UNICEF recherche un consultant : Surveillance et réponse électroniques aux décès périnataux/évaluation des unités de soins aux nouveau-nés, Ghana (ouvert aux ressortissants ghanéens uniquement), H/F, Ghana

Description :

Job no: 545541
Contract type: Consultancy
Level: Consultancy
Location: Ghana
Categories: Health

UNICEF works in some of the world’s toughest places, to reach the world’s most disadvantaged children. To save their lives. To defend their rights. To help them fulfill their potential.

Across 190 countries and territories, we work for every child, everywhere, every day, to build a better world for everyone.

 

Background

Ghana has made substantial improvements in increasing access to facility care for pregnant women and in the rates of institutional deliveries.  However, this increased access has not been matched with commensurate reductions in perinatal deaths in the country.  A key factor to this is the poor quality of care for women in labour and their newborns within health facilities.  Improving quality of care in health facilities has been identified as key to improving mortality and morbidity outcomes but these improvements require health care providers to be accountable for perinatal deaths through systematic review of the circumstances leading to these deaths and developing strategies to address these. Perinatal death audits are accepted globally as a mechanism to improve accountability around still births and newborn deaths especially within health facilities.

The Ghana Health Service collaborated with UNICEF in 2019 to pilot the implementation of perinatal death audits in the country. The aim was to develop and test the feasibility and acceptability of rolling out an innovative four-pronged approach for implementing systematic perinatal death audits within selected health facilities in Ghana and documenting key lessons to inform national scale-up.

A total of eight hospitals consisting of six Regional hospitals- Upper West (Regional Hospital, Wa), Upper East (Regional Hospital, Bolgatanga), Ashanti (Regional Hospital, Kumasi South, Kumasi), Eastern (Regional Hospital, Koforidua), Central (Regional Hospital, Cape Coast) and Greater Accra (Regional Hospital, Ridge, Accra) regions, and two UNICEF

supported District hospitals that were implementing the Mother Baby Friendly Health Facility Initiative (MBFHI) – Bawku Municipal and Bongo District hospitals were selected.  These facilities cover each of the geographical zones – southern, middle and northern.  The four components of the approach were development of a real-time data capture system, formation of functional perinatal death audit committees, facilitation of implementation within facilities and feedback mechanism to promote the use of data to inform quality challenges, increase participation in decision making, promote remedial actions around challenges identified and improve ownership of the intervention.

UNICEF supported the Ghana Health Service to develop a bespoke software – ePDSR software. Staff from the eight hospitals were trained to use the ePDSR software to capture data and conduct effective audits with the ultimate goal of linking it to DHIMS-2. UNICEF procured two laptops for each hospital to facilitate data capture. Funding for the initial phase of implementation of this pilot project was through UNICEF HQ. Lessons learned during the pilot are being documented to inform national scale-up of the programme and it is envisaged that when fully implemented, the system should result in 20% reduction in institutional perinatal death rates.  

The goal of the Global Every Newborn Action Plan (ENAP) launched on 3rd September 2020, is for countries to move faster to end preventable newborn deaths and stillbirths by 2030. One of the global ENAP targets is that 80 percent of districts in every country have at least one inpatient level 2 newborn unit by 2030. In line with the National Newborn Health Strategy and Action Plan (2019 – 2023), the Ghana Health Service plans to conduct an assessment to determine the situation of newborn care units in hospitals and develop a roadmap to meet the national newborn targets and ENAP targets in line with the WHO quality of care standards for the small and sick newborn.

 

Purpose of the Assignment

The Ghana Health Service needs technical assistance to accelerate implementation of all the components of the ePDSR system in the pilot hospitals and determine the situation of newborn care units in the country. The purpose of this consultancy is to i) assess the feasibility of reviewing all perinatal deaths versus an alternative that includes a proposed set of criteria for selection of cases for audit and review and building an automated system for this selection, ii) Link the ePDSR to the national health information systems, iii) Conduct joint visits with GHS to implementing regions and provide technical support for organizing PDSR meetings and acting on recommendations, iv) Test a system of participatory feedback and development of response to the health facility’s progress in improving quality perinatal care v) Draft a manuscript on the pathways and lessons learned in the development of the ePDSR system in Ghana; vi) document the newborn care unit situation in Ghana. The consultant will work with Ghana Health Service staff and build their capacity to assure available and timely support for the users of the software both in the short- and the long-term.

 

Tasks To be Completed

  1. Provide technical assistance to Ghana Health Service to assess the feasibility of reviewing all perinatal deaths versus an alternative that includes a proposed set of criteria for selection of cases for audit and review and building an automated system for this selection.
  2. Provide technical assistance to the software developer, National Perinatal death audit focal person and the PPMED of GHS to link the ePDSR to the national health information systems.
  3. Conduct joint visits with GHS to selected implementing regions and provide technical support for organizing PDSR meetings and acting on recommendations.
  4. Support GHS to test a system of participatory feedback and development of response to the health facility’s progress in improving quality perinatal care.
  5. Draft a manuscript on the pathways and lessons learned in the development of the ePDSR system in Ghana.
  6. Meet with UNICEF GCO Health team (virtual or face-to-face) at least every two weeks and share updates.
  7. Work with GHS and develop a newborn care unit assessment  tool, support health staff to collect data and analyse the data.
  8. Convene a stakeholders meeting and share findings from the assessment and solicit inputs, and agree on key actions needed accelerate implementation and achievement of the National Newborn Health Strategy and Action Plan targets.

 

Deliverables 

  1. Submission of report on feasibility assessment and outcomes of using a set of criteria for selection of cases for audit and review (Report #1).
  2. Submission of report on linkage of ePDSR and DHIMS-2 (Report #2).
  3. Submission of report on technical support visits to implementing facilities (Report #3).
  4. Submission of report on participatory feedback system available (Report #4).
  5. Submission of manuscript drafted and submitted for publication (Report #5).
  6. Submission of summary report of the consultancy (Report #6).
  7. Submission of brief report on summary of assessment tool development and data collection (Report #7).
  8. Submission of final assessment report submitted (Report #8).

 

Payment and Payment Schedule

The cost of the consultancy will be negotiated with the recommended consultant. Fees will be paid based upon submission of agreed deliverables and upon certification and approval by the supervisor.

 

Payment schedule will be as follows

  • 20% payment upon submission of reports #1 and #2 ;
  • 40% payment upon submission of reports #3, #4, #7 and #8 ;
  • 40% payment upon submission of the reports # 5 and #6 .

NB: Kindly refer to the attached TOR for more details  ToR – National consultant-Electronic Perinatal Death Audit System_Newborn care unit assessment.pdf

To qualify as an advocate for every child you will have…

  • Advance university degree in Medicine, Public Health, Epidemiology, Biostatistics or other related social or medical sciences discipline;
  • A minimum of five years relevant professional experience in the Public Health field, MNCH monitoring and evaluation and digital health information systems;
  • Knowledge of WHO/UNICEF guidelines on PDSR, Ghana’s Perinatal Death Audit and Maternal Death Audit systems, including MNH Quality of Care standards;
  • Research experience in MNCH especially newborn health;
  • Good understanding of ICT and national health information systems;
  • Excellent leadership, team building, supervisory, mentoring and coaching skills;
  • Analytical, conceptual ability; skills in communication and documenting ;
  • Demonstrated ability to work with various stakeholders;
  • Problem-solving skills, assertiveness and strong initiative;
  • Fluency in English – communication, report writing with critical analysis.

 

For every Child, you demonstrate…

UNICEF’s values of Care, Respect, Integrity, Trust, and Accountability (CRITA) and core competencies in Communication, Working with People and Drive for Results.

The UNICEF competencies required for this post are…

  • Demonstrates Self Awareness and Ethical Awareness (1);
  • Works Collaboratively with others (1) ;
  • Builds and Maintains Partnerships (1) ;
  • Innovates and Embraces Change (1) ;
  • Thinks and Acts Strategically (1) ;
  • Drive to achieve impactful results (1);
  • Manages ambiguity and complexity (1).

To view our competency framework, please visit here.

Click here to learn more about UNICEF’s values and competencies.

UNICEF is committed to diversity and inclusion within its workforce, and encourages all candidates, irrespective of gender, nationality, religious and ethnic backgrounds, including persons living with disabilities, to apply to become a part of the organization.

UNICEF has a zero-tolerance policy on conduct that is incompatible with the aims and objectives of the United Nations and UNICEF, including sexual exploitation and abuse, sexual harassment, abuse of authority and discrimination. UNICEF also adheres to strict child safeguarding principles. All selected candidates will be expected to adhere to these standards and principles and will therefore undergo rigorous reference and background checks. Background checks will include the verification of academic credential(s) and employment history. Selected candidates may be required to provide additional information to conduct a background check.

Remarks:

Only shortlisted candidates will be contacted and advance to the next stage of the selection process.

Individuals engaged under a consultancy or individual contract will not be considered “staff members” under the Staff Regulations and Rules of the United Nations and UNICEF’s policies and procedures, and will not be entitled to benefits provided therein (such as leave entitlements and medical insurance coverage). Their conditions of service will be governed by their contract and the General Conditions of Contracts for the Services of Consultants and Individual Contractors. Consultants and individual contractors are responsible for determining their tax liabilities and for the payment of any taxes and/or duties, in accordance with local or other applicable laws.

Advertised: 21 Oct 2021 Greenwich Standard Time
Deadline: 29 Oct 2021 Greenwich Standard Time

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