Thank you.
Maternal and child health are the focus of a number of our bilateral or geographic programs. You've drawn attention to one of them in Mali. The Mali health minister was with us in Halifax. We can't do the whole country necessarily or the western part, but we have supported the training in one region, the Kayes region, in terms of skilled birth attendants, which has made a significant difference in the number of assisted births and therefore the reduction in child mortality in Mali.
Another component we're working on with the Government of Mali as part of their overall health systems plan is on broader health care human resource planning and skills and training so they can extend this across their country.
We also have extensive maternal and child health programs in countries like Tanzania, where we work with the Government of Tanzania and their Marie Stopes International particularly around maternal and reproductive health. Again, we've had significant success there.
We also work in Mozambique to support the overall implementation of the Government of Mozambique's health system. One key component is around maternal health, again around the training and provision of skilled health workers, local health workers for both maternal health and attended births, and for child health.
We also work in Bangladesh, particularly focused around the rural poor and their health services. As you know, we've done a fair amount of work around maternal and child health in Afghanistan as well. That's partly been about the polio eradication initiative, but we have also helped to build the obstetrical facilities for the Mirwais Hospital in Kandahar, which provides gynecological and obstetrical assistance not just in the city but across the region. So it's very important.
It is an area where CIDA has a lot of strength to build on, a lot of expertise to build on, both in terms of what's happening on the ground in terms of maternal and child health and in terms of nutrition. I think the area of nutrition is going to have its day now that everyone recognizes that it's an underlying contributor to not just mortality but also diminished development and life chances for children.
As we would know in Canada, in terms of the development of children and their cognitive development, we can really make a difference in terms of the futures of these countries if we really focus on nutrition. Very simple nutrition packages for mothers and children on the ground, delivered in a timely way, can make a world of difference.