The FieldEpidemiology Program in Papua New Guinea is implemented by National Departmentof Health (NDOH), PNG and Field Epidemiology in Action (FEiA), University ofNewcastle, Australia. Alongside the traditional field epidemiologycompetencies, FETP PNG also includes an operational research component wherefellows design, implement and evaluate an intervention project to addresspressing local public health issues. The successful projects have beengenerating important insights about opportunities to improve public healthprograms, creating the need for fellows to advocate for programmatic change.

In collaboration with NDOH and FEiA, the DIP adapted D2P program modules to conduct a five-dayworkshop for the advanced FETP program in 2022 and Intermediate FieldEpidemiology Program (iFETP) cohort in September 2024. The fellows developed 21policy briefs for their individual projects that covered a range of topics frominfectious disease programs such as strengthening malaria surveillance system,improving access to potable water for reducing diarrhea in children, improving Acute Flaccid Paralysis surveillance and syndromic surveillance of diseases.

Based on thisexperience and feedback from the fellows and FETP faculty, the DIP teamcollaborated with Field Epidemiology in Action (FEiA) and the University ofNewcastle, Australia to integrate some of the D2P modules across the 9-monthcurriculum of iFETP. This new version of the iFETP with D2P modules integratedthroughout was rolled out for the current cohort in February 2025.

In April 2025, afive-day D2P Training the Trainers Workshop was conducted in Port Moresby, PNG.The participants included 7 FETP faculty from PNG and 6 FETP faculty membersfrom Solomon Islands. The facilitator team from DIP and FEiA mentored theparticipants to familiarize them with the policy brief development content,pedagogy, facilitation and mentoring skills. The selected D2P modules will beincorporated in the curriculum for in-person workshops for iFETP fellows. Thetraining also provided a forum for cross-country learning between PNG andSolomon Islands.