Foreign Affairs committee  Mr. Chairman, thank you. There is a now burgeoning series of innovations in effectively aggregating a series of small-scale farmers in order for them to be able to upgrade the quality of their surplus produce. Most of these farmers will be, in the first instance, simply producing enough to feed their own families.

Foreign Affairs committee  Yes, Frigoken. It is the largest processed beans manufacturer from Kenya into Europe. The key has frankly been to aggregate tens of thousands of small-scale farmers and invest in their capabilities.

Foreign Affairs committee  That's exactly it.

Foreign Affairs committee  It's not quite a marketing board. What it is, effectively, is a company saying to the farmers, “We're going to give you some microloans in order for you to upgrade the capacity you have to improve the quality of production. If you don't have high-quality production, you can't export to Europe.

Foreign Affairs committee  Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I think the issue of the diaspora as an asset for national development is a major issue. I think you're right that because of Canada's own demography we have a particular opportunity to think hard about that. One of the big opportunities we have is to find ways to help the diaspora who have been educated and have developed certain competencies in this country return to their countries of origin to exercise leadership in public and private institutions, to create, in some sense, human bridges between our country and their countries of origin.

Foreign Affairs committee  Thank you, Mr. Chairman and members of the committee. It's a great privilege to have the opportunity to be here and to share the experience of the Aga Khan Development Network in the area of the private sector's role in achieving international development objectives. I want to begin by commending the committee for taking up this issue, because it is both important and difficult.