I can't claim to be an expert on Afghanistan, but one of the cases we look at in this year's report is Canadian aid to education in Afghanistan. Of course, it's one of the most difficult environments in the world to try to do long-term development work. In fact, it's probably the most difficult environment in the world at the moment to try to do long-term development work.
One often hears the argument that you may as well forget long-term development in this context and just focus on emergency and humanitarian relief. I think the numbers from Canada, and in particular from the areas where the Canadian aid program has been most active, really speak for themselves.We have seen a very big increase in enrollment in primary schools. We've seen an increase in the recruitment and deployment of teachers. In particular, we've seen a dramatic increase in the number of girls in primary schools.
In order to achieve that, I think Canada, working with other donors, has really developed some very innovative approaches, pulling resources together, managing the resources on a collective basis, operating on a whole-of-government basis, recognizing that this isn't just a development problem but that there are security issues that have to be addressed and wider humanitarian issues that have to be addressed.
I actually believe the Afghanistan model is one that really could be far more broadly applied. It's certainly very relevant for southern Sudan. It's certainly very relevant for the DRC and other contexts.
I can't really comment in any detail on the linkages between primary and secondary education in Afghanistan, because it's really not my area of expertise. But what I would say is that clearly you can't achieve progress in secondary education unless you put the foundations in place, and there is clear evidence that the foundations have been put in place in areas like Kandahar where the aid program has been active.