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 – 20M, 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 C- EFE – 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

S TA - ‘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

S TA - ‘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 T A - ‘Technical’ Subject matter expert E.g., Curriculum, QA, Strategic and Business Planning, LMI, etc. 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 Have resources available to share e.g. business plan template Able to produce templates Technically competent Skilled in use of computer – Office – (word, excel, ppt) – competent, quick, professional looking, – – Web meeting programs (GotoMeeting, Webinar, VOIP programs, LMIs) – Equipment - use and source – Internet research Everyday technical survival skills - get a lease, read a map, drive a car, arrange transportation, do banking, keep records, call long distance, etc.

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.