Roles of Senior Technical Advisor and Senior Program

Roles of Senior Technical Advisor and Senior Program Officer in C-EFE Brenda Cooke, Senior Technical Advisor Elsa Sumido – Senior Program Officer CARICOM Education for Employment Program (C-EFE) June 2, 2013

C-EFE Context • CARICOM Education for Employment – 20 M, 5 years • 3 STAs in field – Regional Coordinator/STA, OECS, Trinidad and Tobago and Barbados – STA, Suriname and Guyana – STA, Belize and Jamaica – Administrative & Finance Officers (Local – FT)

Head Office Personnel – MJF, Director, International Partnerships – Operations Manager (PT) – Senior Program Officers (2 - FT) – Admin Coordinators (2 – PT) – Canadian consultants (Gender, LMI, Entrepreneurship, Leadership specialists) – Caribbean consultants (Regional Advisor, Social Marketing, Suriname specialists) – Plus overall organizational support (VP, Finance, Admin, HR, Marketing)

STA and SPO jobs • Operations Manager’s job – Responsible for overall operational program mgt and successful delivery of CEFE • – Sustain relationship with partners in Canada STA’s job – responsible for quality and timely implementation of C-EFE workplans in their countries of responsibility – Regional responsibilities for particular areas (Leadership and Career Guidance) – Sustain relationships with partners in the field • SPO’s job - Provide day-to-day support to STAs/field offices to ensure - Provide day-to-day support Manager of Operations in ensuring successful delivery of program

STA - ‘Senior’ • Representative of ACCC in the country • Need to connect with Senior persons ---Ministers, Presidents, business leaders • Need to be able to work at senior level: – Aware of big picture – without supervision – demonstrating sound judgment, integrity, propriety – Knowing when to raise an issue to a higher level

STA - ‘Senior’ cont’d • managing time, multiplicities, ambiguity • as part of a team with other colleagues • Senior level experience in Canada is a help – credibility. (Ph. D. definite bonus) • Should know about international development – millennium goals, global initiatives, approaches by other donors, international groups (UNESCO, ILO, etc. ) • Work with partners to help them implement their initiatives without imposing Canadian solutions • e. g. C-EFE example re CVQ, NTAs etc.

S TA - ‘Technical’ Subject matter expert Technically competent • E. g. , Curriculum, QA, Strategic and Business Planning, LMI, etc. • Skilled in use of computer – Office – (word, excel, ppt) – competent, quick, professional looking, – Email – Web meeting programs (Goto. Meeting, Webinar, VOIP programs, LMIs) – Equipment - use and source – Internet research • People expect you to know a little or a lot about every subject area • Often asked to review country’s approaches and provide feedback or help them with their initiatives • Everyday technical survival skills - • Have resources available to get a lease, read a map, drive a share e. g. business plan car, arrange transportation, do template banking, keep records, call long distance, etc. • Able to produce templates

ST A - ‘Advisor’ • Advisor versus Manager • We do not set up a Program Management Unit. • Expected to be a support to partner who implements the initiative • Leadership from behind

C-EFE WBS

SPO – support to field offices • Standardize systems for delivery and administration in the field – Operations Manual (so STAs don’t get bogged down with procedures and will have more time to do technical work) – events, hiring, reporting, etc. • Align operations with ACCC and CIDA rules • Address budget issues – financial support for what needs to be done in the field

SPO – Support to Manager of Operations • Respond to CIDA requests / queries – get inputs from STAs • QA all standard reporting requirements, including workplans, progress reports and core document revisions (LM, PMF, RR) • Oversee budgeting, spending & reporting • Manage electronic files of everything C-EFE • Oversee all contracting and contract management processes

Operational Division of Labour & Collaboration • General rule: Everything Canada is led by Ottawa, everything field is led by STAs • Institutional Partnerships – SPOs deal with Canadian partners for contract compliance (including reporting); STAs deal with Canadian and Caribbean partners for technical advise and linkaging support • Lead and support roles • Share everything to team – circulation of meeting reports by STAs • Solicit inputs/comments from team – circulation of major outputs by lead • STAs meet, Ottawa staff meets, team water cooler meetings

Admin Coordinators, IP Management and SPOs and ACCC Corporate Staff • Admin Coordinators support SPOs and MO • Lessons learned and templates developed by SPOs for other projects • Corporate support as needed.

Some quotes / rules we live by • “Let (ask) the STAs think, write, make decisions and do all the technical stuff – that’s why they are paid the big bucks. ” • “The Ottawa people are not just pretty faces, they have brains too. So use them!” • Never read between the lines. • Ottawa and field offices – two different worlds. • Share and celebrate each others’ successes.