Mr. Chairman, the African Union has developed a plan, the key element of which is AMISOM. At the moment, two countries have contributed troops. Two more are on the cusp of doing so. There's an authorization for 8,000 troops. There is a hope that will be sufficient to fill the vacuum.
With regard to robust response, the challenge that Canada has confronted is precisely the same challenge that other countries participating in the international contact group concerned more generally confront, and that is, in a country that does not have a functioning government that is responsible for the entirety of the country, that does not have some of the key ingredients of a functioning state, it's exceptionally difficult to have an impact and to get traction.
By way of a vision of how to move forward, what the special envoy of the African Union has put forward as a vision for the short term is a five-point plan to engage all stakeholders within Somalia: through the reconciliation congress process, to build on the results and conclusions of the NRC; to create the security conditions necessary to the effective deployment of AMISOM; to prepare for an eventual UN transition; to create the conditions necessary to permit a timely delivery of humanitarian aid; and to help build the governance capacity. In one sense, that's a very simple five-point plan. Given the realities on the ground in Somalia, that's also at the same time a Herculean task.
In my statement, Mr. Chairman, I mentioned a sense of encouragement recently. Certainly I sensed it at the international contact group meeting, that there are a number of developments taking place that augured for Somalia. At the same time, the most recent UN and AU reports continue to emphasize that there has been no significant improvement in the security situation, that the situation remains exceptionally difficult. There is some basis to believe that greater progress may be possible, but that's small steps. It's incremental progress relative to what we've seen recently.