Thank you, Mr. Vice-Chair and honourable members, for providing us with the opportunity to contribute to your committee's deliberations on the viability and effectiveness of public service partnerships with other countries.
My name is Kristina Wittfooth, and I served 12 years as vice-president of international development programs with the Canadian Bureau for International Education. Prior to my work with CBIE, I spent some 40 years supporting international development efforts in a number of countries, including the former Soviet Union.
I am accompanied today by my colleague Larissa Bezo, who is presently serving as director of the Ukraine civil service human resources management reform project and who has been active in supporting public administration reform in Ukraine since the mid-1990s.
As it is always appropriate for governments to periodically assess the effectiveness and efficiency of the programs and services they deliver, we are pleased to be here today to share our experience.
The Canadian Bureau for International Education embraces that principle absolutely, and it is one that we actively promote in those countries with which we enter into partnerships. But at a time when budgets everywhere are tight—as much in the developed west as in most emerging economies—such assessments have a particular urgency. Indeed, against the backdrop of competing demands for resources, from other government programs as well as from within the overall foreign aid envelope itself, it is essential that the intrinsic and relative value of such partnerships also be considered in addition to their effectiveness and efficiency.
Accordingly, over the course of our presentation we will provide information to the committee's deliberations on two key questions. First, do public service partnerships between nations matter, and if so, why? Second, why are some partnerships more successful than others, and what are some of these lessons learned we can draw from our own CBIE’s experience supporting and facilitating public service partnerships globally?
In the interests of brevity and clarity, we will address these questions primarily through the lens of our experience through CBIE’s ongoing relationships in post-Soviet states, in particular Ukraine, where our relationship has endured uninterrupted since 1992 through 16 changes in government.
Before briefly summarizing for you the essential features of our current public service reform project in Ukraine, allow us to say a few words about the Canadian Bureau for International Education. CBIE’s core mandate is to promote international understanding and development through the free movement of people and active exchange of ideas, information, advice, educational and training programs, and technologies across national borders. CBIE has worked in partnership with governments, educational institutions, and organizations in over 40 countries across central and eastern Europe, Africa, the Middle East, Asia, and the Americas. Since 1966, CBIE has managed over $2 billion worth of capacity-building and education programs throughout the world.