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In 2022, Ghana adopted the WHO Standards for Improving Quality of Care for Small and Sick Newborns (SSN) in Health Facilities as part of national efforts to reduce newborn mortality and advance progress toward the SDG targets. A key gap identified in the quality-of-care landscape was the high number of post-discharge neonatal deaths occurring at the community level. Small and sick newborns often remain clinically fragile after discharge, and many families face challenges—such as distance, limited transport, or financial constraints—that prevent them from returning to health facilities for essential follow-up care. With support from UNICEF, the Ghana Health Service piloted a community-based follow-up model for small and sick newborns in 2024. The model ensures that newborns discharged from health facilities are systematically linked with Community Health Officers (CHOs), who conduct home-based follow-up visits to monitor the health and wellbeing of both mother and baby. This reduces the burden on families to travel back to facilities. Specialist newborn nurses and doctors in district hospitals provide ongoing mentorship to CHOs to strengthen early identification and management of newborn complications.

Since 2024, a total of 3,900 healthcare providers—including nurses, midwives, and CHOs—across 44 of Ghana’s 261 districts have been trained to implement this model of care. Overall, referral linkages between health facilities and communities have been strengthened. In 2025 alone, 4,000 small and sick newborns and their mothers benefited from this intervention

The purpose of this consultancy is to develop national standard operating procedures and training materials for the post-discharge community follow up of small and sick newborns. These tools will guide Ghana’s scale-up of this follow-up of newborn model, drawing on lessons and evidence from the pilot implementation. The consultant will also support the capacity building of regional level trainers across the country.

Work Assignment

•Organise an inception meeting with stakeholders to obtain feedback on the proposed methods and implementation plans.
•Draft a national Standard Operating Procedures document for the Newborn Post-discharge Follow up initiative following a review of the pilot and interviews with key stakeholder.
•Conduct a consultative meeting with key partners to obtain inputs form experts to further develop the SOPs.
•Conduct validation meeting with key stakeholders and prepare a final document to be shared with Ghana Health Service and UNICEF.
•Develop refined Powerpoint slides and PDF version of training materials for capacity building of healthcare workers (paediatricians, newborn care nurses, midwives, community health nurses), based on the materials used during the pilot.
•Facilitate training of trainers (ToT) of national and regional level trainers on follow up of newborns at community level and submit a final report with recommendations

Qualification Required & Experience

Minimum requirements:

•Education: An advanced university degree in one of the following fields is required: public health/nutrition, pediatric health, family health, health research, global/international health, health policy and/or management, environmental health sciences, biostatistics, socio-medical, health education, epidemiology, or another relevant technical field

Work Experience:

•At least 7 years professional experience in working within the newborn care in Ghana with proven experience in newborn clinical care, as well as community health systems
•Good understanding of the Ghana’s health context especially Reproductive, Maternal, Newborn, Child, Adolescent, Health and Nutrition (RMNCAHN) services
•Prior experience in similar assignments
•Previous work experience in developing training materials or SOPs especially in the areas of RMNCAHN, and/or community work

Skills

•Demonstrated capacity in community health or public health program and policy development, evaluations in relevant fields, including data collection from health workers
•Strong analytical and facilitation skills with experience in high-level stakeholder engagement
•Language Requirements: English

Location: Accra

How To Apply For The Job

To submit your application, click on the link below and complete all relevant fields on the online application form.

Click Here To Apply Online

Closing Date: 27 March, 2026