Foreign Affairs committee  Thank you very much. I'm Wendy Harris, president and CEO of the Canadian Executive Service Organization. My background is in the private sector. I'm a chartered professional accountant. I bring that lens to international development. I got involved with CESO seven years ago, a

Foreign Affairs committee  I purposely didn't comment on the number because I don't think there is a right number. One of the things that's important is to be reliable as a partner, so in relation to the five-year funding cycles and things like that, to pull out of a country because of a change in a list

Foreign Affairs committee  I think that goes directly to the heart of the interconnectedness between private sector development and institutional strengthening. To have a strong and vibrant private sector, or one that is strengthening, is key for social and economic reasons. At the same time, you have to p

Foreign Affairs committee  Sure. Absolutely. For example, I have a roster of more than 700 volunteer advisers, experts from the public and private sector. I have many retired, high-level, very highly qualified public sector and CIDA retirees. They're in very high demand around the world for their knowledge

Foreign Affairs committee  I think there are areas in which Canada has a competitive advantage. A focus on those areas will lead to greater impact, and CESO does focus on them. We talked today about limited resources and having to maximize what we can do with limited resources. When I look at those Canad

Foreign Affairs committee  No. The majority of our funding comes from the Government of Canada on the international side and the national side. We also work directly with the private sector and directly with foreign governments.

Foreign Affairs committee  Sorry.

Foreign Affairs committee  We're involved in the partnership branch, a volunteer-sending program involving multiple countries. From an evaluation perspective, the same robust evaluation process happens, whether it's a country of focus or not a country of focus. At CESO, whether we're funded by the Governme

Foreign Affairs committee  On the first question, as an example of a holistic approach, I'll go back to the national context, as it illustrates it well. I talked about working with Mushkegowuk Council, a group of first nations, on their ability to strengthen their governance structures. Very frequently i

Foreign Affairs committee  I think it's not about the number of countries but about having the flexibility to assess the level of readiness in a country or a region and then to deploy resources in that area. For example, we work in five countries in West Africa, but we work in agribusiness with an organi

Foreign Affairs committee  From CESO's perspective, it goes to the interconnectiveness between economic autonomy and the power of choice, in this case to invest in education. I'll give you an example. In Tanzania we work with the Tanzanian Federation of Cooperatives, which is the national organization tha

Foreign Affairs committee  We're talking about development. If there is a circumstance in which aid is needed, I think that is more straightforward. It is delivered. When you're talking about development efforts, I think that engagement and commitment from local clients is key. It makes the difference be

Foreign Affairs committee  Ideally, we would use local expertise to identify solutions we could scale up. The other way it can be done is seeing the local potential. It might be at an earlier stage, when the structure isn't there. We might come in and help build the structure, such as a co-operative to bri

Foreign Affairs committee  Our direct program is organized on business fundamentals, mentorship, and business coaching. We work with local microfinance organizations to build local capacity so that loans are available to owner-operators.

Foreign Affairs committee  Yes.