Foreign Affairs committee  Thank you. I won't comment on their views specifically. As I think you'll see in the statement that the chair issued after the G8 development ministers meeting yesterday, in the continuum of care from pre-pregnancy through to the age of five, there are a variety of measures that

Foreign Affairs committee  Thank you very much, Mr. Chair. Thank you for inviting me to speak about the Canadian International Development Agency's work on maternal and child health. Aid effectiveness is a priority of the Government of Canada, and CIDA's work on maternal and child health delivers on the

Public Accounts committee  I would just underscore what Mr. Flageole has said. I think it's important that CIDA—now that we have some clear direction of priorities—institutionalize and implement in a systemic and consistent way the kinds of management practices that are expected and that I believe we're pu

Public Accounts committee  When I used that I gave you three criteria, which were for the country's selection, if that's what you are talking about. The second was making a difference. That's a generic sort of expression in terms of whether we think we can make a difference in the country we have chosen to

Public Accounts committee  Thank you. In my reading of the OECD's report on CIDA, the comment about 18 months was not a criticism. It was actually a positive comment that this was done with deep understanding within the agency, that the whole agency was engaged on this. It was actually viewed as being a p

Public Accounts committee  I can't comment on the reasons for the turnover that go back to 2002. Some turnover is necessary, and you would expect it. In CIDA, many people take other assignments with other development agencies. The policy branches throughout government tend to have people who bring policy s

Public Accounts committee  CIDA has difficult levels of turnover in some of our corporate functions. This is an issue throughout government. I'm sure you've heard it from others, particularly where it's very competitive in the financial area with their CFO branch, etc. So that's one area where we have to c

Public Accounts committee  Thank you. Those are good questions. On the 43 months, I should say that's not from just the approval, it's from the actual RFP, so it encompasses more than just approvals within the department. Actually, I might ask David to speak on this issue as well. We feel that the 15 m

Public Accounts committee  Sorry, could you repeat that?

Public Accounts committee  I'm sorry, I'm not quite sure. I mean, it's—

Public Accounts committee  How are they effective? Well, they are basically built into our country's strategy. If we know clearly what results and what aid effectiveness principles we're trying to achieve, we have embedded those into the strategies we're developing in our partner countries. We have gone fu

Public Accounts committee  Monitoring is done on an ongoing basis, and we report on an annual basis against the principles and targets we set out for ourselves.

Public Accounts committee  We will do so on our website, sir.

Public Accounts committee  The departmental performance report reports back on the previous report on plans and priorities, so there's a bit of a lag there. I think the principles around aid effectiveness have been reported consistently through the departmental performance report. I think you will see chan

Public Accounts committee  Maybe I can just put a little context around the issue you're asking, sir. The Auditor General's report and the audit period that was undertaken was during a period when all donor agencies were undergoing quite a shift in terms of how they were going to do their work. That really