Thank you, Mr. Chair. I will be very brief. Further to the intervention by my colleague from Foreign Affairs, I would add that the current situation offers an occasion—“window of opportunity”—that the government and the donor community plan to use to good advantage.
Haiti is a fragile state where the sustainability of activities continues to be a challenge, but where progress has been made. The current relative stability gives us the opportunity to envision longer-term results. Despite this fragility, our joint action has enabled us to achieve results.
For example, we supported the holding of elections in 2006 and 2007; we distributed three million voter ID cards, which were mentioned earlier; we have provided hot meals for school children; we have increased the quality of education; we have conducted awareness campaigns against HIV/AIDS and drug abuse; and we have strengthened the credit union network in Haiti.
We are at the final stage of preparing a report on our results for the period of the Interim Cooperation Framework, which ended in fall 2007. We plan to post this report on our webpage in the near future. We are all satisfied with, and encouraged by, the Government of Haiti's tabling of its national Growth and Poverty Reduction Strategy Paper, the GPRSP. This document will become the necessary means through which the international community must better coordinate its activities to support Haiti's priorities from now until 2011.
As for the Canadian International Development Agency, and in accordance with the principles of the Paris Declaration, we plan to align our future programming with the priorities contained in Haiti's GPRSP, based on its three main pillars: growth vectors, human development and democratic governance. This approach will also allow us to consolidate our achievements. Our current programming supports such areas as central government institutions, the justice system, Parliament, health, education and road infrastructure and is well aligned with Haiti's priorities.
I would like to thank the committee again for this opportunity to discuss our efforts in Haiti. I am here with the Director of Programming, Louis Verret. We are available to answer your questions.