May I answer in English? I would have to stammer through en français, and it would not be very successful.
May I say what a pleasure it is to be with all of you. I'm so impressed.
First of all, congratulations to this government on the new feminist international assistance policy. We know that women and children are the foundation to building a healthier world. As I said, and it's worth repeating, in 1990 we were seeing 12 million children die every year. That number is down to under six million. It has been slashed in half, and the progress has accelerated in the last few years. So we absolutely know what is working. We just need to stay the course. It will change the world in our generation. It's such an opportunity.
Canada has been leading on this for a long time, but currently our performance as a donor is at 0.26% of our GDP—that's for this year—and it's among the lowest of the donors that report to the OECD's DAC, development assistance committee. To frame that in a different way, it's among the lowest, if not the lowest—it's right down there—in the G20 countries. I don't feel that this reflects who we are as a nation. We need to get Canada back on track.
The world has set a target of 0.7%. As you mentioned, we're at 0.26%. We are a long way from being able to hold our heads proudly on the international stage. We've recommended a 12% increase as part of a timetable of increases to start to see some movement, because I think if we came here and said let's go from 0.26% to 0.7% today, you wouldn't listen. We're saying we understand that we can't get there tomorrow, but please stay with us on this. There are thousands and thousands of Canadians who are delivering amazing work, and we can show you the progress. We want to continue it.