CESO has been making a real difference since 1967, driving economic and social change and sustainably reducing poverty. We match senior-level professionals from the public and private sector with economic development projects across Canada and around the world.
Our Volunteer Advisors (VAs) are highly-skilled professionals who advise, mentor and share strategic and technical expertise with partners and clients through a planned sequence of short-term, strategic assignments.
Focus Areas
The private sector plays a critical role in building and strengthening economies. In order for the private sector to succeed, it’s important to make sure the institutions and systems that support it are working well.
This is where CESO comes in.
CESO focuses on both private sector development and strengthening institutions.
Private sector development
We help micro-, small-, and medium- sized enterprises (MSMEs) get started, stabilize, and scale-up.
CESO Volunteer Advisors provide a range of business support across nearly every sector. Driven by activities in our program communities and countries, the current industry areas with the highest volume of assignments include:
- Manufacturing/production
- Information Technology and Systems
- Tourism and Hospitality
- Finance/micro-finance
- Natural Resource Management
- Agribusiness and Apiculture
- Business and Management
Strengthening public institutions
Strong institutions create an environment in which businesses can thrive, providing the power to spark, nurture and speed up economic growth on local, regional, national, and international levels.
CESO focuses on building the capacity of the following types of institutions:
- Local institutions and government agencies
- All levels of government
- Regional economic associations
- Trade associations, chambers of commerce
- Tribal and Band councils
5,977
Number of people trained/mentored (in 2014-15)
over
400
Average number of assignments per year
Partnership Model
Our Partnership Model is a multi-level approach that allows us to broaden and deepen our scope.
Our partnership model operates at two levels:
1. Institutional partner level
2. Individual client level
We work with partners and clients to collaboratively determine their needs and the sequence of short-term assignments required to help them meet their goals.
The model is both scalable and flexible, allowing us to adapt to the needs of our partners and their environments.
Watch this video about our partnership model
Clustering
Some groupings of CESO clients can benefit from pooling of resources and formalized organization. CESO offers clustering services for these clients, where there isn’t an institutional partner available to do so. This allows groups of clients to come together to work towards a common goal.