The new Central Data Repository (CDR) launched by the Africa Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (Africa CDC) aims to enhance the integration, analysis and use of public health data across the continent, especially in response to growing and complex health risks.
Despite improvements in outbreak detection and reporting, public health data in Africa remains fragmented, spread across multiple systems, and often not interoperable. This fragmentation prevents national and regional agencies from quickly integrating information, identifying emerging risks, and translating data into timely, coordinated public health actions.
CDR addresses these challenges by providing a secure, interoperable platform that integrates surveillance, inspection, and program data from national and regional systems. The platform will enhance Africa CDC’s ability to track health threats, support advanced analytics and forecasting, and coordinate cross-border responses using a One Health approach.
Africa faces the world’s greatest burden of public health emergencies. From 2022 to 2024, reported incidents increased by 40% to 213 across the continent. This increase is driven by recurrent outbreaks of infectious diseases, climate change such as floods and droughts, population movements, and ongoing humanitarian crises that strain fragile health systems.
Development of CDR began over a year ago with a feasibility study and creation of a functional prototype. The project culminated in a validation workshop held at Africa CDC Headquarters on November 17-18, 2025, where stakeholders approved the system design, cost analysis, operational plan, and prototype, confirming its technical and strategic readiness.
“The central repository provides Africa CDC with a single, authoritative foundation for public health information,” said Dr. Jean Kaseya, Africa CDC Executive Director. “This allows us to use consistent, high-quality data to identify risks earlier, respond faster and coordinate actions across borders.”
Africa CDC worked with the Global Fund, which directly funded the project, and engaged the Global Health Task Force’s Public Health Informatics Institute (PHII) to conduct a needs assessment, cost analysis, operational planning, and prototype development.
Dr. Melawi Aragau, Director of Africa CDC’s Surveillance and Disease Intelligence Division, said the CDR is a major advance in strengthening public health information in Africa.
“Effective health security depends on who controls the data and uses it for timely decision-making,” he explained. “CDR strengthens Africa CDC’s ability to generate insights on the continent and respond to public health emergencies, while enabling member states to retain ownership of their data and make accurate, evidence-based decisions through a federated model.”
(Source: Africa CDSC)
