Africa CDC head said World Bank directed it to cut dozens of positions

The World Bank has directed the Africa Centres for Disease Control and Prevention to eliminate 42 positions it currently funds, cutting the number of World Bank-supported roles from 87 to no more than 45 — a reduction of roughly 50% — according to an email Dr. Jean Kaseya, director-general of Africa CDC, wrote to staff last week. The email also said the bank will need to approve any positions that remain. The email — which Devex obtained — said the World Bank directed his agency to begin implementing what he called “significant organizational changes to align with the current situation of aid cut[s] by showing value for money, efficiency, sustainability and impact.” The cuts are specifically around the World Bank’s five-year Africa CDC Regional Investment Financing Project, which is currently undergoing a mid-term review, Dr. Ngashi Ngongo, principal adviser to the organization’s director-general on program management, told Devex. Of the 87 positions initially approved under the project, only 40 are currently filled, and some are already being supported through complementary funding streams, he said. “Most of the roles being removed from the original list of 87 are either unfilled or already financed by other partners,” Ngongo said. He added that the overall project budget will remain unchanged. The organization has two major grants from the World Bank, according to an Africa CDC spokesperson. While Kaseya’s email to staff said that the organization has been “tasked” with the position cuts in response to a World Bank directive, the spokesperson told Devex that “the Bank is not imposing staff cut[s]; the process is fully led by Africa CDC to ensure a fit-for-purpose structure responsive to evolving continental health needs.” The spokesperson said Africa CDC isn’t implementing layoffs due to budget cuts, and no final decisions have been made. “We anticipate completing this review process in the coming 3 months,” the spokesperson said. While the World Bank didn’t respond to requests for comment in the lead-up to publication, it sent Devex a comment three days after publication. “The World Bank has not directed the Africa CDC to cut any staff positions. We are committed to helping build strong institutions for Africa, and in the context of strengthening disease surveillance and preventing outbreaks, we are working with the Africa CDC to create sustainable health systems on the continent,” according to a spokesperson. Africa CDC, an autonomous agency of the African Union, is the leading public health institution on the continent. It’s tasked with working to ensure the health of the continent’s population of over 1 billion people and plays a leading role in coordinating cross-border outbreak responses, such as containing mpox. The position cuts to the agency come amid massive upheaval in the international development sector, including global health, as the Trump administration slashed the majority of its foreign aid programs. But Africa CDC, as an institution, is less affected than others because the U.S. primarily supported Africa CDC through embedding technical experts from the U.S. Centres for Disease Control and Prevention, as opposed to direct financing. “Africa CDC and the U.S. Government share a strong partnership, and we continue to collaborate closely on key public health priorities across the continent including having human resources support the African agenda,” a spokesperson told Devex. And the World Bank is one of the few international development institutions expected to fare relatively well under the Trump administration’s proposed budget for fiscal year 2026. The bank’s International Development Association, or IDA — which provides grants and low-interest loans to low-income countries — is slated to receive $3.2 billion over three years. While Trump’s budget serves as a guideline and the U.S. Congress must still hash out the figures, the amount is $800 million less than former U.S. President Joe Biden committed to IDA last December. Staffing struggles amid growth Africa CDC has over 520 staff members — excluding short-term consultants — through a mix of funding from African governments and 11 bilateral and multilateral partners, according to a spokesperson. This includes the Mastercard Foundation’s Saving Lives and Livelihoods program, the African Union, and the World Bank, and others that can’t be named due to confidentiality agreements. In addition to salaried staff, Africa CDC also has senior advisers and technical experts seconded by partner countries and institutions. The agency, which launched in 2017, has historically faced challenges finding adequate resources to fund its staffing. It initially launched as a specialized technical institute without its own financial management or human resources systems, which were managed within the broader AU. To give the organization more flexibility, in early 2022, African government leaders granted it the right to evolve into a public health agency, with more autonomy. Because of this, Africa CDC can now enter financial agreements with other institutions, receive funds directly, hire its own staff, and procure from suppliers. In its 2024 annual report, the organization wrote that due to “growing demand for the operationalisation of its mandate and the increasing responsibilities of Africa CDC” a request was submitted to the AU to expand the organization’s positions that are fully funded by African governments to 312 — but this hasn’t yet happened. According to a response from Kaseya to an internal audit last year, the AU hasn’t historically met its obligation to foot the bill of salaries at the agency. At the time, Africa CDC required $8.7 million annually to pay full-time staff, but the AU had only provided the agency with $4 million for salaries. The audit flagged that Kaseya appointed about a dozen advisers. He defended this move, noting he was constrained by funding shortages from the AU and that Africa CDC had sought to fill staffing gaps by seeking funds from donors who underwrite the hiring of advisers. ‘Limited willingness’ to fund senior roles Kaseya wrote in his email to staff last week that the directive to cut positions came after he met with the World Bank in Washington, D.C., and three of his colleagues also met with bank representatives. He wrote that he then requested his senior management team to propose cuts by last Friday. He also noted there’s “limited willingness” in the “current climate among international institutions” to fund senior-level roles at Africa CDC. And that’s a trend not just at his own organization, he said, but there’ve also been the removal of high-level, well-paid positions at agencies including the World Health Organization, UNICEF, and UNFPA. He said these positions — known as P5, D1, D2 in the internal U.N. human resources ranking system that determines compensation — may not be supported by the World Bank moving forward at Africa CDC. This could potentially also include an unwillingness to fund P4 roles as well, which rank lower than P5, he said. While Africa CDC is not part of the United Nations, it also uses this system. “While we will advocate for the retention of critical positions, we cannot guarantee outcomes,” Kaseya wrote. Kaseya said remaining positions will “directly support” the agency’s core priorities, and those “deemed non-essential” by the bank will be cut. “I acknowledge the difficulty of this transition and urge all senior staff to approach this process with understanding and a commitment to our collective mission. These measures, though challenging, are necessary to ensure our organization’s sustainability and continued impact,” he wrote. Ngongo told Devex the organization is working to adapt to the “changing global health landscape” but, alongside this, the AU tasked it with presenting a “post-COVID-19 institutional structure” by this month. This has included working to ensure positions better align with Africa CDC’s mandate, with a focus on strengthening the agency’s regional collaborating centers and country offices. And as part of the review of World Bank programming, a delegation from the bank’s Washington, D.C., headquarters is visiting Africa CDC’s headquarters in Addis Ababa this week to participate in a review of the Regional Investment Financing Project, which “provides an opportunity to sharpen our focus on high-impact areas and deploy our human resources more efficiently and sustainably,” Ngongo said. He added that prioritizing positions that deliver the greatest impact will help the agency sustain the positions beyond the project’s lifespan. “Africa CDC remains deeply committed to our mission of protecting the health and well-being of the continent’s people. We will continue to adapt and strengthen our strategies and structures to meet the evolving public health needs of Africa,” he told Devex. Africa CDC has two major World Bank projects. This includes a $100 million grant to the agency in 2022 to support the agency’s institutional technical capacity and strengthen its institutional framework in order to help support African countries prepare for, detect, and respond to disease outbreaks and other public health emergencies. This support is slated to end in 2027. It has included overhead support for the agency’s day-to-day activities, such as procurement of office supplies, software, translation services, security, promotional and training materials, development of frameworks, audit support, vehicles, and even pest control. It has also included employing consultants on a range of topics, such as strengthening supply chains and cross-border surveillance, and fighting antimicrobial resistance. Last August, the bank ranked Africa CDC’s implementation progress as “moderately unsatisfactory,” but this has since been upgraded to “moderately satisfactory.” “While implementation progress was stagnant during the first semester of [calendar year 2024], the Africa CDC and its Project Implementation Unit have considerably increased the speed of implementation of activities under the project, evidenced by both disbursements during [fiscal year 2025],” the bank wrote in February. The World Bank also approved $250 million to the Africa CDC and the Ethiopian and Zambian governments, aimed at strengthening disease surveillance, prevention, and emergency response. It includes $85 million in grants, and the rest is a loan, with the borrowers including the two countries’ governments and the AU. It was awarded in 2019 and slated to close at the end of this year. Its implementation has been deemed “moderately satisfactory.” “​​Project continues to maintain high pace of implementation with a strong focus on investments in public goods,” the World Bank wrote in an assessment in April. The Mastercard Foundation also supports 167 Africa CDC staff members and staff within health ministries through the Saving Lives and Livelihoods program. The second phase of this program, which launched in August 2024, is worth $638 million, and its implementation is slated to end in December. “Many positions under [the Saving Lives and Livelihoods Program] are designed as time-bound technical assistance roles and are expected to conclude with the project. Nevertheless, Africa CDC is already planning for the reassignment of certain roles in alignment with our new organizational structure, which is under review and will soon be presented to the AU Policy Organs for approval,” Ngongo said. Samuel Yalew Adela, senior director of health workforce initiatives at the Mastercard Foundation, told Devex the program will officially wrap up mid-2026, with some staff staying on to close out the project. He added that the foundation has committed an additional $400 million to “build Africa’s health workforce at all levels, working with many partners, including its higher education collaboratives for health and pandemic sciences.” “Supporting the scaling of the public health workforce at a country level is a key component of Africa CDC’s five-year strategic plan and is part of the Mastercard Foundation’s Young Africa Works strategy, which aims to enable 30 million young people to access dignified and fulfilling work by 2030," he said. Update, May 15, 2025: This article and headline have been updated to clarify the source of the information about the proposed position cuts, and with a statement from the World Bank.