Thank you, Mr. Chair.
Thank you very much for being here. This is a very important issue and is one with which Canada is very much seized in regard to this opportunity.
You talked about the $650 million that Canada has pledged for the Global Fund. I was at that replenishment conference in Washington in December, and I was very proud to make that announcement on behalf of Canada. Indeed, it is a 20% increase over what we have given in the past. The real problem is that pledges are made but not followed through on, so we have a disparity between what we say is available and what truly comes through.
I'm sure, Doctor, that this is what you deal with in the field. I'm proud to say that our government has always paid what it has pledged. Canadians can be very proud that we have taken that initiative and have made sure that it happens.
Again, one of the very reasons why we have untied our aid.... I know that my colleague has talked about that bill, but we know that bill is never going to work because we have intellectual property rights that have to be respected. In response to that, we have said, “Let's untie our aid so that these medicines can be purchased at the best possible global price.” That's driving the price down, and we know that the access is being increased, because untied aid means that they can deal with that money in the very best way they possibly can.
I was in Bangladesh with Results Canada, Ms. Upperton. We had a little chat about that at lunchtime. I've been to those places. I've seen the desperate circumstances in which people live. The transfer of tuberculosis has to be one of the most frightening things that people are dealing with in some of these slum areas.
Doctor, one of the things that I saw in Bangladesh was the training of what they call shasta shabikas. They are women, for the most part, who are being trained to do the very elementary testing in order to have people.... They can get the results from the laboratories much more quickly than can some of the other mechanisms that are available. We've invested a great deal in maternal, newborn, and child health and one of the things that we want to see happen is trained people getting out into the field in order to help make this early diagnosis. Can you talk a bit about how that reach is happening in countries where you have been?