Thank you, Mr. Chairman.
I would like to welcome the team back here to again brief us on the issues. Thank you, Ken and the team.
To Madame Lalonde, welcome back. I must say, it's good to have you back.
Thank you, Ken. As you mentioned, I was in the region, and we did an extensive thing; you mentioned the summit.
I want to tell colleagues about the extensive engagement Canada has been undertaking in that region, working on many facets. My colleague here will talk about CIDA's involvement, but I was there with John Gauthier, who is sitting in the back of the room, who was also heavily involved. We are heavily involved—as we said, we were co-chairs—with the Netherlands in working with the Great Lakes region.
The challenges of the Great Lakes region are not limited to development. There is also the conflict that has been going on for such a long time, and that conflict has resulted in this humanitarian crisis. Paul Dewar was recently involved in discussions on the issue of sexual violence, which is so prevalent in that region. It is all coming out of this instability in the Great Lakes region, where there is a lot of fighting. This pact that was signed in Nairobi was one of the first steps we took leading to ensure that there would be peace and that with peace there would be more development and engagement taking place.
One result was the establishment of a secretariat in Bujumbura, with a Tanzanian as secretary to oversee this pact and oversee the development.
I would like you to tell us what the secretariat has been doing, and speak about how calm the region presently is, allowing CIDA and the NGOs to move in to do development and to work towards a reduction in the very high level of sexual violence, an issue of great concern to Canadians.
I know that the two countries have worked together, Rwanda and the Congo, to bring peace to the region, but let's talk about the long term: the secretariat in Bujumbura, and whether the Africans are actually picking up this ball by themselves and running with it, because that was the whole idea.
Please go ahead.