Canadian Governance Support Office: Capacity Building in Good Governance
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At the request of the Afghan Government, the Canadian International Development Agency (CIDA) and the Department of Foreign Affairs and International Trade of Canada (DFAIT) are contributing over 3 years to a CANADEM project enabling the deployment of senior governance experts (Technical Advisors) to advise various Afghan ministries. The Canadian Government provides the strategic direction, in particular which Afghan ministries will receive governance experts, while CANADEM-CGSO provides the operational direction, such as which individuals are deployed and how they are managed and supported in the field. To do this, CANADEM has mounted a Kabul-based support office called the Canadian Governance Support Office (CGSO), or the Governance Office for short. |
- Background
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In 2002, CANADEM, with CIDA funding, started deploying small numbers of governance experts to Afghanistan. As Canada's civilian reserve, CANADEM continued to put forward hundreds of candidates to the UN, Afghan government, NGOs, and other agencies; so that on average over 40 experts at any point in time are deployed within these agencies.
In April 2007, CANADEM proposed an expansion of its Afghan governance program. A year later, CIDA responded by agreeing in June 2008 to contribute to CANADEM's Afghanistan Technical Assistance Program so as to enable the creation of the CGSO.
CANADEM-CGSO established its Kabul mission in August 2008.
- Governance Office Core functions
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Rapid recruitment and deployment of Senior Governance Advisors
The first core function of the Governance Office is the recruitment and deployment of senior experts to build capacity in the Afghan Government. This mirrors CANADEM's role as Canada's civilian reserve of 13,500 and specialized in rapid recruitment and deployment.
Support the Experts in field
The second core function of the Governace Office is to provide operational support for the governance experts embedded in the Afghan government, such as accommodation, transport and security; as well as the monitoring of their progress and impact.
- Governance Experts
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The Governance Office consists of:
- 9-12 governance experts (Technical Advisors), working within different Afghan ministries. Many are deployed for one to two years; others are short term. The number of experts reflects Afghan government needs and Canadian government funding capacity;
- A management team, consisting of two Canadians (CGSO Director and Deputy Director Operations), an international security team leader, and over 40 Afghan support staff including interpreters, compound staff, drivers and security.
All are housed in the Canuck House in Kabul with office space and accommodation.
Expert placements
- MoI Ministry of the Interior;
- MoE Ministry of Education;
- MEW Ministry of Electricity and Water;
- IEC Independent Directorate for Local Governance;
- MoF Ministry of Finance;
- MRRD Ministry of Regional and Rural Development;
- AIHRC Afghan Independent Human Rights Commission;
- Other placements are being considered.
Current Canadians deployed with the CGSO include Tonita Murray (Ottawa), Dallas Newby (Ottawa), Fouz Abdel Hadi (Ottawa), Maria Emilia Garcia (Vancouver), Rod Lander (Ottawa), Seddiq Weera (Burlington), Cindy Fair (Yellowknife), Leona Spinks (Australia).
- Principles of Technical Assistance in Afghanistan
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These experts have extensive governance capacity-building experience. Their work is guided by two fundamental principles:
Respond to Afghan needs
The principal beneficiary for technical assistance is the government of Afghanistan and the Afghan people as direct recipients of advisory services and technical assistance. Technical assistance services are hence demand-driven and fully-supported by the Afghan Ministries involved.
Build Aghan Self-sufficient capacity
The primary purpose of technical assistance is to provide a strategic service, integral to capacity development and upgrading the public service. As such, technical assistance builds on existing Afghan knowledge and ideas, utilize spersonnel and resources already in place, and makes use of the local experts and country systems to contribute to long-term learning and capacity-building.