Job offer: Technical Advisor

Company Profile

Jhpiego is an international, non-profit health organization affiliated with the John Hopkins University.  For 50 years and over and in over 155 countries, Jhpiego has worked to prevent the needless deaths of women and their families. Jhpiego works with health experts, governments and community leaders to provide high-quality health care for their people. Jhpiego develops strategies to help countries care for themselves by training competent health care workers, strengthening health systems and improving delivery of care. Jhpiego designs innovative, effective and low-cost health care solutions to ensure a level of care for women and their families. These practical, evidence-based interventions are breaking down barriers to high-quality health care for the world’s most vulnerable populations.

Project Overview
Breast cancer is the most frequent cause of cancer death in women across Africa. In Ghana, breast cancer has the highest incidence and mortality of all cancers. Jhpiego is partnering with the Pfizer Foundation on Breast cancer End-to-end care from Assessment to Treatment (BEAT) Breast Cancer in Ghana —a transformational initiative aimed at reducing mortality among women with Breast Cancer through stage-shifting, early diagnostics, and timely treatment. This partnership seeks to reduce the symptomatic period of breast cancer in Ghana from the current 12 months to less than three months by rooting the intervention in innovations, women-centered care, and patient navigation pathways to saturate PHC capacity for early detection by clinical breast exam (CBE), institutionalize breast health awareness interventions in social behavior change communications (SBCC) platforms, ensure timely diagnosis by decentralizing diagnoses at the secondary level, and facilitate access to multimodality treatment.  

Jhpiego aims to strive towards creating strong, innovative, and sustainable implementation models integrated into Ghana’s health system and grounded in a woman-centered approach to ensure respectful and responsive services for all women with breast cancer. 

The project will be implemented across selected districts in the Ashanti, Greater Accra, and Northern regions of Ghana over a 3-year period. 

We are currently looking for suitable professional to fill the following positions:

Job Location: Accra 

Position Reports to: Project Director

Supervises: Regional Technical Officers (Greater Accra, Ashanti and Northern Regions)

Job OverviewThe Technical Advisor (TA) will be responsible for ensuring technical and operational rigor in the planning and execution of Breast Cancer activities at the national, regional, district, and facility levels. This includes providing technical assistance to improve access for communities in the three (3) regions: (Accra, Ashanti, and Northern) supported by the BBC Project. The role involves enhancing coordination and communication among regional, district, and sub-district teams, as well as frontline health workers. The Technical Advisor will also liaise regularly with the Ghana Health Service (GHS) and other partners regarding technical strategy, as well as the monitoring and evaluation of project milestones and targets. Additionally, the Technical Advisor will collaborate closely with the Monitoring, Evaluation, and Research (MER) Advisor and the Programme team to assist in updating the National Guidelines for Breast Cancer. Duties and Responsibilities

Provide technical leadership, guidance, and support for the design, management, and implementation of Brest Cancer activities

Collaborate with the Ministry of Health (MoH) and GHS to support the National Breast Cancer program, by global and national standards and alignment with national policies and strategies

Support Ghana Health Services authorities to identify solutions for implementation challenges through regular participation in national Breast Cancer TWGs including the MOH steering committee

Ensure that the project team coordinates effectively with government and other partners at national, regional, and district levels

Build close working relationships with other partners and represent the project in stakeholder fora as needed

In collaboration with the project team, provide technical inputs on the project work for scope, schedule, and projected budget expenses 

Actively maintain current knowledge of Breast Cancer stage shifting, diagnosis, and treatment modalities including SOPs and guidelines, any emerging technical innovations and advances, also familiar with the WHO Global Breast Cancer Initiative (GBCI)

Ensure high-quality of relevant Breast Cancer outreaches, stakeholder engagements and health worker capacity building

Liaise with the global Breast Cancer TA team and Jhpiego partners to ensure that approaches, training tools, job aids, and other approaches are in line with guidance from the global technical secretariat and adapted to Ghana’s context. 

Mentor, support, supervise, and manage a team of highly qualified technical staff and align their efforts in concert with program goals to ensure rapid and sustainable results.

Contribute to regular reporting to donor on project progress; coordinate with the MERL team to ensure data collection and reporting tools are implemented consistently 

Provide technical contributions of potential subgrantees/subcontractors, including defining scopes of work in coordination with the project team

Comply with Jhpiego and JHU operational policies and regulations

Other duties as assigned

Education Required: Medical/Nursing