The European Center for Disease Prevention and Control (ECDC) and the African Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (Africa CDC) signed the first memorandum of understanding. The aim is to strengthen health security in Africa and Europe.[5][8] This cooperation follows the project "EU for health security in Africa: ECDC for Africa CDC", which has been running since January 2021 with the financial support of the European Commission.[5][8] The memorandum sets out a structured framework for cooperation in line with the Africa CDC Strategic Plan (2023–2027), the Africa Health Security and Sovereignty (AHSS) Agenda and the Lusaka Agenda.[1][2] It focuses on strengthening surveillance systems, epidemic intelligence, laboratory networks, health worker capacity, and emergency preparedness.[1][2][5] The collaboration also supports digital transformation, institutional capacity building, and integrated health systems with an emphasis on sustainability and national ownership.[1][2] An example is a joint training in Sierra Leone from 26 to 30 January 2026 that improves skills in R programming and epidemic intelligence for early threat detection.[5] These activities contribute to regional and continental efforts for more resilient systems to prevent, detect and respond to health threats.[2][5]