CANADEM

Trusted since 1996. Mobilizing experts worldwide.

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Global Expertise

Specialized skills for complex challenges

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CANADEM Operations

Rapid Deployments. Lasting Impact.

CANADEM’s Operations Team is dedicated to advancing international peace and security through the rapid mobilization and mission management of individuals committed to international service. We specialize in surge capacity rapid deployments and offer a full service mechanism for getting Experts where they are needed – FAST!

 

We work in partnership with the Government of Canada, the Government of the United Kingdom, UN agencies, international organizations and national governments to set up deployment projects designed to quickly inject civilian expertise where it is needed. Our services range from simple deployments to project development and mission-management.

 

Our Operations Team can recruit and utilize our experts within 48-72 hours. Our experts have proven time and again that they are likewise able to rapidly mobilize and hit the ground running to make that crucial contribution under challenging circumstances.

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Countries Reached
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Years Proven Experience
1 K+
Rostered Experts
Skilled Experts Across Key Fields

Our Areas of Expertise

  • Gender-Based Violence
  • Public Health
  • Human rights
  • Democratization
  • Elections
  • Rule of Law
  • Justice Sector Reform
  • Sexual and Reproductive Health
  • Governance
  • Security and Policing
  • Forensics
  • Counter-Trafficking
  • Correctional Systems
  • Climate & Disaster Risk Reduction
  • Mental Health Support
  • Psychosocial Support
  • Child Protection
  • Engineering
  • Humanitarian Aid
  • Water and Sanitation
  • Administration-Logistics
Our Operations

Expertise in action worldwide

Humanitarian Response

Since 2007, CANADEM has deployed nearly 400 experts to 74 countries, rapidly supporting UN agencies during natural disasters and protracted crises. Our experts deliver immediate relief and strengthen humanitarian response.

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Electoral Observation and Democracy Promotion

CANADEM deploys Canadian election observers worldwide through bilateral and multilateral missions. With government support, over 2,000 experts have been sent to strengthen democracy and promote free, fair, and transparent elections.

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Peace and Security

Since 2014, CANADEM has deployed Canadian experts to the OSCE Special Monitoring Mission in Ukraine. Our personnel provide critical reporting and support for peace, security, and stability during one of Europe’s most challenging conflicts.

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Governance and Capacity Building

For over a decade, CANADEM assisted the Government of Afghanistan with governance reform. Experts advised ministries in human rights, elections, education, policing, and finance—strengthening institutions to better serve Afghan citizens.

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Security Sector Reform

CANADEM works with the UN, EU, and Canadian partners to deploy police and security experts worldwide. Over 70 professionals have served in Afghanistan, Haiti, Sudan, and beyond, advancing peace, security, and good governance.

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Deployment Support

CANADEM tailors deployment services for each partner, including contracts, logistics, duty of care, briefings, training, and reporting. Our support ensures experts are equipped, secure, and ready to contribute from day one in the field.

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Stories from the Field

Behind every mission are inspiring personal accounts. CANADEM experts share their field experiences, highlighting resilience, impact, and the realities of working in crisis situations across the world. Explore their stories of service.

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Training & Preparedness

CANADEM provides pre-deployment training and continuous learning to ensure experts are ready for complex environments. Our focus on preparation and resilience helps experts adapt quickly and maximize impact on mission.

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CANADEM

CANADEM is an international not-for-profit NGO dedicated to advancing international peace and security through the rostering, rapid mobilization, and mission.

Respect for the environment
An ever-increasing awareness that caring for the environment is the responsibility of us all, regardless of our area of expertise or profession, has propelled CANADEM to place more focus on our own global footprint as well as that of our sector. During this Period, we have embarked on a challenge to enhance our learning regarding the environment and how we interact with it – including efforts to create a baseline and targets for improving how we deal with our natural environment. We are therefore making a conscious and transparent effort to measure and manage the way we affect the natural world around us, hopefully becoming better caretakers along the way.
Impact Driven
CANADEM has always valued the positive impact we make in the world as a foundation of our work. It is this guiding principle that has led us to form lasting partnerships, in support of other entities, if we feel they can add greater value than we can at CANADEM. Searching for our comparative advantage, while avoiding falling into a simple race to find funding opportunities, is therefore essential to CANADEM. As we see an increasing number of individuals suffering from the consequences of conflict in the world, and prepare for even greater numbers of environmental disasters, the need to prioritise the areas where we can make a real difference and combine our efforts with like-minded entities, is vital to achieving success.
Efficiency
The objective of CANADEM’s leadership has always been to find the most innovative and cost-effective ways to contribute to communities in need, and not to place the growth of numbers and our budgets at the centre of our efforts. As a result, we have adopted a light footprint in terms of our human resources complement and infrastructure, making use of the latest technology, and empowering our small team to be as innovative and flexible in solving problems as our procedures allow. Our structures allow us to scale up and down as required, and for staff to work in different teams, according to the needs of the moment. Our 30 years of experience has taught us what our core capacities are and how to allocate precious resources.
Accountability & Transparency Values
From CANADEM’s earliest beginnings as a Government of Canada project, and during its rapid evolution into an independent NGO with its roots in international service, the principles of accountability and transparency have been a component of CANADEM’s DNA. Accountability for the use of public funds has been incorporated into procedures that needed to respond to the high standards of government. Transparency has been the vehicle to ensure the vital accountability that CANADEM maintains. CANADEM’s headquarters team is a well-trained group of committed individuals who believe in the important work they do – including the conviction that providing the best value possible to the communities and donors we serve is a primary component of our job. CANADEM’s rules and procedures are therefore established to ensure that every step of the way we are confident of our work, and can demonstrate its efficiency and effectiveness.
People-Centered Values
Our work is about deploying people to help people. It is therefore of paramount importance to us that we are all relating to individuals in our chain of service delivery in a way that is respectful, understanding, considerate, and that brings out the best in us. Our internal working context is designed to foster humanity, fairness and support among our staff, which in turn aims to foster those same qualities among the experts we deploy. We have invested in a team of individuals (our Duty of Care Team), who provide a safety net for those experts we deploy. By taking care of our staff members and our deployed experts, we ensure that we have an effective flow of communication between all aspects of our operation. Our experienced and motivated staff feel supported, and are in turn able to support our experts in times of stress and prevent any potential problems from occurring.
Diversity & Inclusion Values
Ensuring an inclusive workplace that integrates diversity in terms of gender, language, culture, ethnicity and religion, is of prime importance for CANADEM both internally and with regards to our work with partners. We have made significant progress in attracting experts from 178 countries around the world – including from countries that are recipients of international assistance – so that a diversity of perspectives, understanding and expertise may be integrated into all operations that CANADEM supports. From our fair and transparent selection process, to our supportive Duty of Care Team (which ensures that individuals deployed have the resources they need to feel comfortable and confident in their work), we have invested significant energy in fostering diversity and inclusion within our roster system, in our election monitoring deployments, and in our own direct implementation of programming, at headquarters and in the field.
Partnership Values
The majority of our experts work within the assistance operations of our partners. Partnership is therefore of primary importance and value to us, and is key to the way we operate. Our many long-term relationships with other actors have been forged by promoting trust and understanding. The ability to work together with other actors, and not in competition, has allowed CANADEM to enhance the work of governments or organizations by injecting vital expertise, and targeting it where it is needed most. We believe that we can create a greater impact, when we work in partnership.