of the secretariat.
• Development of a human resources plan (ongoing).
• Strengthening the financial management system to meet U.S. government accounting standards, developing in-house financial system, and establishing a justified indirect cost rate.
• Conducting a board retreat to develop a strategy on how to manage growth.

AFENET now has some critical elements in place to support a $10 million organization – a robust in-house financial management system, a strategic plan to guide direction, a resource mobilization plan, a secretariat functioning as a team, and a revised constitution and governance structure that provides direction and oversight.

 

For more information on AFENET, visit www.afenet.net.