Foreign Affairs committee  You're welcome.

Foreign Affairs committee  You make a very valid point about the importance of women participating in the process. At this point, given that we're four days into the 17-day registration period, it's hard to tell what those figures are from a reliable perspective. But we certainly share your interest in the representation of women in the vote.

Foreign Affairs committee  We have three teams of long-term observers deployed in the north that are each covering a number of states. We also have, during voter registration, a total of 19 to cross the north, which is fairly large coverage. We hope to hit nearly all of the registration sites in the north during the registration period.

Foreign Affairs committee  It is 19.

Foreign Affairs committee  Sure. As we know, monitoring an election is not very different from monitoring a referendum. We're still looking at many similar issues with regard to the civic and political rights of citizens to participate in a referendum, and at many of the human rights that go along with a referendum, and people's ability to participate in civic and political rights in their country.

Foreign Affairs committee  Looking forward, not only in terms of women, but also in terms of general outreach to the population, what the Carter Center has noted in its observations, both during the elections and during the referendum thus far, is that the levels of voter information and voter education have been extremely low.

Foreign Affairs committee  We currently have 26 observers deployed across those eight countries, with four observers in Canada--two in Toronto and two in Calgary--for the out-of-country registration. They will be on the ground this month and then again during the referendum.

Foreign Affairs committee  We currently have 16 long-term observers on the ground who will be in the country from September through the end of the referendum and into February. We currently have an additional 30 medium-term observers for the voter registration. They arrived last week, and they will be in the country until approximately December 19.

Foreign Affairs committee  Hello.

Foreign Affairs committee  Sure. Thank you for that introduction. We appreciate your support and the support of the Canadian government. As you may know, the Carter Center has been the recipient of support from CIDA. CIDA has been a key donor for some of our election standards projects and election observation projects over the last several years, and I'd like to start out by thanking you for the support you have afforded our mission in Sudan and for the projects of the Carter Center.