Current recruitment

Imprimer

CANADEM currently seeks experts to fill the following positions:

 
Fluent Arabic-Speakers

Recruiting Arabic-Speaking Professionals!

 CANADEM is currently recruiting Arabic speaking professionals to undertake short and long-term capacity-development missions in Libya and possibly Syria if the situation permits


Requirements:

  • Fluent Arabic and English (speaking, reading, and writing)
  • University degree


Asset Requirements:

  • Work experience in the region
  • Fluent French
  • Capacity building experience
  • Strong cultural knowledge

If you're interested and available, please register with CANADEM.  Make sure to accurately fill out the languages section of the application.


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CANADEM Country Directors (CD) and Deputy Country Directors (DCD) Recruitment

CANADEM Country Directors (CD) and Deputy Country Directors (DCD) Recruitment


CANADEM is currently recruiting for its roster of Country Directors and Deputy Directors.  While there is no current post on offer, CANADEM needs to be prepared to rapidly stand-up missions or rotate in new CDs or DCDs.  Equally, the UN and NGOs are also searching for senior directors, and CANADEM is often asked to respond.  So for potential CANADEM in-house need and potential UN/NGO need, we are searching our current roster for candidates, and advertising more broadly.
  •  More specifically, this roster would consist of individuals capable of CD  and DCD posts in post-conflict mission areas like Libya, South Sudan, DRC, Afghanistan, and Somalia.
  • To assist in this CD roster recruitment, below are CANADEM’s generic Country Director Roles & Responsibilities. Deputy Director requirements would include similar components but specific positions would require somewhat less experience
If you have the requisite capabilities, experience and interest in being a Country Director or Deputy Country Director, please forward an email detailing your experience in each of the requisite skill and knowledge areas noted below to  Graham Bos at graham.bos@canadem.ca . Only those who meet all the indicated requirements will be contacted.

 

CANADEM Country Director Roles & Responsibilities

A CANADEM Country Director (CD)  is the most senior CANADEM individual in a mission area and fills the critical nexus between all subordinate CANADEM mission components, and CANADEM HQ.  A CD’s most important line of responsibility lies towards CANADEM HQ, specifically the Executive Director of CANADEM or designate.  This reflects the fact that effective CANADEM risk management is the sine qua non without which the critically import program/project deliverables are not sustainable.

  • The 6 roles/responsibilities below are in rough order of importance. The first one has both corporate and mission specific components
    1. CANADEM Risk Management
    2. Results-based Program/Project Delivery 
    3. Leadership
    4. Ops Management
    5. Finance
    6. Security
  • Usually a CD will be part of a larger Mission Management Team (MMT), all of whom will have complementary strengths.  And so depending on the strengths of other mission management members, or at times CANADEM HQ personnel who are working in direct support to the CD, the CD may only have modest capacity in one or more categories, e.g. mission finance.  Yet at the same time the CD must have sufficient strength in order to effectively monitor and supervise a subordinate who may be the ‘primary’ in a functional areas such as security, or program/project delivery.

 

1.       CANADEM Risk Management

CANADEM HQ delegates substantial authority and latitude to the CD in the belief that this will strengthen the ability of the CD to successfully carry out the five core mission specific functions:  program/project delivery; leadership; Ops management; finance; and security.  As a result, CANADEM HQ day-to-day situational awareness is relatively modest, and HQ itself is unable to carry out the full requisite risk management.  There is overwhelming reliance upon the CD to ensure much of CANADEM’s corporate risk management.

In part risk management is #1 because funders, in particular the Canadian Government albeit for legitimate reasons, create legal contracts that seek to transfer every conceivable legal liability to CANADEM.  Catastrophic incidents such as deaths or serious injury, or even seemingly prosaic ‘incidents’ such as being sued for wrongful dismissal could result in legal and financial judgements against CANADEM that could bankrupt CANADEM, including the possibility that in certain areas that the CANADEM Board members could be held personally liable. 

As a result, the overriding CD responsibility is CANADEM risk management composed of mission specific risk management and the larger corporate CANADEM risk management.  (See CANADEM doctrine on risk management.)  The riskier the operational or contractual context, the greater the importance of this function. 

The remaining CD roles and responsibilities are more predominantly mission specific.  Note that many but not all mission specific issues can be thought of as program-specific or project-specific.  This is because most missions are underpinned by funding agreements such as grants or contribution agreements that refer to program or project funding.  However those funding agreements focus on deliverables, and assume that CANADEM has the capacity to carry out the larger mission tasks that provide the platform for the program/project deliverables.  Therefore, CANADEM uses the more inclusive descriptor, mission.

 

2.       Mission Program/Project Delivery

Each mission or project will have clearly defined outcomes or deliverables as set by the funder, and these will be reflected in the contractual relationship, e.g. grant, contribution agreement, or service contract.  By definition, a sizable part of program/project delivery will be delegated to mission members such as TAs (technical advisors).  In large or complex missions the greater the likelihood that the CD will delegate responsibilities to a deputy CD or team leaders.  At times a deputy CD will be delegated substantial functions such as program/project monitoring and reporting roles.

Results-based program/project delivery is essential to the successful conduct and outcome of a mission, and so will aborb the majority of the effort of a mission CD or the mission management team (MMT). 

3.       Mission Leadership

Regardless of the size of the mission the CD will always remain the primary for this function.  The CD will actively involve the MMT and other mission members to provide leadership in functional areas and for mission sub-groups, but by definition the CD remains the mission leader. See Annex 1 for some thoughts on the leadership requirements.

4.       Mission Ops Management

Operations management is another functional area that would be substantively delegated in large missions.  This includes substantial delegation to locally engaged staff (LES), particularly where this is both a cost saving exercise, and an effort to develop local administrative e capacity.

5.       Mission Finance

Particularly for small missions, this is a functional activity that will be delegated back to CANADEM HQ.  Not only does HQ have the primary responsibility for financial reporting with donor partners such as CIDA or DFAIT, it often is best placed to carry out many of the more complicated functions and to ensure contractual compliance, e.g. Treasury Board Guidelines.

 The larger the mission, the more certain mission finance functions must be carried out in mission, e.g. the close supervision of mission area expenditures and bookkeeping.  Nevertheless in most instances CANADEM HQ will remain the primary, inter alia because it will be satisfying the questions of auditors for months if not years after a mission has ended.

6.       Mission Security

This a key sub-set of risk management, the overriding responsibility of the CD as set out in #1 above.  As such it can never be fully delegated by the CD although in large or risky missions in countries like Haiti or Afghanistan, this component may be largely delegated to the larger UN mission (e.g. where a CANADEM mission is embedded in a peacekeeping mission) or to a contracted security firm that may well provide an international security team leader who reports directly to the CD.

This is a capstone doctrinal document, inasmuch as Individual country directors will have TORs or job descriptions that are specific to their particular mission both in time and space.  The subsidiary document will also reflect the division of tasks amongst the Mission Management Team (MMT), a division that will also fluctuate depending on the particular attributes and expertise of new or departing individual MMT members.

 

ANNEX 1
“Leadership Qualities”  for a Country Director
As collated by Randy Weekes  

Thoughts arising from discussions with Paul LaRose-Edwards in Kabul, November 2010 Note that these are leadership attributes and qualities, and not the larger attributes of a Country Director, e.g. program/project delivery capacity, or management skills.

  • Personal Attributes
  • Mature, knows self and their strengths and limitations
  • Able to function autonomously, comfortable taking decisions
  • Able to take initiative
  • Adaptable
  • Comfortable dealing with ambiguity
  • Strong interpersonal skills
  • Culturally knowledgeable, able to learn, communicate and manage effectively in new environments.
  • Diplomatic skills – e.g. able to interface effectively with Canadian and/or local government officials.
  •  “Deportment” knowledge and skills.  Know whether to wear jeans or a suit, appropriate to the situation.
  •  Need to have a base level of knowledge in the sector within which they are providing leadership.  (If leading a development team or a health team or an education team, can rely on team members for specific expertise, but need to have sufficient knowledge and experience in the sector)
  •  Vision
    •  A defined vision for the field organization.  In Afghanistan, 
      • “What – and why - is the CGSO?”
      • “At this juncture, what are the strategic goals for CGSO”
    • Develops and evolves the vision in consultation with levels “above, below and beside”.
    • Able to transmit the vision to the team. o    Recognizes that the vision can only be realized through the team. 
    • Able to motivate the team to work individually and collectively towards realizing the vision.

  • Position within hierarchies / systems
  • Understands their role relative to those 'above', 'below' and 'beside'.
  • Able to delegate (within their own 'pyramid')
  • Able to accept delegation
  • Knows  what is best done at their own and others' levels, and is able to design their own system, e.g. a mission.

  • Decision Making
  • Decisive (able to get beyond data gathering or when all facts aren't known and a decision must be taken.)
  • Able to reverse or change decisions as circumstances or personalities change or more facts become known.
  • Participatory as appropriate – involve others in decisions in order to increase understanding, ownership, etc..
  • Able to stand alone and take decisions when necessary (without being a loner), for instance when it is not possible to confer with others.
  • Able to accept that decisions may create distance from others, at times.
  • Recognizes position within hierarchy and implications for decision making

  • Team Leadership and Team Building Skills
  • Authority comes from earned respect and recognition that this individual knows what he or she is doing, not from the job title
  • Able to analyze the requirements for the initial building of a team and to select the best individuals
  • Able to build the strength of the team over time
  • Able to balance strengths and weaknesses of individual team members or to bring in outsiders to complement existing capacities.
  • Able to provide “situational leadership”, i.e. to function in a directive and or a consultative manner, according to the requirements of the circumstances and the personalities.
  • “Nurturing”.
  • Concerned about team members and other staff. 
  • Able to mentor, coach, provide inspiration and guidance as needed. 
  • “It isn't your job to be liked … and yet you should be liked.”

  • Management Skills
  • Noted:  these are not necessarily the same as good leadership skills.  They may or may not be found in the same individual.
  • Need to be a “sufficient” manager in order to be a good leader (vs. a “good” manager.)