UDS GIDRN Call for Proposals , 2019

UDS GIDRN Call for Proposals , 2019

Deadline for submissions: February 24, 2019
Submit proposals to: idrn.ghana@gmail.com Cc: makudugu@uds.edu.gh
Write for proposal template: idrn.ghana@gmail.com Cc: makudugu@uds.edu.gh

In recent years, Ghana has experienced positive economic growth and reduction in poverty with the country being one of the first in Africa to have achieved the first MDG target before the 2015 deadline. However, almost 1 in 4 people in Ghana remain trapped in poverty, and inequality is now at its highest level ever (GLSS 7, 2018). While policy and civil society commitments to reduce inequality have increased in Ghana over the last few years, the participation of academia in this important national dialogue could be enhanced. The Ghana Inclusive Development Research Network (GIDRN), hosted by the University for Development Studies, with financial and technical support from UNICEF Ghana, aims to provide a multi-faceted platform for local researchers to increase their provision and impact of quality research on inclusive development through improved research capacity, networking, and policy engagement. It will offer an important opportunity for successful research teams to add to national evidence base on inclusive development with emphasis on equity issues among children; benefit from mentoring, training and networking; and to be connected into the policy dialogue on the challenges of promoting inclusive development, particularly among children. In light of the above, GIDRN is currently accepting applications from research teams to join the research network and to conduct research in inclusive development, with emphasis on equity issues among children.
Research teams led by qualified female Ghanaians with proven track record in the proposed research areas and those that attempt to explore causal relationships between policy variables and inclusive development would be prioritized. Applicants are encouraged to focus on relationships between variables and outcomes of policy interventions, with preference to higher order (more than two-way) relationships. Successful teams will benefit from small research grants (the Ghana Cedi equivalent of US$4,000 per team), free GIDRN membership, access to online training, mentorship, participation in research conference(s), engagement with policy-makers, media exposure, and support for publication of the research output.
Proposals should have the primary focus of:

• • Undertaking further and rigorous analyses of the Ghana Multi-Indicator Cluster Survey (MICS) datasets overtime and the Ghana Living Standards Survey (GLSS) datasets overtime with particular attention on the latest rounds.
  • Analysing equity issues in maternal and child health, nutrition, water and sanitation, education and social protection, all with emphasis on children.
  • Working in groups of 2-3 researchers, formed into a team, affiliated with any research organisation(s) or academic body, one of who must act as the lead researcher. The lead researcher must have a PhD in the relevant discipline. He or she must be from a Ghanaian organisation with relevant publications in peer reviewed journals. Research teams are encouraged to include at least one female researcher with proven track record and early career researchers including graduate students. Research teams are to have a Mentor who must be an experienced researcher with proven track record in the area of quantitative methods and policy research. The proposed Mentor must agree to be a member of the team and to mentor the work of the team.
  • Using quantitative methodologies that could be supplemented with qualitative tools (e.g. key informant interviews to help better explain the quantitative results).

The expected research outcomes include:

• • Skills transfers and/or knowledge exchanges among academics, policy makers and implementers and development practitioners for evidence-based decision making.
  • Harnessing the reuse of existing national datasets by Ghanaian academics
  • Promoting the production of research outputs that directly contribute to the national discourse on inclusive development by providing compelling evidence for the need to incorporate the principles of inclusiveness in the formulation and implementation of development policies, plans, programmes and projects in Ghana

All applicants must use the attached research proposals template. Applications that do not make use of the template will not be considered. All applications should be in MS Word and submitted to idrn.ghana@gmail.com copied to makudugu@uds.edu.gh and must be received by midnight of February 24, 2019. Late submissions will not be accepted. For further information and the application template, please send an email to the same address provided above, latest by February 17, 2019.