Ambassador, thank you very much for joining us here at committee today.
For the edification of the committee, the minister very kindly came to my office yesterday afternoon and I had an opportunity to talk with him. We had a very productive and I think a very fruitful half-hour discussion, and I thank him for that.
We discussed at the time this issue of the bilateral countries of focus, which is an issue of choices, of course, because the government that preceded us had funding relations, believe it or not, with 111 countries. Our feeling was that we could do an awful lot better by giving specific focus to 20 countries. We also are going into key priority areas of food security, children, and sustainable economic growth.
I had an opportunity to explain this to the minister, and I previously had a meeting with her excellency, the ambassador, and we explained this. I think that while I obviously have to respect, and do respect, the appearance--and that is something we discussed. As Minister Yoda has pointed out, in fact the aid from Canada to Burkina Faso has increased from $10 million to $17 million. Therefore, it is not what it appears to be. It is a case of the Canadian government managing their aid, particularly in areas of untying aid and that kind of thing.
I think it would be of value, Minister, if you could give us a bit of a sense.... CIDA has had quite an involvement with Burkina Faso in the area of education. It's my own personal belief that education is one of the most important keys to the future success of developing nations, just as it has been with developed nations.
Could you describe to us what kinds of programs there have been in terms of the use of CIDA--Canadian--funding for education in Burkina Faso?