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Director of Legal - ECOWAS

Internationally recruited position
  • Department: Office of the President
  • Directorate: Legal Affairs
  • Grade: D1
  • Salary: USD 92,866.73
  • Supervisor: President of the ECOWAS Commission
  • Reference: ECW-COMM/REC/PO-D/001/2010
  • Duration: Permanent
  • Closing date: 18-02-2011

Following the restructuring of the ECOWAS Commission from an Executive Secretariat in 2006, the number of Directorates was increased from 16 to 25. A Directorate in ECOWAS Community Institutions is a subset of Departments headed by Commissioners. Directorates are headed by Directors.
Directors are responsible within the Commission for providing the technical expertise in particular technical areas for the design and implementation of technical projects within the region 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 report directly to respective Commissioners who head Departments. As the principle link between the Directorate and the wider beyond, the Director is responsible to:

  • Clearly communicate the President’s and Commissioner’s vision to staff, explain how the Directorate’s activities aligns with them and how the Director expects the Directorate to carry-out set tasks on it.

  • Stay on top of fast-moving technical, political, social or economic changes.

  • Remain in frequent contact with the other Directors in the Institution to ensure that the work is harmonized with that of other Directorates as needed.

  • Maintain a network of peer technical specialists and decision-makers in Member States, needed to ensure the smooth introduction of ECOWAS programmes.

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 Commission’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 creating 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 reports;

  • 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 staff 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 President, Vice President and Commissioner 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

  • Providing guidelines for, and/or directing, the conduct of research and preparation of opinions, studies, reports and correspondence on legal issues relating to the functions, structure and activities of the Organization. Such issues may bear upon constitutional, international, public, private and administrative law;

  • Examining precedents and carrying out research for this purpose on complex, highly specialized or sensitive issues, which may have a major impact on the Organization or its work;

  • Providing and ensuring consistency in interpretations of legal instruments, such as the statutes, treaties, agreements, regulations and rules, resolutions and other legal materials adopted by or under the auspices of the organization;

  • Supervising and establishing guidelines for the provision of legal opinions or advice on issues relating to the functions, structure and activities of the Organization. Providing such opinions and advice on issues of a highly sensitive and complex nature, which might have a major impact on the Organization or its work;

  • Providing advice and assistance in resolving procedural and substantive questions at meetings, conferences and in committees, in particular to the main organs of the organization;

  • Supervising, coordinating and/or overseeing the drafting of legal instruments, such as contracts and agreements, internal rules and regulations and other legislative materials;

  • Undertaking consultations and participating in negotiations with contractors and with high-level representatives of Member States or other organizations. Representing the Organization in conferences and at meetings of other organizations and bodies;

  • Reviewing, revising and clearing the legal aspects of draft letters, agreements and other texts of a sensitive nature, which have been passed to the office for review and comments;

  • Coordinating the preparation and review of briefs for representing the Organization in proceedings before courts of law, administrative tribunals and any other judicial or quasi‑judicial bodies;

  • Representing the office at specialized meetings and on internal bodies, boards or committees on issues of importance to the organization;

  • Initiating and participating in meetings with senior officers and legal advisers of other agencies on matters of common concern

Qualifications/Experience/Skills

Educational Qualification

  • Master’s degree (or equivalent post-graduate professional qualification) in in Law, with a specialization in international, administrative or commercial law

Experience

  • Minimum of 12 years progressively responsible and relevant work experience

  • Minimum of 5 years work experience managing others, preferably in a supervisory capacity within an international organization;

  • Experience with the legal department of a government or international organization or with a private firm specializing in international or commercial law;

Competencies (Skills, Knowledge and Abilities)

  • Ability to chair meetings efficiently and effectively;

  • 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). Ability to align self and Directorate to the Commission;

  • 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.

Age


Candidates must not be fifty (50) years old or over at the point of recruitment and must be a citizen of one of the ECOWAS member states.

Languages


Must be fluent in one of the official languages of ECOWAS: English, French and Portuguese. A working knowledge of a second official language would be an advantage.