Coordination and Recruitment

Many CSAs have benefitted greatly from recruiting a full-time coordinator and/or communications support to help unify and organise the CSA. Ideally this would occur much earlier on in the CSA development process but we are aware that funding often takes time to receive and that it is often not possible for organisations to devote staff full-time to the endeavour until funding and contractual arrangement are in place. If recruiting new staff members to coordinate the CSA there will need to be discussion and final clarification around the line of accountability and communication between CSA members, the steering / executive committee and the host organisation. Recruitment processes should be open, fair and transparent and attention should be paid to potential conflict of interest. It will be important that all members are clear on these relationships and understand how any management lines function as well as active in developing the ToR for the post.  CSA coordinators are likely to require the following in order to be effective:

• Strong facilitation, leadership and negotiation skills

• Strong communication and knowledge management skills

• Strong networking and relationship building and nurturing skills

• Strategic methods to resolve conflict, achieve consensus and prioritize tasks

• Ability to facilitate interaction between central and district level civil society efforts and priorities[1]

 

Developing a ways of working and communications document will assist with this and with making processes clear. It will be essential to set realistic goals and targets for the coordinator and review progress regularly as it may be that additional human resources are required even with the recruitment of a coordinator. Clear lines of accountability will need to be agreed upon. CSAs have generally prioritised accountability of the coordinator to the CSA and to the funders. In some cases the recruitment process has been jointly managed between the host organisation and the CSA steering / executive committee

 

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Key questions to consider might be:

Is everyone happy with how the CSA is running? If not why not and is there anything that can be done? Do we have a good process for dealing with disagreement? Do we need to revise this in any way? Are all members contributing equally? If not why not? Can we encourage other organisations to contribute more? What kind of representation is there – are women, children, the disabled and other vulnerable groups well represented?

 

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Case study: Uganda CSA - Key points for recruitment.

In Uganda, prior to recruiting a coordinator the following were key:

• A clear ToR for the coordinator that is agreed by all members of the CSA.

• Consensus on hosting of the CSA secretariat.

• Agreement on hosting organisation rules and regulations that will govern the working of the coordinator.  This may necessitate having a MoU with the hosting institution.

• Clear reporting lines for the coordinator and steering committee so that they have a support structure and appropriate level of independence.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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[1] MPTF Office, UNDP (2014) 2013 Annual Report of the SUN movement Multi-Partner Trust Fund. Report of the Technical Secretariat and Administrative Agent of the Scaling-Up Nutrition (SUN) Multi-Partner Trust Fund for the period 1 January-31 December 2013.