Consultant Required for Project Evaluation in Ghana

ICPCN and World Child Cancer are seeking to appoint a researcher to carry out an external evaluation over a 2.5 month period of the #ChilPalCare Ghana project which is running from February 2024 – January 2025.

Background

The International Children’s Palliative Care Network (ICPCN) and World Child Cancer (WCC) were awarded a grant from the Global Health Workforce Programme to lead a project to develop children’s palliative care (CPC) in Ghana. The one-year project is being delivered in partnership with the Association of Paediatric Palliative Medicine (APPM) in the UK. The work builds on a needs assessment carried out in 2023, which identified that a key barrier blocking CPC development is the lack of education and training for the Ghanian health and social care workforce. The #ChilPalCare Ghana project aims to address this gap and build skills and knowledge so that better care can be provided to children living in the country with a condition that will shorten their life. The project has four objectives:

  • Objective 1: Monthly interactive webinars – Covering different aspects of children’s palliative care and involving CPC experts from around the world, with case studies and discussion.
  • Objective 2: Multi-professional training in CPC across Ghana – Will provide training to 120 health professionals in four regions of Ghana that consists of: Face-to-face Training (5 days), Mentorship, Virtual training (2 days) and a Final Face-to-face Conference. Trainees are a mix of nurses, doctors, psychologists, pharmacists and social workers.
  • Objective 3: Clinical Placements – Will provide clinical placements for up to 5 participants from each of the four training courses with CPC professionals at KATH and KBTH. A further 6 will undertake a placement in the UK facilitated by the Association for Paediatric Palliative Medicine (APPM).
  • Objective 4: Specialist Training – Work with professional organisations – the Ghana College of Nurses & Midwives, the Ghana College of Physicians & Surgeons and the Ghana College of Pharmacists – to review their curricula to ensure that CPC is included. The project will also support 3 participants to undertake each course.

The aim and objectives of the evaluation

Through this evaluation we want to find out about the extent to which the project aims and outcomes were met and how capacity for children’s palliative care has been developed as a result of this project.

The evaluation will use mixed methods involving both quantitative and qualitative data collection as well as a desk review of key project documents.

Person specification

It is expected that the Consultant undertaking the evaluation will have the following:

  1. Experience of carrying out project evaluation
  2. Experience in both quantitative and qualitative research methods
  3. Knowledge of service development in low- and middle-income countries
  4. Excellent academic writing skills
  5. Knowledge and experience of children’s palliative care
  6. To be resident within sub-Saharan Africa and able to travel to Ghana as required

If you would like to undertake this work with someone else then it is possible to apply together but there will not be any extra funds for the work and at least one of you must live in sub-Saharan Africa.

For more information and if you would be interested in applying for this role, please send a CV including an outline of your experience in conducting similar evaluations by the end of October to: programme.manager@icpcn.org

Download the ToR for the Evaluation here