EL PAcCTO 2.0 Key Expert for the Mexican Window (M/W)
Mission description
Based in Mexico City, México, under expert / fee-based contract, the Key Expert for the Mexican Window will carry out its functions within the framework of the second phase of the EL PAcCTO 2.0 Programme (Europe, Latin America and Caribbean Programme of Assistance against Transnational Organized Crime), funded by the European Union - DG INTPA. EL PAcCTO 2.0 is an innovative programme focused on supporting Latin American and Caribbean (LAC) countries in strengthening the rule of law and fighting transnational organized crime.
EL PAcCTO 2.0 is a programme that is implemented by 6 cooperation agencies and/or technical ministries of France, Italy, the Netherlands, Portugal and Spain, with a team of around 48 people located in Madrid (Hub), Paris, Rome, Lisbon, the Hague, as well as key experts in Bogota and Mexico City. Each agency and/or institution is responsible for the financial and administrative well-management of the actions and activities entrusted to it.
The Key Expert for the Mexican Window will work with the entire EL PAcCTO 2.0 team, particularly with the four Deputy Directors responsible for each component of the programme, as well as with the Director, the Senior Executive Manager and the Administrator. He/she is responsible for the promotion, preparation, coordination, oversight and implementation of activities planned in Mexico at Federal and State level by the 6 partners implementing the programme. Additionally, he/she will be responsible for receiving, ordering and filtering demands made to the programme by the Federal and State Mexican authorities as well as organising regular meetings with the EU Delegation in Mexico, EU Member States and keeping good contact with the Mexican partners.
He/she will be under the direction of the Programme Director and under the hierarchical supervision of the Senior Executive Manager (Expertise France), both based in Madrid, and he/she will work part-time for the programme while being home-based in Mexico City.
The Key Expert for the Mexican Window will have the following non-exhaustive list of tasks:
Identification, planning and implementation of activities:
· Elaborate activity proposals for the annual action plan of the Mexican Window, particularly the national activities and, when needed, avoid overlapping with the annual action plan of other EU or EU Member States-funded initiatives implemented by EU MS, civil society organisations or international organisations;
· Identify the demands of the beneficiary Mexican authorities at Federal and State level about the different topics covered by the 4 components of the Mexican Window.
· Evaluate the relevance of these demands (political, sustainability, impact and high institutional priority) and its coherence with the objectives of the Programme.
· Together with the Director, the Administrator, the Senior Executive Manager and the four Deputy Directors, validate the demands made by the Mexican authorities which fulfil the above-mentioned criteria.
· Assist EL PAcCTO 2.0 teams in ensure the good implementation, monitoring, technical justification and follow up of the activities carried out in Mexico.
· Participate to the evaluation of activities carried out by the programme.
· Draft concept notes, terms of reference and all the content documents necessary for the implementation of the activities with the support of the technical team.
· Read and review the quality of products delivered to partner institutions by short term experts mobilized.
· Bring its own expertise in all aspects of the implementation of the activities.
· Support to coordinate actions at operational level.
· Identify relevant Mexican expertise.
· Work closely with the 13 other Key Experts of the programme, in order to ensure a complementarity between their respective areas and activities, develop common activities and share good practices.
· Have a close coordination with the EU Delegation to Mexico in the identification, implementation and evaluation of the activities of the Program.
Strategic guidance and dialogue with the Mexican authorities:
· Maintain a constant dialogue with the Federal and State Mexican focal points.
· Organise regular meetings, maintain a constant dialogue and provide with updates to the EU Delegation in Mexico.
· Liaise with the EU Member States Embassies, Justice and Security Attachés based in Mexico.
· When needed, provide strategic and operational technical assistance to Mexican institutions (Federal and State prosecutors’ offices, secretaries of governance and home affairs, security and supreme courts).
· Assist in coordinating actions with the EU EMPACTs, Europol and Eurojust.
· Ensure the visibility of the Programme and the European Union in all the activities implemented;
Support to the technical teams of EL PAcCTO:
· Support the logistics team in planning, managing and justifying activities, whenever necessary.
· Work closely with the technical programme teams (Financial Officers, Senior Project Officers, Project Officers and Project Assistants) in order to implement activities in line with the contractual requirements, both technical and administrative, of the programme.
· Support technical teams in the collection of documents supporting activities (invoices, boarding pass, etc.)
Project or context description
Project description and context
Within the Peace, Stability, Security Department, under the direct supervision of the Senior Executive Manager of EL PAcCTO 2.0 and in liaison with the Expertise France Unit Coordinator in charge of Organised Crime, the Key Expert for the Mexican Window assists and monitors the operational implementation of EL PAcCTO 2.0 programme.
EL PAcCTO 2.0 is a programme of an initial duration of 49 months, with a total budget of 53.3 M euros, whose overall objective is to establish an effective partnership between the EU and the Latin American and the Caribbean on strengthening the rule of law and combating organised crime, promoting the security and stability of citizens in LAC and Europe.
The specific objectives of the programme are: 1) consolidation and strengthening of LAC regional structures and EU-LAC bi-regional structures, as well as the justice cooperation mechanism; 2) strengthen the rule of law environment and the capacity of institutions to combat transnational organized crime; and, 3) addressing the specific challenges of key transnational criminal markets
Required profile
Desired profile
Professional experience:
- Former or current public prosecutor, judge, jurist, law enforcement agent or equivalent profiles of at least 10 years of successful professional experience, nationally and internationally, in the fight against organized crime.
- In-depth knowledge and experience of police, justice and penitentiary cooperation.
- Working experience in the field of cooperation projects with Latin America, the EU and/or the Caribbean.
- Practical experience in planning and organizing complex activities.
- Experience in multilateralism and active participation in international forums.
- Working experience with the Mexican authorities at Federal and State level.
Competences:
- Fluent in Spanish and English. Knowledge of French would be an asset.
- Good knowledge of cooperation mechanisms, particularly at EU level.
- Excellent writing and synthesis skills.
- Diplomacy, patience and adaptability to work under pressure.
- Responsiveness, initiative and autonomy is a must.
- Teamwork and good coordination skills.
- Very good knowledge of office software.
Selection Criteria
Shortlist selection criteria (100 points):
- Demonstrated experience as key or short term expert in cooperation projects (50 points; 5 points per year of experience)
- Proven professional experience with Mexican justice and security institutions. (30 points; 1 point per year of experience)
- Fluency in oral and written French (10 points)
- Experience in the public/sovereign sector (10 points)
Selection criteria during the oral interview with the maximum 3 people selected from the short list (/ 100 points):
- Understanding of the programme, its environment, its objectives (15 points)
- Understanding of job expectations as part-time key expert (25 points)
- Diplomacy and partnership skills (20 points)
- Writing skills (15 points)
- Faculties of synthesis, analysis and organization (10 points)
- Salary Expectations (15 points)
Additional information
Location: Mexico City
Regular and/or sporadic field missions.
Starting date: expected February 2024.
Salary: fee-based and part-time.
Consultancy contract
Selection criteria for applications
The selection process for candidates will be based on the following criteria :
- Candidate’s skills linked with the expert mission
- Candidate’s expected linguistic understanding