Expanding Efforts and Strategies to Protect and Improve Public Health in Kenya | CDC RFA GH20 2115

Opportunity Information: Apply for CDC RFA GH20 2115

The grant opportunity titled "Expanding Efforts and Strategies to Protect and Improve Public Health in Kenya" is a U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) cooperative agreement designed to strengthen Kenya's public health systems and advance U.S. Government (USG) global health priorities in the country. It builds on a long-standing partnership of more than forty years between the CDC and the Government of Kenya (GoK), during which the United States has remained the largest external investor in Kenya's health sector. The opportunity is framed as a continuation and expansion of work supported through major USG health initiatives, including PEPFAR (HIV/AIDS), the Global Health Security Agenda (GHSA), malaria, tuberculosis, immunizations, and influenza-related programming.

At its core, this Notice of Funding Opportunity (NOFO), numbered CDC RFA GH20 2115, focuses on strengthening public health programs by improving the systems Kenya uses to prevent, detect, and respond to health threats. The NOFO reflects an emphasis on sustaining and advancing gains achieved after roughly five years of global health security investments, with a continued push toward practical, country-level capacity that reduces the risk and impact of outbreaks. Rather than being limited to a single disease area, it is structured around preparedness and system functionality, recognizing that resilient surveillance, laboratory, workforce, and emergency response capabilities can protect communities from a wide range of infectious and biological threats.

The opportunity highlights four main outcome areas. First, it aims to improve prevention of avoidable epidemics, including naturally occurring outbreaks as well as intentional or accidental releases of dangerous pathogens, which signals attention to both routine outbreak risks and higher-consequence biological events. Second, it seeks to strengthen early detection, including the ability to detect, characterize, and report emerging biological threats quickly, which typically involves stronger surveillance networks, better laboratory diagnostic capacity, clearer reporting pathways, and improved data use for decision-making. Third, it prioritizes the ability to respond rapidly and effectively to public health threats of international concern, pointing to the operational side of emergency readiness: coordination, incident management, rapid response teams, logistics, risk communication, and cross-sector collaboration. Fourth, it includes strengthening implementation science programs and platforms to improve health outcomes, emphasizing not just whether interventions exist on paper, but whether they are effectively adopted, delivered, measured, and improved in real-world Kenyan health system settings.

Administratively, this is a discretionary funding opportunity offered by the Department of Health and Human Services through the CDC's Center for Global Health. The funding instrument is a cooperative agreement, which generally means the CDC expects substantial involvement in the funded work through technical collaboration, shared planning, and ongoing engagement rather than a hands-off grant model. The NOFO lists an anticipated total of six awards. It was created on March 9, 2020, with an original application closing date of May 11, 2020, and applications were required to be submitted electronically by 11:59 p.m. Eastern Time on the due date. The listed award ceiling is shown as 0, which typically indicates that a specific cap was not provided in the source summary and that applicants would need to refer to the full NOFO text for detailed budget expectations and limits.

Eligibility is broad and includes many types of entities: various levels of government (state, county, city/township, and special districts), public and state-controlled institutions of higher education, private institutions of higher education, nonprofits with and without 501(c)(3) status, for-profit organizations (including small businesses and other for-profits), independent school districts, public housing authorities, and Native American tribal governments and organizations, along with other applicants as clarified in the NOFO's eligibility section. This wide eligibility suggests the CDC was open to a range of implementers capable of supporting Kenya's public health priorities, such as universities, research institutions, nonprofit implementers, and technical organizations with operational experience in surveillance, emergency preparedness, laboratory systems, and program evaluation.

Overall, the opportunity is best understood as a systems-strengthening and health security-focused cooperative agreement aimed at helping Kenya reduce outbreak risks, find threats faster, respond more effectively when events occur, and improve the real-world performance of health interventions through implementation science. It sits within a larger USG investment landscape in Kenya that includes disease-specific programs, but it emphasizes cross-cutting capabilities that protect public health broadly and align with international health security goals.

• The Department of Health and Human Services, Centers for Disease Control - CGH in the health sector is offering a public funding opportunity titled "Expanding Efforts and Strategies to Protect and Improve Public Health in Kenya" and is now available to receive applicants.
• Interested and eligible applicants and submit their applications by referencing the CFDA number(s): 93.318.
• This funding opportunity was created on Mar 09, 2020.
• Applicants must submit their applications by May 11, 2020 Electronically submitted applications must be submitted no later than 1159 p.m., ET, on the listed application due date.. (Agency may still review applications by suitable applicants for the remaining/unused allocated funding in 2026.)
• The number of recipients for this funding is limited to 6 candidate(s).
• Eligible applicants include: State governments, County governments, City or township governments, Special district governments, Independent school districts, Public and State controlled institutions of higher education, Native American tribal governments (Federally recognized), Public housing authorities/Indian housing authorities, Native American tribal organizations (other than Federally recognized tribal governments), Nonprofits having a 501(c)(3) status with the IRS, other than institutions of higher education, Nonprofits that do not have a 501(c)(3) status with the IRS, other than institutions of higher education, Private institutions of higher education, For profit organizations other than small businesses, Small businesses, Others (see text field entitled Additional Information on Eligibility for clarification), Unrestricted (i.e., open to any type of entity above), subject to any clarification in text field entitled Additional Information on Eligibility.

Apply for CDC RFA GH20 2115

[Watch] Creating a grant proposal using the step-by-step wizard inside the applicant portal: