L'Initiative's new Accelerator mechanism will provide the University Joseph KI-ZERBO in Burkina Faso with 3 million Euros to strengthen human resources for intervention epidemiology in ten West African countries. 

Launched in 2010, the Burkina Faso Field Epidemiology and Laboratory Training Program (BFELTP) is a hands-on Master's degree in field epidemiology that includes a One Health approach. BFELTP was established to meet needs identified by the Ministries of Health of French-speaking ECOWAS member countries (Benin, Burkina Faso, Côte d'Ivoire, Guinea Bissau, Republic of Guinea, Mali, Niger, Senegal and Togo).

Funding from L’Initiative will further strengthen the capacity of West African states to prevent, monitor, investigate and respond to public health emergencies. The backdrop to this support is a context of infectious disease emergence and re-emergence, with recurrent outbreaks and epidemics in recent years, and a very evident shortage of human resources trained to deal with them.

The aim is to strengthen the skills of 60 professionals specializing in human, animal and environmental health, as well as strengthening the community of French-speaking practitioners to ensure they are an active and connected community by pooling knowledge among practitioners in field epidemiology as a whole (conferences, resource and discussion platform) and developing a reference manual.