The African Paediatric Fellowship Programme (The APFP) is the leading training programme in Africa dedicated to building the paediatric workforce.
We provide training and clinical experience in top-ranking African hospitals and universities to African paediatric doctors and nurses.
Why APFP?
There is a critical shortage of paediatricians, paediatric sub-specialists, and paediatric nurses in Africa.
The lack of qualified paediatric doctors and nurses in Africa is largely due to a shortage of training opportunities, which causes these professionals to seek training outside of their home countries and remain abroad to establish their medical practice, a phenomenon known as brain drain.
We are creating a network of skilled healthcare professionals who are building capacity for saving children’s lives.
We have trained 339 child-health specialists from 21 countries across Africa.
More than 83% have returned to their home countries, where they are using their leadership and expertise to develop new services, train doctors and nurses, conduct research, develop child health policies, and—most importantly—radically improve health outcomes for children.
The APFP began in 2008 at the University of Cape Town (UCT).
Since then, two more African Universities have joined the training network: The University of Witwatersrand in Johannesburg and the University of Kwazulu-Natal in Durban.
Specialist children’s training is led by the Child Nurse Practice Development Initiative in collaboration with the Division of Nursing and Midwifery at the University of Cape Town.
We're implementing change across Africa.
How do we do it?
The training programme
The APFP medical and nursing fellows are selected by a network of academic partner institutions across Africa. Currently 39 institutions from 17 African countries make up the APFP partner network, who choose the candidates for the program and ensure that there are positions available to them upon completion.
Returning home
The APFP fellows are primarily from and are returning to the public health system, where the need for child-health specialists is the greatest. The result has been a more than 90% retention rate of graduates remaining in their home country and leading child health services, training, and research.
Building a network
The APFP has created a supportive, resource-rich alumni network of child-health specialists across Africa, which fosters the sharing of knowledge and best practices.
