Canadian Civilian Deployment to the Middle East

From left to right: Canadian consultant Doreen Wilson of Ottawa; WUSC team leader Mazen Chouaib of Ottawa who works in Amman; and Canadian consultant Christene Boutilier, currently living in Belgium. The Canadian trainers travelled to Amman each time to deliver the workshops.

“Canada’s reputation in the field of governance and public sector reform is well-established as superior and trustworthy: the Iraqi government has regard for Canadians as a neutral and trusted voice”. A UNDP-Iraq governance department official made this statement when requesting a team of Canadian consultants to build governance capacity of senior Iraqi government managers. WUSC responded to UNDP-Iraq’s request within the CIDA-funded Civilian Deployment Project by sending Canadian experts to provide a series of public policy reform workshops held in Amman, Jordan over a 16 month period.

Understanding the context 
While WUSC has managed the Project on behalf of CIDA since October 2000, deployment of Canadian civilians under this innovative and flexible mechanism began in late 1998, when Canadians were recruited for the Kosovo Verification Mission. Since that time, over 190 Canadian civilians have been deployed in such fields as human rights, rule of law, judicial reform, democratization, training, and public sector reform.

As CIDA’s executing agency, WUSC responds to CIDA’s requests for consultants that are made by partner agencies such as UNDP-Iraq. While these agencies are focused on reform in Iraq, Canadian experts work in Amman, Jordan.

How we’re getting results
Under the Public Governance and Capacity Building Training Program, the Iraqi officials who travelled to Amman to attend workshops had to sign up for all training sessions (no substitutes), ensuring that incremental learning could take place. Following their attendance, participants reported feeling less isolated, gaining greater confidence in public speaking and noted that they forged friendships across ethnic and ministry lines. The UNDP-Iraq office in Amman also provided positive feedback on the participants’ ability to discuss governance issues with their Iraqi colleagues. They were able to make good use of the business and performance management plans, along with logic models. The Canadian trainers focused on business planning and performance management, financial management and evaluation and used a variety of teaching models lectures, practical participatory exercises, case studies, templates and tools, outside speakers and visits to government agencies. UNDP-Iraq intends to replicate this model widely with other Iraqi managers and ministries. 

Stakeholder concerns and identification were alien concepts to begin with but at the end of the training, participants were routinely shaping plans from a user perspective. The consultants saw a noticeable improvement in the participants’ knowledge, application of tools and quality of work. While they were used to lecture-based training, participants took an active part in group work and presented their models to the rest of the participants.

•    Graduates reported success and some resistance and difficulty within their ministries as they deploy their new skills. “Real change will cause real disturbance – had they reported no difficulties we would have questioned the impact this program truly had.” – Doreen Wilson, Canadian consultant. View a short video report: http://youtube.com/doreenwilson

•    One Kurdish manager, subsequent to the Values Workshop, submitted his resignation rather than participate in a corrupt procedure. He was eventually reinstated. When asked why he had risked his job, he replied that they had all agreed that courage was a key value for managers (along with merit, probity, professionalism and apolitical neutrality).

•    The Canadian trainers used photo language methodology to ask how the training had changed their management approach. Ghaydaa, an Iraq Bureau of Supreme Audit Manager responded: “The dark side of this picture represents our ignorance of modern management tools and when we were kept in Iraq. The light side represents the openness to the outside. The movement between the two represents change. The plants represent hope and growth of knowledge. The climate is one of ambition and reaching out to meet challenge. The blue sky is the light at the end of the tunnel” 

 
Graduation day, July 2008: The group itself formed a close-knit and supportive network of change agents. One manager noted: “I have learned that change can start with us; we don’t have to wait for the higher officials.”