Thank you for the question. It certainly enables me to hopefully be able to give you a full and comprehensive answer on this issue.
Let me first point out that we believe government aid and development is not about organizations; it's about helping people who Canadians want to see helped. It's about making sure that we're making a difference in their lives on a long-term sustainable basis.
In order to do this, we believe that we have to analyze and make sure that we are making our selections on a merit-based process. Consequently, as I say, in terms of sustainability we are actually asking what happens after five years of funding. How is this project, how are the outcomes, and how are the improvements going to be maintained by the local community, by the local leadership in the community, or by the governments that are implicated there?
There is no shift in focus. Since our government took office, we've said that we were going to make our international assistance effective, and effective means making a real difference, a difference that will impact and also maximize the value of our aid dollars. We believe that this is what Canadians want to see. They want to see that people in poverty are not only lifted out of poverty but are also able to stand on their own, and able to stand on their own over the long term.