The Canadian Governance Support Office

The Canadian Governance Support Office (CGSO) brings together high-calibre capacity building expertise in support of the six priorities that define Canada’s mission from now until 2011. It is a civilian-led team that builds on the success of Canada’s former military-led Strategic Advisory Team (SAT).

The CGSO began operations in August 2008 in Kabul to build the capacity of national institutions within the Afghan government. The CGSO provides expert technical support and advice to the Afghan government in key areas such as policing services, human rights law, elections operations, vocational programming and education, engineering, financial management and administration that are outlined in the Afghanistan National Development Strategy and that are part of Canada’s six priorities.

The CGSO advisors are retained through CANADEM, a Canadian NGO whose function is the rapid recruitment and deployment of senior Canadian experts into the field to assist the Afghan government. CANADEM is a long-time partner of the Canadian government whose experience includes deployment to more than 15 countries, including Sudan, Sri Lanka, Palestine, Georgia, and Haiti.

CGSO experts help the government of Afghanistan develop the capacity to formulate and implement business systems, and processes. They play an active role in mentoring Afghan professional counterparts. They also support Afghan central ministries to extend their reach into Afghanistan’s 34 provinces, in particular Kandahar.

For example, the former Assistant Deputy Minister of Education for Manitoba who works with Afghanistan’s Ministry of Education to support the Afghan education development board. The Afghanistan Ministry of Interior is also benefiting from the expertise of the former head of the Canadian Police College who is helping to establish an Afghan-led policy unit. .

Since 2008, Canada has placed 10 CGSO advisors in the following Afghan ministries:  Ministry of Energy and Water, Ministry of Interior, Ministry of Education, Independent Election Commission, Agriculture Technical Working Group, Independent Directorate for Local Governance, Ministry of Finance, and the Ministry of Justice.

A key component of the CGSO model is that is it designed to be a whole-of-government resource for Canada. Government of Canada departments such as the Canadian International Development Agency, the Department of Foreign Affairs, the Department of National Defence, work alongside CGSO advisors to provide focused assistance to the Government of Afghanistan in line with Afghan needs and Canada’s six priorities.

The advisors are part of a team working in close collaboration with the Embassy of Canada in Kabul. The advisors’ roles and responsibilities are identified by the Afghan Government and are jointly revised and approved by the Canadian Ambassador to Afghanistan.

For updates on the Canadian Governance Support Office, please click here to visit the Afganistan.gc.ca website, and sign-up for the e-newsletter – Focus Afghanistan.