A Central Data Repository (CDR) launched by the Africa Centres for Disease Control and Prevention (Africa CDC) aims to strengthen how public health data are integrated, analysed and used across the continent at a time of growing and increasingly complex health risks, the agency has announced.
While improvements have been made in outbreak detection and reporting, Africa’s public health data remain fragmented and dispersed across multiple systems that are very often not interoperable, it said.
This limits the ability of countries and regional institutions to rapidly synthesise information, identify emerging risks and translate data into timely and co-ordinated public health action.
The CDR provides a secure, interoperable platform that integrates surveillance, laboratory and programme data from national and regional systems, enhancing Africa CDC’s ability to track health threats, support advanced analysis and forecasting as well as co-ordinate responses across borders, including through the One Health approach.
Work on the CDR began more than a year ago with a feasibility study and the development of a functional prototype. The process culminated in a validation workshop held on 17-18 November 2025 at Africa CDC headquarters, where stakeholders endorsed the system’s design, cost analysis, operationalisation plan and prototype, confirming its technical and strategic readiness.
“The centralised repository gives Africa CDC a single, trusted foundation for public health intelligence,” said Dr Jean Kaseya, the Africa CDC Director General. “It allows us to see risks earlier, act faster and coordinate responses across borders using consistent, high-quality data.”
Africa CDC partnered with the Global Fund, which directly financed the project and engaged the Public Health Informatics Institute (PHII) of the Task Force for Global Health to conduct the needs assessment, cost analysis, operational planning and prototype development.
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