Joel Abekuliya
Summary
Proven ability to provide strategic direction and coordination for RCCE initiatives, ensuring alignment with organizational goals. Skilled in developing, implementing, and evaluating Risk Communication and Community Engagement (RCCE) strategies to effect behavior change and generate demand for vaccines. Proficient in tracking and addressing vaccine hesitancy through effective offline and online channels. Experienced in designing participatory training materials to enhance skills among key stakeholders to support accountability through monitoring and evaluation for insights to inform decision-making.
Overview
16
16
years of professional experience
Work History
Coordinator, Risk Communication and Community Engagement
Ghana Health Service
01.2020 - Current
- Provide strategic leadership in planning and coordination of Social and Behavioral Change (SBC) interventions aimed at improving vaccine uptake and responding to public health emergencies in Ghana
- Lead in development and implementation of evidence-based SBC strategies to foster behavior change among Ghanaians as well as demand generation for immunization among children
- Coordinate tracking, documentation, verification and feedback of misinformation and disinformation about health issues including vaccines and immunization
- Coordinate national misinformation taskforce that validates and advices the health ministry on appropriate decisions on misinformation/disinformation in health issues
- Coordinate daily Risk Communication and Community Engagement sub-committee meeting during emergencies
- Lead capacity building of frontline health workers and partners to effectively influence behavior change in communities
- Support monitoring and evaluation of SBC activities
- Provided recommendations and decisions on SBC strategies to achieve immunization against COVID-19 in 5 regions and 50 districts
- Coordinated quarterly Risk Communication and Community Engagement (RCCE) subcommittee meetings to plan and enhance program effectiveness for public health emergencies such as yellow fever, COVID-19 and measles
- Coordinated misinformation taskforce meetings to validate recommendations for addressing mis and disinformation associated with vaccines
National focal person for Reproductive Health Communication
Ghana Health Service Headquarters
07.2015 - 01.2020
- Design, implement, monitor and evaluate strategic Social and Behavior Change Communication (SBC) programmes for maternal and new-born care
- Serve as a technical resource for SBC on improving maternal and new-born care
- Coordinate the activities of the National Inter-Agency Coordinating Committee (ICC) on health promotion
- Served as the technical expert on Social and Behavior Change (SBC) in development of Social mobilization and Communication section of the second edition of Standard Operating Procedure for Cholera Prevention and Control in Ghana with support from WHO and UNICEF
- Core Member of the planning and budgeting committee of the Health Promotion Department that developed the annual program of work for 2016, 2017, 2018 and 2019
- Led a team that developed an Advocacy and communication strategy for Prevention and management of Obstetric Fistula (2017 - 2022) in Ghana with support from UNFPA
Coordinator, Ultrasound deployment project
Ghana Health Service
08.2016 - 09.2019
- Compile list of eligible health facilities and midwives for training on usage of ultrasound
- Develop a training and schedule plan for midwives
- Allocate procured portable ultrasound machines to beneficial health facilities
- Coordinate the transportation of the ultrasound machines from the Central medical stores to sub-national stores
- Keep a database of all deployed ultrasound machines
- Coordinate training of midwives in usage of ultrasound in rural areas
- Coordinate training of sonographers to serve as mentors to midwives
- Develop monthly reporting forms and train midwives on its use
- Write training reports
- Manage data related to scans performed and findings
- Coordinate supportive supervision by mentors to midwives
Regional Health Promotion Officer
Ghana Health Service
02.2011 - 07.2015
- Plan and coordinate implementation of Public Health interventions in communities
- Conduct risk analysis of communities during Public Health emergencies
- Lead community engagement during contact tracing
- Create demand for Child health promotion, such as vaccination
- Lead and supervise capacity building of community health officers to effectively conduct Interpersonal Communication
- Lead in coordinating Inter-agency coordination Committee for health promotion
Programme Assistant
Ghana Health Service Headquarters
10.2008 - 02.2011
- Provide support to the Reproductive Health Coordinator in management of Reproductive Health programmes of the Family Health Division
- Support in the review of district proposals and budgets for achieving MDG 5 and 4 under the High Impact Rapid Delivery programme of the Ghana Health service from 2007 - 2009
- Development of programme of work as well as budgets for the Reproductive health programme
- Management of a database for Regional maternal death reports
- Coordinate Monitoring and evaluation activities to the sub-National levels on High Impact Rapid Delivery program of the Ghana Health Service
- Support in compilation and writing of the Reproductive and Child Health Divisional reports
- Support in the writing of proposals
Education
Master of Public Health -
University of Ghana, School of Public Health
01.2017
Bachelor of Arts - Population and Family Life
University of Cape Coast
01.2007
Skills
- Multitasking and organization
- MS office
- Presenting ideas and plans
- Strategic planning
- Database management
- Cross-functional collaboration
Languages
Twi
Dagaare
Grunee
Dagbani
French
Hausa
Pidgin English
Certificates And Trainings
- 12/23, Response Preparedness for Zoonotic Disease Outbreaks Using a One-Health Approach, WHO Health Emergencies Programme
- 12/23, Working effectively as an infodemic manager in the field, WHO Health Emergencies Programme
- 08/23, Artificial intelligence, digital marketing and Strategic Communication, Institute of Digital Marketing and Communication, Ghana
- 03/21, Risk Communication and Community Engagement (RCCE) for COVID-19, Regional Working Group for COVID-19 RCCE in West and Central Africa
- 11/17, Certificate, Lifestyle - related diseases prevention program, JICA, Japan
- 08/17, Communication essentials for member states, WHO Health Emergencies Programme
- 11/11, Certificate, Leadership in Strategic Health Communication, John Hopkins School of Communications, Baltimore USA / Center for Communication Studies, Nigeria
- 05/19, Qualitative Data Analysis with Nvivo, USAID/Ghana Evaluate for Health
- 10/15, life stages approach in Social and Behaviour change communication, USAID/C4H, Accra
- 09/15, Webinar on Gender transformative approaches, Health Communication Capacity collaborative (HC3)
- 07/15, Gender programming training, USAID/C4H, Accra
- 02/11, Certificate, Monitoring and Evaluation for Communication for Development, UNICEF, Ghana
Professional Summary
Proven ability to provide strategic direction and coordination for RCCE initiatives, ensuring alignment with organizational goals., Skilled in developing, implementing, and evaluating Risk Communication and Community Engagement (RCCE) strategies to effect behavior change and generate demand for vaccines., Proficient in tracking and addressing vaccine hesitancy through effective offline and online channels., Experienced in designing participatory training materials to enhance skills among key stakeholders., Adept at overseeing RCCE interventions, refining data collection tools, and synthesizing outcome indicators.
Work Preference
Work Type
Contract WorkPart TimeFull TimeWork Location
HybridImportant To Me
Career advancementTimeline
Coordinator, Risk Communication and Community Engagement
Ghana Health Service
01.2020 - Current
Coordinator, Ultrasound deployment project
Ghana Health Service
08.2016 - 09.2019
National focal person for Reproductive Health Communication
Ghana Health Service Headquarters
07.2015 - 01.2020
Regional Health Promotion Officer
Ghana Health Service
02.2011 - 07.2015
Programme Assistant
Ghana Health Service Headquarters
10.2008 - 02.2011
Bachelor of Arts - Population and Family Life
University of Cape Coast
Master of Public Health -
University of Ghana, School of Public Health
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