Introduction Workers represent half the world’s population and are the major contributors to economic and social development.

However, around the world, millions of men and women have paid work which is performed under poor and hazardous conditions. Lack of adequate workforces to curb the situation faces countries in developing countries. The project aims at building capacity for the university in Tanzania and Ethiopia in collaboration with University of Bergen so as to produce faculty for quality research and training in occupational health.

Methods The Universities in Tanzania(MUHAS) and Ethiopia (Addis Ababa University(AAU)) and one in Norway (University of Bergen (UiB)) are working together to build capacity of their institution in terms improving teaching quality and increase number of teaching staff, improve laboratory and library enhancement and online training. The project started in 2014 and will end in 2019. Enrollment of suitable Bachelor, Master, PhD and postdoctoral candidates have been performed, in which females are encouraged to apply. Laboratory strengthening in occupational hygiene is planned in MUHAS and AAU as well as development of an online course on occupational health. Skype meeting and biannual meetings in Tanzania and Ethiopia are used for regular communication among participants

Results Ten master students graduated in Occupational health and Safety in 2015. Three PhD and four postdoctoral candidates are registered and are planning studies in occupational epidemiology, combined with exposure studies. Two laboratories have been strengthened by procurement of equipment laboratory rebuilding. One Online course developed. Six original manuscripts has been published in peer review journals and twelve abstracts are presented in conferences. A gender sensitisation workshops has been held at MUHAS The sharing of knowledge between AAU, MUHAS and UiB has helped increase capacity of members in the project team. The important role of the epidemiological topics and methods will be discussed.