Coordinating Office for the Offices of the General Secretariat in the Member States

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The Coordinating Office strives to provide and promote coordination, cooperation, and cost effectiveness in the Offices of the General Secretariat in the Member States. It is focused on streamlining and improving the management of the Offices while facilitating optimal operations of all Offices in their host countries. The Coordinating Office also provides technical budgetary support and conducts staff training and provides administrative assistance to ensure that the OAS mission, its mandates and pillars are adequately implemented throughout the Hemisphere. The Office of the Assistant Secretary General has responsibility for the coordination of the OGSMS.

The Coordinating Office maintain an active role in promoting specific activities that enhance the institutional presence and relevance of the Offices, including intensifying efforts to develop greater partnerships with Inter-American institutions, international and regional partners to increase the efficiency and delivery of services to the Member States.
 

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The Organization of American States, first receive a mandate to open OAS on July 1, 1953 when the Pan-American Union (later to be renamed the OAS) in an Extraordinary Session of the Permanent Council decided to initially establish four Offices away from Headquarter.  Currently there are 28 Offices operating in the Western Hemisphere.


Offices Responsibilities and Purpose

Offices Mission

Our are dedicated to the principles enshrined in the OAS Charter and the Inter-American Democratic Charter. Working together our Country Offices want to support the OAS Mission of democracy promotion, defending human rights, multidimensional approach to security, fostering integral development and support Inter-American legal cooperation in the Western Hemisphere.

Offices in the Member States are representatives of the OAS General Secretariat throughout the Western Hemisphere. OGSMS are responsible for executing organizational mandates in Member States and for monitoring projects in direct coordination with local executing agencies and the respective Secretariat or Department in Headquarters. Among the major functions of the Offices are:

Broad oversight responsibility for the OAS Country Offices is assigned to the Coordinating Office. Hence, Representatives report directly to the Coordinator in the Office of the Assistant Secretary General (OASG).  They are expected to correspond directly with, and are functionally responsive to the Coordinating Office; and must comply with, and are accountable to the General Secretariat with regard to Administrative Memoranda, rules and regulations of the Organization.

Coordinating Office

Vision going forward

The Office of the Assistant Secretary General through the Coordinating Office is actively working and strived to improve the management oversight and efficiency of the OGSMS and worked to make them more agile instruments of policy implementation, program execution, and performance enhancement.  This has been pursued by promoting greater synergies within and among the Offices and by capitalizing on efficiencies to enable the Offices to better use core competencies within the OAS and the Inter-American system.

The Coordinating Office serves as a link between the OAS General Secretariat and the Country Offices. Our mission is to inform on successful events, projects, and accomplishments on our Offices in Member States.  At the same time, the Office of the Assistant Secretary General through the Coordinating Office monitor and ensure the financial integrity and accountability of the financial activities of the OAS Country Offices.

Our main functions are to:

  • Advise the Secretary General and the Assistant Secretary General and their respective Chiefs of Staff on all political matters relative to the functioning of the Offices of the General Secretariat in Member States.
  • Analyze and assess the work of the OGSMS, evaluating them within the framework of policies and objectives established by the Secretary General and the Assistant Secretary General
  • Liaise between the Directors of the OGSMS and the other areas of the General Secretariat;
  • Examine the activities of the OGSMS in order to formulate recommendations to improve their services.
  • Identify the resource needs of the OGSMS, including staff training, budgetary allocations, equipment and special services to help them perform the tasks entrusted to them by mandates of the General Assembly and the directives of the Secretary General. Such task may include implementation of technical cooperation activities, promotion of the institutional presence of the OAS and public information dissemination, and coordination with national institutions and other international agencies within countries;
  • Advise the Permanent Council, its committees and working groups when information on the OGSMS is required.
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