DFAIT Re-0rg: more news

DFAIT announced on September 2 that the new Geographic Group had formally started work. The new Group is one integrated branch that re-incorporates the functions split asunder during a previous re-organization. An exerpt from the announcement circulated to DFAIT staff follows.

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By bringing together our bilateral political and commercial expertise under one geographic roof our goals are to provide: enhanced service to Canadians; more integrated intelligence, service, advice and options on country and regional issues to Ministers; increased policy capacity and responsibility of our missions; more equitable, aligned allocation of resources to foreign policy and international commercial interests; better horizontal coordination, including with functional branches; more coherent advice to clients within and outside the Government of Canada.

We are already working to put these goals into practice. A number of actions have been taken over the past two months to get the Group up and running:

1. Governance: The co-management leadership of the new Group has been established and announced [see previous post]. Our responsibilities as ADMs for the Group will be to ensure integration is implemented, to set and monitor overall strategic direction, and to act as the senior link to stakeholders and to the Department's corporate governance boards; and for each of us to have responsibility for a geographic portfolio. Equally important is the relationship that must exist with the ADM of the Afghanistan Task Force at both the strategic and operating level. The ADM of the Afghanistan Task Force will participate in collective leadership but, as head of the Afghanistan Task Force, he will be exclusively responsible for managing its operations.

   Geographic Group bureaus have been created and Directors General identified and appointed as follows: North America Commercial Affairs (Deborah Lyons), North America General Relations (Kim Butler); South, Southeast Asia and Oceania (Peter McGovern), North Asia (Phil Calvert); Middle East and Maghreb (Kerry Buck), European Union (Dan Costello), Europe and Central Asia (Bob Hage); Latin America and Caribbean (Jamie Lambert), and Geographic Strategy and Services (Pam LeBlanc). An announcement concerning a change with respect to the DG Africa is expected shortly.

   The Directors General's roles have also been more clearly defined. They will act as chief operating officers for their regions and ensure the integration of people and programs. They will be responsible for: developing, implementing, tracking and reporting on plans for their regions based on the Department's priorities; providing advice to Ministers, Deputies, and stakeholders; handling emergencies and crises in their regions; anticipating and resolving operational issues; financial and operational plans, and human resource strategy and management.

   We are finalizing Director level appointments and will announce these shortly.