Field Epidemiology in Humanitarian Context Training (FETCH)

FETCH is Epicentre’s one-year, bilingual professionalisation pathway for field epidemiologists working in MSF missions. Fellows remain in post throughout: they follow an introductory module in Paris and four online modules, complete assignments drawn from their own mission’s epidemiological work, and are supported for the year by a senior epidemiologist acting as tutor. From cohort 3 the programme is additionally accredited as a post-graduate diploma with ISPED, Université de Bordeaux. This external evaluation, commissioned by Epicentre and managed by the MSF Vienna Evaluation Unit, assessed the programme’s Relevance, Effectiveness, Appropriateness and Continuity/Sustainability across four cohorts.

Methodology:

• Mixed-methods contribution analysis (qualitative primary strand)
• semi-structured interviews with fellows, tutors, MedCos, and senior stakeholders
• Alumni survey (n=27/31), fellow survey (19/19) and tutor survey (n=14/30)
• Cohort INIFIN pre/post competency self-assessment grids
• Programme documents and monitoring data

FETCH is really, you might say, a deliberate distillation of the 
essentials for an epidemiologist working in humanitarian settings 
— Alumnus, cohort 2