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International Secretariat (IS)

The International Secretariat (IS) is responsible for the day to day global management of CoST and for ensuring progress in the pilot countries by providing technical, managerial and administrative assistance and lesson-sharing. It supports the operation of the International Advisory Group and the Multi-Stakeholder Groups (MSGs). All technical and financial assistance provided in the pilot phase is channelled through the International Secretariat. The IS is accountable to DFID and works in partnership with the World Bank.

The workplan of the IS for 2008-2010 is available here.

The IS is provided by PricewaterhouseCoopers LLP in collaboration with Engineers Against Poverty, the Institution of Civil Engineers (ICE), Tiri and British Expertise. 

The IS core team

The members of the core secretariat team are:

  • Graham Hand, Secretariat Chairman
  • Zlatina Loudjeva, Secretariat Managing Director
  • Jill Wells, Senior Policy Advisor
  • John Hawkins, Policy Advisor
  • William Paterson, Lead Technical Advisor
  • Petter Matthews, Communciation Advisor
  • Richard Calland, Multi-stakeholder working Advisor
  • Claire Schouten, Civil Society Advisor
  • Kerry Symeonidis, Secretariat Manager
  • Elise Porter, Events and Logistics Manager

The secretariat also has the mandate and dedicated resources to procure additional technical assistance as needed and upon request by the MSGs, the IAG, the IAG Chair or DFID. These experts are hired on ad-hoc basis for specific assignments and with specific terms of reference.

Responsibilties of the IS core team

International Secretariat Chair

The Chair of the International Secretariat is responsible for ensuring a good working relationship between the secretariat and other CoST entities and that the strategic direction of the work of the secretariat meets the needs of the other CoST entities.

The Chair is responsible for:

  • Exercising strategic leadership over Secretariat activities
  • Charing Secretariat meetings as required
  • Working in close collaboration with the IAG Chair, taking such action with key external agencies or stakeholders as may be required
  • Strategic oversight of Secretariat preparation for and follow-up to IAG meetings
  • Ensuring that agreement is reached on contentious issues arising between the Secretariat and other CoST entities
  • Regular critical review of the Secretariat approach to issues raised by the MSGs and the IAG to ensure that CoST principles and priorities are being followed
  • Direct communication with the CoST Champions and MSG Chairs, to ensure that they are appropriately supported, informed and prepared for the demands of their respective roles

The Chair is responsible for ensuring that IAG decisions and priorities are adequately addressed in a timely manner by the Secretariat.

Senior Policy Advisor

The senior policy advisor is responsible for:

  • Leadership in establishing the technical processes and mechanisms needed for successful implementation of CoST
  • Leadership in identifying technical assistance needs
  • Quality control of technical assistance
  • Focal point for technical assistance requests
  • Focal point for the development, implementation of and support with the monitoring and evaluation (M&E) system
  • Baseline study quality assurance
  • Assurance reports review and quality control
  • Direct technical support as needed
  • The close monitoring of progress in two pilot countries (Tanzania and Vietnam).

The senior policy advisor is supported by a pool of technical experts, the policy advisor and the secretariat manager.

Policy Advisor

The policy advisor is primarily responsible for:

  • Data collection, quality control and regular analysis against the project outcomes and outputs (including M&E system, review of regular country reports) and regular up-date of the secretariat
  • Support to the senior policy advisor as needed
  • Direct technical support to MSGs
  • Focal point for baseline study support requests
  • The close monitoring of progress in two pilot countries (UK and Philippines)
  • Support to the UK MSG

Civil Society Advisor

The civil society advisor is responsible for:

  • Support to MSGs to promote the application of the participatory principles of CoST
  • Technical assistance with civil society participation and capacity building as needed
  • Regular oversight of MSG progress in engaging civil society
  • Representing international civil society views, best practice and experience in the secretariat deliberations
  • Coordination of civil society focused and capacity building activities with other transparency initiatives/ relevant programmes and projects both globally and in country as needed
  • Support with tools for analysing and building capacity

Manager

The CoST Secretariat manager is responsible for the coordination of all CoST activities, ensuring adequate information flows among the relevant parties and appropriate allocation of resources. The manager is responsible for:

  • Every day running of CoST resource and task distribution, prioritisations, allocation
  • Every day management of the international part of the CoST programme
  • Information management, including regular country and web-site up-dates
  • Establishing adequate reporting structures to ensure progress and transparency
  • Quarterly analysis of country progress reports
  • Focal point for capacity building and support requests from pilot countries
  • Quarterly reporting to DFID on overall CoST progress
  • Quarterly reporting to the IAG on CoST progress
  • Support to the IAG Chair and the IAG members as needed
  • Mobilising the relevant technical assistance (in collaboration with the relevant advisors)
  • Contracting and monitoring of contractual arrangements of relevant parties
  • Procurement of research and technical assistance needed
  • Organising of the IAG meetings, under the IAG Chair leadership

  • The secretariat manager is also responsible for the close monitoring of progress in two countries (Malawi and Zambia).
  • The secretariat manager is supported by additional resources and experts as needed. These include communications expert, accountant, and administrative assistance.

Profiles of the IS core team

Graham Hand, Secretariat Chair, is the Chief Executive of the British Expertise, a professional organisations among whose members are large construction companies, engineers and architects. The British Expertise is an institutional member of the Anti-corruption Forum; and Graham personally sits on the Board of the forum. Previously, Graham was a diplomat and his career included long- term senior positions in Algeria, Nigeria and elsewhere.

Jill Wells, Senior Policy Advisor, currently works with Engineers against poverty, an NGO. Jill is a social scientist with many years of experience in research and development work focused around the construction sector. She has worked for at least two years in each of the main stakeholder groups – in a private building contractor, a government Ministry of Planning, an international organisation (the ILO), various research and academic institutions and most recently in an NGO. She has an excellent knowledge of the construction sector in two of the pilot countries (Tanzania and the UK) with experience also in Vietnam.

John Hawkins, Policy Advisor, is the manager of the Management Procurement and Law department at the Institution of Civil Engineers with responsibilities for knowledge transfer in infrastructure procurement. He has been researching the link between the infrastructure procurement and social development with Engineers Against Poverty (Jill) for a number of years with a particular focus on Kenya and Tanzania. John is also the British Standards Institute Expert on the International Standards Organisation Working Group for an International Standard on Construction Procurement.

Richard Calland, Multi-stakeholder Working Advisor has for the past 14 years been working in the field of democracy and governance in South Africa. He is currently Programme Director of the Economic Governance programme at Idasa – Africa’s leading democracy think-tank. He is also now Associate Professor in the Public Law Department at the University of Cape Town, where he teaches constitutional and human rights law, and some administrative law. He worked as programme manager of the Political Information & Monitoring Service at Idasa which he led from its inception in 1995 until 2003. He serves as part-time Executive Director of the Open Democracy Advice Centre (ODAC) which he founded in 2000. In recent years he served as an expert consultant to the Carter Center, advising on transparency projects in Bolivia, Jamaica, Nicaragua, Peru and Mali.

Claire Schouten, Civil Society Advisor, is a Programme Manager at TIRI, coordinating a network of civil society organisations in post-war countries monitoring aid and reconstruction. Prior to that, Clair worked in the Democratic Republic of Congo; and researched corruption and humanitarian assistance and surveyed practitioners as a consultant with the Overseas Development Institute.

Zlatina Loudjeva, Secretariat Managing Director, is a social scientist with years of experience working on governance and social development issues, including private public partnerships and multi- stakeholder initiatives. Zlatina has worked in Zambia, Malawi, Uganda and Ghana and has a close knowledge of other transparency initiatives as the EITI. Zlatina has previously worked for the World Bank, DFID and Shell International, including on large construction projects.