Thank you very much, Mr. Chair.
Minister, thank you for being here today. It's been a while since we've had an update on CIDA projects, so thank you very much.
One of CIDA's objectives is always to get out in front of situations, ahead of humanitarian disasters. Last year we saw the pending challenges in the Sahel region of Africa. We started acting last winter, as a matter of fact; I think we put $47 million into that. We established the Sahel matching fund in August, and in early fall you made a visit to the Sahel region.
Could you update the committee, first of all, on what happened with the Sahel matching fund? I know we started it with a $10 million contribution. Could you give us the response we saw from Canadians?
Could you also update the committee on your observations from your visit to the Sahel?