Foreign Affairs committee  There are unions that exist in Ukraine, and there is a civil service union that represents public employees. However, the current legal framework does not provide guarantees for public servants in terms of their job status, their tenure. That's something they're moving toward.

Foreign Affairs committee  Just very briefly to add to what Ms. Wittfooth has said, in this particular project and in previous initiatives that CBIE has been involved in, we do take it to the point of bringing laws forward or bringing forward other legal normative acts. The work begins at the stage of policy development, but ultimately you want to see tangible products.

Foreign Affairs committee  Thank you. The focus of our project is really on supporting civil service reform, so this is very much to your point with regard to corruption or anti-corruption. The bottom line for Ukraine is they need a professional public service that works, that is not corrupt, and that can accomplish the things the government needs to do.

Foreign Affairs committee  Let's take the Ukraine civil service project as an example. From our experience, CBIE's role has been to serve as a facilitator of these types of public service partnerships. We are there to identify needs, to understand the local context, to bring those needs together, and to connect them to potential Canadian partners.

Foreign Affairs committee  It has been in existence since 1966.

Foreign Affairs committee  About 12 hours.

Foreign Affairs committee  Correct. And because of the fact that the empowerment aspect was built into this, the expectation—and we are already seeing this on the ground—is that the beneficiary will take over and there's less and less need for advisory input.

Foreign Affairs committee  If I might just add, in the case of our particular civil service reform project, one of the unique aspects of how this project was in fact jointly designed, both by the Canadian partner and the beneficiary, is we actually worked together to develop a road map for reform of the human resources management system in the civil service.

Foreign Affairs committee  Precisely.

Foreign Affairs committee  It's an NGO, yes.

Foreign Affairs committee  I was just going to add, Kristina, we also have worked with other multilateral institutions such as the World Bank, other development banks—

Foreign Affairs committee  That's right. On other types of projects CBIE has worked with DFAIT, international scholarships and the like, but on the development side CIDA is the primary, yes.

Foreign Affairs committee  Not as a funder.

Foreign Affairs committee  Correct.

Foreign Affairs committee  Finally, the fourth critical factor for success, from our experience, really relates to the operational factors with respect to actual implementation of the public service partnerships or initiatives. There are numerous smaller considerations that reflect the experience and professionalism of the domestic partner organization or interlocutors, which play a significant role in determining whether a partnership will in fact be successful.