The Jordan FETP (J-FETP) was established in 1998 with funding from the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) Jordan mission and with technical assistance from the CDC. The J-FETP was supported by a CDC-assigned resident advisor from 1998 until 2007.
The mission of the Jordan FETP is to increase epidemiologic capacity of the national public health workforce.
Since its inception in 1998, the J-FETP has experienced significant transformation and expansion through four distinct phases. Phase one, titled "Jordan Data for Decision Making Project" from 1998-2001, included two separate programs: the FETP and the Data for Decision Making (DDM) program. The focus at this time was to improve the use of data at all levels of the Jordan MOH. From 2001-2004, the FETP was in its second phase as the "Jordan Surveillance Project" and expanded its scope to include communicable and non-communicable disease (NCD) surveillance. Two major systems, the Mortality Surveillance System and Behavioral Risk Factors Surveillance System (BRFSS), were put in place. In 2004, the program adopted the name Jordan Applied Epidemiology Project (JAEP), which was its third phase, with an enhanced focus on surveillance systems. Phase four of the FETP is marked by the departure of the CDC-assigned resident advisor, demonstrating a level of independence and institutionalization of the J-FETP. As of 2007, the program became fully sustained and run by the Jordan Ministry of Health.
Today, the J-FETP is housed within the Ministry of Health (MOH) in the Primary Healthcare Administration. The program is led by an MOH official, the Jordan FETP Coordinator. The program uses the standard CDC FETP curriculum with modifications and case studies based on needs assessments of Jordan’s public health status. To date, the program has graduated a total of 74 physicians, with 20 residents currently in training. All residents have been physicians with the exception of two veterinarians enrolled during the height of the influenza epidemic in 2007. Of the graduates, 60 percent work as epidemiologists at the central or governorate levels of the Jordan MOH. Jordan is one of the few countries in the region that meets the IHR requirement of one field epidemiologist per 200,000 people, with at least one FETP graduate working in eight of the 12 governorates. All of the remaining residents work in the region: 16 percent at the government level, 12 percent as regional epidemiological experts, and nine percent with international non-governmental organizations.
The MOH recently incorporated the FETP into the community medicine residency program as part of the Jordan Medical Council to ensure the sustainability of and strengthen the program. As a result, the J-FETP program is now accredited as a training program for the Jordanian Board Certificate in Community Medicine.
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