The Afya Bora Consortium is a partnership of five African and four US universities formed to provide future global health leaders with practical skills that are currently not part of traditional training in the health professions. There is an urgent need for training programs based in Africa that will provide local health professionals with leadership, program management and evaluation skills. Partnership between African and US academic institutions are ideally suited to provide such training because they promote resource sharing and create linkages between the universities and both governmental and non-governmental organizations (NGOs) that provide health services in communities.