Director of Parliamentary Affairs and Research (Parliament) at Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS)

The Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) is a regional group of fifteen West African countries. Founded on 28 May 1975, with the signing of the Treaty of Lagos, its mission is to promote economic integration across the region. Considered one of the pillars of the African Economic Community, the organization was founded in order to achieve collective self-sufficiency for its member states by creating a single large trading bloc through an economic and trading union. It also serves as a peacekeeping force in the region. The organization operates officially in three co-equal languages French, English, and Portuguese.

We are currently recruiting to fill the position below:

Job Title: Director of Parliamentary Affairs and Research (Parliament)

Department: Specialised Institution
Location: Abuja, Nigeria
Directorate: Parliamentary Affairs and Research
Grade: D1
Supervisor: Secretary General
Reference: ECW-PARL/REC-D/003/2015
Duration: Permanent

Job Description

• A Directorate in ECOWAS Community Institutions is a subset of Departments headed by Statutory Appointees or D2 level Officers.
• Directorates are headed by Directors or Officers holding Director level positions.
• Directors or Director level Officers are responsible for providing the expertise in particular areas for the design and implementation of technical projects in line with ECOWAS objectives.
• Directors in ECOWAS provide leadership and management to major sector(s) of technical activities which are substantively important to the accomplishment of the Institution's mandate.
• They are responsible for interpreting governing bodies', the President's and the Commissioner's broad visions and policy guidelines, and for developing and managing goals and objectives to meet that mandate.
• D1 positions typically supervise 10 or more professionals some of who may be Division Chiefs at the P5 level and thus supervise other professional staff.

Duties and Responsibilities

Leadership Tasks:
Directors or Director level Officers report directly to Departmental Heads. As the principal link between the Directorate and the wider beyond, the Director is responsible for:

• Clearly communicating the Department's vision to staff, explain how the Directorate's activities aligns with them as well as ways of carrying out set tasks on it;
• Staying on top of fast-moving technical, political, social or economic changes;
• Remaining in frequent contact with the other Directors in the Institution to ensure that the work is harmonized with that of other Directorates as needed.

Managerial Tasks:

• The Director will supervise staff of the Directorate including Professional and General staff. He or she will utilize a range of transactional managerial skills to ensure that staff of the Directorate performs efficiently and effectively, and that they deliver the regular outputs needed at sufficient quality and in a timely manner.

Managerial tasks will include:

• Plan annual goals, objectives, activities and budget tied to the Directorate's overall plans; measure and monitor goal achievement; negotiate suitable adjustments to goals and budgets;
• Implement performance-based budgeting within the Directorate;
• Organize the Directorate in an efficient way with clear reporting lines, minimal bureaucracy and optimal delegation of responsibilities and authority;
• Work with the relevant Directorate to ensure efficient and effective services such as recruitment, action on performance decisions, promotions and related matters;
• Set standards of work and create mechanisms to monitor staff output and ensure that standards are maintained and deadlines met without compromising quality of work;
• Manage the system of setting individual performance planning and standards through available Performance Planning and Evaluation systems;
• Provide regular and prompt performance feedback to direct reporting;
• Actively engaged in the development of staff to ensure skills are built to match plans, goals and existing structures;
• Create productive working atmosphere within the Directorate to encourages staff participation.

Use of Personal Expertise:
While the Director will have a reserve of skilled professionals to draw upon, he or she may at times be called upon to apply his or her personal expertise directly in the relevant technical field in any of the following ways:

• Direct technical guidance on programme design or implementation in an area where he or she has high-level technical expertise;
• Represent ECOWAS in professional meetings or working groups; make speeches, negotiate agreements, mediate disputes;
• Lead or participate in technical missions to develop projects and programmes;
• Advise on issues relating to his or her area of technical expertise;
• Work with the relevant specialized Parliamentary Committee on regional legislation, as needed.

Technical Tasks:

• Co-ordinates technical support to the Parliament, particularly in the areas of Parliamentary Business, Parliamentary Reports, Research, Documentation and Language Services.
• The Director of Parliamentary Affairs and Research is the Head of the Parliamentary Affairs and Research Directorate.

Under the authority of the Secretary-General, he/she performs the following functions:

• Plans and co-ordinate the activities of the Directorate of Parliamentary Affairs and Research;
• Organises and ensures a smooth parliamentary procedure;
• Drafts the reports of the sessions of Parliament;
• Co-ordinates and supervises the activities of units in charge of research and documentation;
• Co-ordinates the drafting of the agenda and work programme of the sessions of Parliament and those of the organs of Parliament;
• Prepares the preliminary draft of the annual activity report of the Parliament in collaboration with the other Directorates/Divisions and units of the General Secretariat;
• Maintains relations between the Community Parliament and the National Parliaments as well as with inter-parliamentary institutions;
• Assists the Secretary-General in discharging his duties of planning and implementing the activities of the organs of Parliament;
• Carries out all other duties as may be assigned.

Qualifications/Experience/Skills
Qualifications:

• A  Master's degree in Law, Public Administration, or the Social Sciences from a recognized University.

Experience:

• A minimum of twelve (12) years professional experience, including six (6) years relevant international experience and five (5) years in a supervisory level;
• Possession of higher degree would reduce the required professional experience to ten (10) years with five (5) years in a supervisory or managerial capacity;
• Candidates with experience in Parliamentary administration have an advantage

Competencies (Skills, Knowledge and Abilities):

• Leadership skills and ability to work in a multi-cultural team;
• Ability to build partnership with other institutions;
• Inter personal skills necessary to train others in performing key Parliamentary activities and supervise their work.
• Good communication skills for influencing groups of peers and stakeholders outside the organization (public speaking, writing, persuasiveness, credibility, negotiation, problem-solving).
• Good interpersonal social skills for working with peers and subordinate staff (listening ability, approachability, clear oral expression).
• Able team-player with peers (creates solutions to problems, creates ideas, takes on share of the work, reliable).
• Drive and energy;
• Demonstrates fairness;
• Self-control and stress management methods;
• Good personal organization with ability to prioritize comfortably, adjust to rapidly changing priorities and to manage time well;
• Ability to delegate authority clearly and effectively to staff. In particular, ability to use support staff available to the Directorate.
• Ability to make recommendations to the Bureau in respect of Parliamentary matters;
• Must be Computer Literate.

Age:

• Candidates should not be over 50 years old at the point of recruitment and must be citizens of one of the ECOWAS member states.

Language:

• Candidates must be fluent in one of the official languages of the Community: English, French and Portuguese.
• A working knowledge of another would be an advantage.

Remuneration
USD 60,372 - USD 75,005 (Annual Salary)

Application Closing Date
30th June, 2015.

Method of Application
Interested and qualified candidates should:
Click here to apply online