African Paediatric Fellowship Programme (APFP), University of Cape Town

Located at the Red Cross War Memorial Children’s Hospital and affiliated training hospitals, the African Paediatric Fellowship Programme (APFP) at the University of Cape Town (UCT) aims to transform Africa’s capacity for child health care by reducing its gap in human resources for paediatric health. It does so by training and providing ongoing support to a growing continent-wide network of highly-skilled, strategically-selected paediatric clinician-leaders who are able to optimize paediatric health systems, shape policy, lead on clinical service developments, build an evidence base for paediatric care in low-resource settings, and critically, increase the continent’s capacity to train more paediatric health professionals. (www.apfp.uct.ac.za). Established by the Department of Paediatrics at the University of Cape Town in 2007, the APFP has successfully trained a diverse range of over 200 paediatric specialists from 17 African countries at UCT to date. Long-term strategic collaborations with tertiary teaching hospitals and universities across Africa are at the centre of our approach. These partnerships ensure that we do not just boost individuals, but rather build paediatric departments and professional associations, transforming paediatric service provision and supporting the development of independent in-country clinical service, health systems and training capacity. Working with partners across the continent to identify critical skills gaps and priority needs, and training between 40-50 fellows per year for the last five years, we are proud to report an unprecedented retention rate in Africa of over 90% of all alumni since programme inception.