DIPLOMATIC ACADEMY OF ECUADOR

REFORM AND ACTUALIZATION PROGRAM

BACKGROUND

On March 15, 2004, the Minister of Foreign Affairs, Patricio Zuquilanda-Duque, undersigned the Ministerial Agreement number 195, in order to execute the Reform and Actualization Program of the Diplomatic Academy of Ecuador.

Article 26 of the Agreement 195 establishes that the Reform and Actualization Program must constitute an annex, and be an integral part of such.

JUSTIFICATIONS

1. The old aspiration of counting with an own institution to prepare professional diplomats started to become a reality over a decade ago, but probably due to the aim of offering a complete universe of teachings, in front of the proven logistic and budget limitations, after the first years of a modest initiation of activities, within the traditional parameters shared by regional diplomatic academies, the Ecuadorian Academy started to delegate responsibilities, first for the teaching of foreign languages ? which seems logical- and ended up ceding the medullar part of the academic preparation to educational entities that have diverse overviews that do not respond to the necessities of the State and that, to make thing worse, keep and orientation that seems to be fastened with the pragmatism that must characterize the diplomacy.

2. Under the marked orientation of delegating responsibilities the Academy was reduced into a little administrative dependency to coordinate certain aspects of the professional preparation that the students must receive; to collect the grades, issued by the different delegated centers; to represent the Academy internationally; and, to effect other lightly relevant tasks, the same that justified that the totality of the infrastructure of the Academy was reduced to a little conference room and three offices. The ?personnel? assigned to the Academy kept relation with its importance; it was made of one General Director, one Director of Studies and one secretary.

3. If the delegation of results had brought good results, the better preparation of the diplomats from the Academy should be evident; but the reality showed how the institution of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs was still depending for its international tasks of clarion calls from isolated diplomats, and not from teams or currents of action; the weakness of the structures made them vulnerable to the influences of the Government in turn and to political groups; and that, in the international arena, except for the already mentioned clarion calls, showed that the national diplomats had little influence and few initiatives.

Under the noted conditions, it became indispensable for the Government of Ecuador to launch a wide program for the modernization of the Diplomatic Academy, the same that basically responds to the following components:

A) OBJECTIVE

The main objective of the program is to renovate the views, aims and links of the Academy in respect to the Ecuadorian community, in order to offer the aspirants to Third Secretaries an adequate preparation, with the end of diplomatically representing Ecuador in the neighbor, sub-regional, regional and world current contexts, as well as to propose to the civil society in general courses of training and qualification in current subjects, teachings that have been neglected or not treated under the right framework.

B) THE MODIFICATION OF THE DIPLOMATIC ACADEMY

1. The Diplomatic Academy is called to prepare generations of new diplomats able to develop their specific tasks in front of international relations schemes that have been updated to defend the interests of their respective States in areas that respond to currents imposed by changing realities, the same that are distinguished by an active mobility, that imposes new political, economic, social, environmental, military and security views, that do not wait for their linings to be assimilated by the different countries of the international community in order to start developing, to the point that those who fall behind are simply set aside.

2. The diplomatic agents have to be the first in updating their postures and positions, since their counter-parts are specialized agents in other countries that try to interact in circles, that are each time more reduced, in order to enlarge, on purpose, the ?manageable majority?, formed by depending countries; some that are content with their situation in return of the resources they receive from their respective centers, whilst others develop orientations of isolated rebellion, that make them more vulnerable.

3. The need to update the positions and postures, although it may be more evident in the diplomatic agents, is also present in sectors of public administration, international commerce productions, gremial organizations, universities, etc., therefore, the Diplomatic Academy may occupy an undisputed space leading these necessary adjustments.

C) PURPOSE

1. The fundamental purpose will be that the students obtain answers as to the motives for surviving the world phenomena, such as the failures of the rounds of negotiation of the WTO, the recourses for preventive actions of force, the international sentencing of national tyrants, world solidarity before human rights violations, the movement of displaced people, environmental protection, fight against international terrorism, etc.

2. It is for the benefit of the Foreign Service to attract the most qualified Ecuadorian professionals of all the areas and careers that are linked to diplomacy, therefore, although is true that selection of the students aspiring to become Third Secretaries must be very demanding, the selected ones must take into account that the preparation that the Diplomatic Academy offers is of excellence and if it was done without the sponsoring of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs (that accepted the students) will signify affording the cost of thousands of dollars.

3. The fact that the Foreign Service, is formed by diplomats of high capacity in all the professions linked with diplomacy, becomes a warranty that the Ministry of Foreign Affairs offers to all the citizens therefore, this warranty becomes also an instrument to defend the professionalism of the diplomacy, in front of frequent attacks of those diplomats politically posted, that could not offer the State similar qualifications of efficiency and solvency.

4. The restructure of the Diplomatic Academy implies that in the future there will be a modification of the systems of diplomat annual grading of the sixth and fifth categories, in such a way that the previous academic titles, those that served the students to enter as students aspiring to become Third Secretaries, may no longer be used to obtain additional points in the subsequent grading process, in which the grades obtained in the regular courses of the Academy (for the evaluation of the Third Secretaries) will be taken into account, as well as the grades received by the Second and First Secretaries, Counselors, Ministers and Ambassadors in the compulsory courses of actualization.

D) SELECTION OF THE STUDENT CANDIDATES

1. In accordance to what has been said in points 2 and 3 of the above section, the selection of candidates aspiring to become Third Secretaries must include a process that is demanding, in regards to the prerequisites which include superior academic titles (graduation certificates, professional licenses, master studies and similar titles), that at the same time will offer incentives to attract students of all the Ecuadorian provinces to whom board and alimentation will be provided in Quito as well as a salary equivalent to 50% of that salary assigned to Third Secretaries. Until the time when the Diplomatic Academy will have its own student residency, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs will subsidize the residence of the students, coming from provinces, and / or will establish agreements with private hotels or residences close to the Academy, in order to offer board to the students that do not have residence in the capital city.

2. The admission tests will be designed for each calling made by the Academic Council and should treat professional subjects related to diplomacy, a psychological test, and tests regarding knowledge of foreign languages, being the English language compulsory and having at least one other, preferably one considered as an official language of the United Nations. Additional points will be granted for knowledge of additional languages from those mentioned, in accordance to their international importance.

3. Once the public calling for admission of student candidates is made, the Academy will receive the tests of admission in Quito, Guayaquil and Cuenca.

4. Those students who are not aspiring to become Third Secretaries will be admitted once their applications are approved by the Academic Council and once they have paid the corresponding fees directly or through the institutions that sponsor the costs of each course.

E) PROCEDURE

The academy will offer its teachings and actualizations through courses or chapters which full compliance (of all chapters) is obligatory for those aspiring to become Third Secretaries, but the chapters, except those of leveling, may be followed by other interested persons of other sectors, whether governmental or private, that are required to relate with international and/or national modernized actors.

F) CHAPTERS

1. As a general rule the chapters will be imparted at the head-quarters of the Diplomatic Academy in Quito, taking into consideration that its infrastructure will be one of the main aspects that will attract students aspiring to become Third Secretaries and other students seen as possible candidates; however, once all the interested students have been registered, the Academy may impart one or some of its chapters or seminars, workshops and other academic activities in other Ecuadorian cities, always that all the proper infrastructure and orientation is provided in those cities, from an economic, commercial, cultural and tourist point of view.

2. The chapters are independent with the purpose that they may be followed by different interested people in the subjects of interest to each one of them, but they may not be considered separate, on the contrary, they are complementary to the teachings and instruction that must be given to the students aspiring to become Third Secretaries, that is the fundamental purpose of the Academy, but not exclusive, since its aims of training and teaching are intended to be shared with the academic and private sectors of certain specializations as the one related to international commerce, for example.

3. As for the preparation of he new members of the Foreign Service, the chapters are complementary of a unique academic activity, composed by different cycles of study, that in their development keep similar coherence to that existing between different trimesters and/or semesters of the traditional courses of teaching. The difference of such with the chapters of the Diplomatic Academy is in their different duration, due to their diverse program contents.

G) ACADEMIC MECHANISMS

1. The Academy will use magisterial conferences, classes, seminars, symposiums, workshops, simulations and debates. Academic regulations will be issued through which the characteristics of each mechanism will be established, their formats and applications, duration and practical application.

2. The participation of known international personalities at the beginning of each course must be considered in the budget of the Academy so it may pay with own resources or compensate in virtue of conventional exchange of professors with similar academies or centers of study.

H) DURATION OF THE CHAPTERS

1. The leveling level will last 4 months: the practical application level, 4 months; the new organizational structures, 3 months; process re-engineering, 3 months; and negotiation, 4 months.

2. During each period 2 recess weeks will be considered for the preparation of documents and conclusions.

3. At the end of the 18 months of development of the 5 chapters, the students aspiring to become Third Secretaries will do a three month internship in one of the General Directions of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, preferably the one most related with the subject picked by the student for the final monographic paper (thesis), the same that must be completed during the 3 subsequent months to those of the internship, with the support of the Academy.

4. The final paper will be of maximum 6 thousand words (is necessary to enforce synthesis capabilities), must be about a practical current matter and must be relevant to Ecuadorian diplomacy. The Academic Council will offer a list of these relevant and current subjects for the students, who nevertheless may suggest another one, for the approval of the Council. Once a theme has been assigned, the student may choose a thesis director, amongst the Ambassadors of the Foreign Service, magisterial lecturers or professors and technical participants in different courses.

5. In virtue of the existing agreements or of new ones that the Academy may enter into, the two best final monographic papers will be published.

I) CREDITS

1. The aspirants to Third Secretaries will have to approve each and all of the five chapters with grades that will numerically evaluate their performance, in scales of ten points; at least seven pints over ten are necessary to approve each course and the total of the final grade will have to be equal or more than 40 points over 50.

2. For the students not aspiring to become third secretaries their verbal participation will be evaluated, to describe their achievements as excellent, very good, good regular and insufficient. The grade will be present in a diploma or certificate that will be offered at the end of each course. The participation of the students aspiring to become Third Secretaries in the five chapters does not grant them the right to be appointed as Third Secretaries and thus enter the Foreign Service of the Republic. A list of all the students will be made in base of the obtained grades, in such a way that the 20 vacant places for Third Secretaries may be filled by the 20 first students from the list. In accordance with the administrative availability of posts, posts of that nature may be offered to 10 other students that had not been qualified to be assigned as Third Secretaries. The political appointments of agents, not chiefs of diplomatic missions, should approve at least the leveling course.

3. The numeric grades will be established considering 50% regarding the participation in the different academic mechanisms and the other half over a paper that the students must submit at the end of each course, regarding one of the subjects exposed in the cycle. The academic regulations will also refer to the demands of the papers so to be presented and recognized. Only as an exception will exams or test be taken, whether written or oral, in order to replace the grade or the appreciation that is ordinarily given to papers, which are preferred due to the fact that the professional work of diplomats demands investigation and preparation of reports, rather than exams for the verification of knowledge.

J) PASSING THE REGULAR COURSE

1. The students aspiring to become Third secretaries, that have passed the five chapters with the minimum grades established and with the submission of the final monographic paper, will be admitted as Third Secretaries career diplomats of the Foreign Service of the Republic and immediately will be subject to the common regime applicable to all diplomatic agents, on what pertains to rotations and transfers abroad.

2. The students not aspiring to become Third Secretaries, in virtue of the agreements of cooperation signed with the Academy, will receive the credits agreed by their universities and other institutions of superior education.

K) LEARNING AND PEFECTING THE KNOWLEDGE OF FOREIGN LANGUAGES

i. At the end of the regular diplomatic training course, with strict relation to the grades obtained, the best students, in accordance to the economic availability and the personnel administration of the Ministry, will be credited as Third Secretaries or Vice-Consuls and assigned to Ecuadorian Embassies or Consulates, in order to learn or perfect the knowledge of languages that are of useful practice to the Ecuadorian Foreign Service.

ii. Once the learning or the perfecting of the languages is concluded, these individuals are assigned to work at the Embassies or Consulates to which they were credited, so they can complete the usual permanence time of the diplomats in foreign missions.

iii. If there is no possibility to make the designations foreseen in the aforementioned hyphen, they may be assigned to other diplomatic missions or consulates, in order to complete the usual time of permanence abroad, otherwise they will return to Quito.

iv. The time that they spend learning a language will not be considered for the calculation of the next posting abroad, in cases where the diplomats have to return to Quito.

L) MATERIAL NEEDS OF THE ACADEMY

1. The Academy needs an adequate space for establishment, in accordance to the diplomatic tradition of many countries, that space in generally an important building, which constitutes another element to make an attractive invitation to young professionals.

2. As the aim is to attract students from all over Ecuador and to establish exchange agreements and invitations with other countries of America and with countries with which the Academy has undersigned cooperation agreements, is very important to have an student residency, with all the facilities to offer dormitories for single and married students, dining facilities and recreational facilities, libraries, etc. Until the time when the Academy counts with its own student residency, it may rent the facilities of a hotel or residency located close by.

3. For the transportation of the students of the Academy to the places where eventually other academic activities will take place, it would be very convenient to have an own vehicle, with the adequate capacity.

4. Since the beginning of the Academy, it must subscribe to receive specialized publications of America and the world that are of most interest to Ecuador, as well as political, economic, financial and opinion magazines approved by the Academic Council.

M) FINANCING

1. Outside form the budget assignation from that the Ministry of Foreign Affairs will obtain from the National Government, the present project being technically exposed in accordance to the forms and with the advise of the Ecuadorian Institute of Technical Cooperation, will presented, once all the internal procedures are complied with, by the Embassies and Ecuadorian Permanent Missions before international organizations of international cooperation and before national assistance agencies, in order to find general founding for the project or for one or more of its chapters. The UNDP, the EU, the CAF and agencies such as AID and CIDA may be good examples of the probable sources of financing.

2. The Academy will have an orientation since the beginning of its activities for own-financing, since the actualization courses and the chapters are opened to the participation of the private sector and will have a determinate cost for the attractiveness that each one has to offer.

3. In virtue of the cooperation agreements undersigned with universities and other centers of superior education, that we will discuss later, not only that in each agreement the recognition of credits will be foreseen for the students enrolled in the courses, with the assignation of a grade equivalent in words, but also due to the fact that the university or center will save economic resources by trusting the Academy with certain training and teachings, the payment of a compensation will be agreed, calculated in the same terms that the compensation that the Academy will have to recognize for courses and cycles of specialized trainings (such as languages) that its students aspiring to become Third Secretaries will have to follow in other institutions of superior education.

4. Any way, the ordinary budget of the Academy, valid for two years of ordinary activity (the five chapters and the sixth of actualization) should be enough to cover the costs of magisterial lecturers, professors for each subject, administrative expenses of the building and residence as well as resources needed to cover the courses that must be followed by the students in other associated institutions of superior education.

N) STRUCTURE OF THE ACADEMY

1. Within the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, the Academy will be considered as an administrative division dependant of the ministry of Foreign Affairs and directed by a Director that due to the foreseen projections and due to the necessity of counting with equivalent directions to general directions of the Ministry, will have the rank of Subsecretary. From this Director six general directions will depend: five corresponding to each chapter and the sixth for courses of actualization which are compulsory for second and first secretaries, counselors, ministers and ambassadors, taking into account that the course of leveling is essential for the training of diplomats and that the course of actualization, in the same manner, is very important for the Foreign Service and in this last one are included as participants the Ambassadors of the Republic, and need permanent revisions, such as new views, related with the challenges of renovation of an extremely active world, and the other foreseen chapters will also require high level direction, also because it has been established that these will serve as a source of own financing, by the admission of students not aspiring to become Third Secretaries and for the possible offer of horizontal technical cooperation, labeled as a new important activity of the Academy of Ecuador.

2. Outside form the six general directions of leveling, practical application, new organizational structures, process re-engineering, negotiation and actualization, the Academy will have a financial section in order to administer the budget resources and those entering from those students not aspiring to become Third Secretaries and other own resources; one section of general secretariat; one of academic support; and, the administration of the main building and the student residency (in the future). A Vice director will be appointed who will be in charge of the coordination between the general directions and the 4 sections. Each General Director will have an assistant secretary and will have access to sections of the general secretariat and the academic support, which?s structures, as well as the financial and administrative sections, will be proposed by the Subsecretary of Institutional Development, previous the approval of the Minister.

3. The Academy will have a specialized section of the general library and an own data base which will be electronically transmitted, the same that will be developed by the respective General Direction of the Ministry but submitted to the revision of the Vice director.

O) THE ACADEMIC COUNSIL

The Academy will have an Academic Council which will be presided by the Vice minister of Foreign Affairs and formed by the Director with rank of Subsecretary, the 6 General Directors and the Vice director. Among the activities of the Council, will be those of approving the financial statements of the Academy, the same that will have to be presented in an ordinary basis every three months; and, know and approve all the cooperation agreements, which´s projects will be submitted by the Subsecretary ? Director.

P) ACADEMIC PERSONNEL SELECTION, DIRECTIVE PLANT AND ADMINISTRATIVE PERSONNEL OF THE ACADEMY

1. The Academic Council will be responsible of approving the participation of magisterial lecturers established for each course and also for the hiring of consultants, professors and necessary experts in order to carry forward the academic activities. The costs of conferences, classes, symposiums, workshops, etc., may be compensated, in occasions, with similar services offered by the Academy to those students not aspiring to become Third Secretaries or by the participation in academic activities in other institutions of base professors of the Academy, member of the Foreign Service of the Republic.

2. The consultants (General Director), professors and technical professionals hired for each chapter, will undersign individual contracts with the Academy, in which their fees will be fixed in accordance to the sources of origin of the professors and technical professionals and with the modalities established in the applicable cooperation agreements.

3. The base professors will be, at first, the Ambassadors and Ministers of the Foreign Service that will be called by the Academic Council, under the suggestion of the Director, in order to participate in classes and in other planned academic activities. Other agents of the Foreign Service, including those in vacation for being accredited abroad, may be called by the Academic Council to participate in academic activities. The participation of the base professors will be fundamentally recognized by the Academy and the respective certification will be included in the personal file of the diplomat.

4. The Director with rank of Subsecretary will be always appointed by the Minister of Foreign Affairs, in accordance with own criteria and in a similar manner employed to appoint other immediate collaborators. A career Ambassador of the Republic, with professional experience of at least 25 years and with academic experience will be appointed as Director.

5. The Vice director will also be appointed by the Minister of Foreign Affairs in accordance to the dispositions of the Subsecretary of Institutional Development. It must be a diplomat of Second or Third Category of the Foreign Service and with enough professional and academic experience.

6. The external financing obtained for the modernization project, must include the necessary resources to hire, preferably in Ecuador, and in order of priority in the sub region, American region and, the world, the General Directors for each Chapter.

7. In the same manner, the external financing will cover the hiring of other support personnel, under the same orders of preference, as the one established hereinabove.

Q) LINKS OF THE ACADEMY

1. Being the Academy a dependency of the Government, its main function, not exclusive, is that of preparing new professional diplomats of the Republic, but it cannot deny its natural links with universities, superior education institutions, specialized training centers and other public and private sector entities that have assumed tasks for the preparation, actualization, perfecting and specializing of professionals, with which the academy may enter into agreements of institutional cooperation, destined to cover holes in these areas and prevent the duplication of efforts, so there will be a mutual benefit of special conferences, professors and experts of the Academy and any of the counterparts.

2. In the international arena, the Academy will search for the celebration of cooperation agreements with similar academies of America (preferably), and with those of other countries with which Ecuador shares similar cultural values or objectives of development. Moreover, the Academy will try to establish cooperation agreements with entities of academies and/or promotion of sub regional and regional integration processes and of the Pacific Basin. These agreements will have the fundamental objective to benefit academics and students aspiring to Third Secretaries, in order to follow in Ecuador and in foreign countries determined cycles, courses or any other academic activity, previously approved by the Academic Council.

3. In order to accomplish the aforementioned links, the modernization program of the Academy must be technically presented and promoted in Ecuador and in the countries with which the Academy will preferably establish links. For that purpose the support of the General Directions and technical dependencies of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs will be requested in order to prepare brochures, videos and presentations in Power Point that will be made available by the directive plant of the Academy and by Embassies and Consulates of Ecuador, previously selected for that purpose. The presentations must be made in order to reach cooperation agreements and to invite students not aspiring to become Third Secretaries.

R) SAFEGUARDS

The systems that originate from the reforms of the Academy will tried to be registered as Ecuadorian Intellectual Property and in the international academic circles, the Diplomatic Academy of Ecuador will be registered, with the due description of its specialties and the fact that it is not only opened for the participation of aspiring diplomats of the Foreign Service.

S) NAME OF THE ACADEMY

The good institution will be named the Diplomatic Academy of Ecuador, in order to facilitate its international promotion and recognition.

Abelardo Posso Serrano
Ambassador
Director of the Diplomatic Academy of Ecuador