The government hasn't yet put out its official cuts to this. This is just based on media reports or leaks on what the government is supposedly going to cut. I think probably the government would argue that it's an attempt to be more focused and effective, and also to respond to development needs and Canada's own foreign policy and development objectives.
Our biggest concern, and this is not a trend that's unique to Canada, is that in the context of aid cuts an increasing number of donors are moving away from low-income countries to middle-income countries. Especially in the context of the Africa Progress Panel report Canada would be ideally situated to respond to some of Africa's needs. We have a focus on growth as one of our strategies, on children and youth, and on food security. Where the most number of jobs need to be created in Africa is among the youth population. As I mentioned 74 million young people are expected to be looking for work in the next decade. CIDA already has a focus on smallholder farmers, and the report also identified addressing the needs of smallholder farmers as a key priority.
I already mentioned the youth population. Canada has a children and youth approach. It's difficult to know why Canada is moving away from low-income countries toward middle-income countries especially when a number of the countries were in Africa, as I mentioned, and Canada seems very well placed to address those needs.