Thank you very much.
Thank you for joining us today. Those three presentations have addressed some key issues regarding the participation of women. I found the issue of funding particularly interesting.
Small organizations in Saskatchewan and in Alberta are having a hard time with the fact that, based on the current Canadian policy, there is a bidding process or very complex processes. That makes their lives very difficult and access to funding challenging. So I can only imagine how hard the situation is for a small women's organization from Guinea-Bissau. Personally, I think the issue of core funding must be examined.
I prefer not to talk too much about my personal experience, but the fact remains that I have spent 15 years with the Department of Foreign Affairs, which is when I truly discovered the Women, Peace and Security Network. I was then responsible for developing human security policies. That was part of our policies.
You are saying that this is not really part of the main policy direction. But I am wondering whether something can be done to raise more awareness about the effectiveness of women's participation in peace-building processes and to talk about it more in our representations, our missions abroad. There are regular reports about the Afghanistan mission because people are interested in it, but that does not apply to other missions.
Can concrete action be taken to ensure the message circulates throughout the organization, the Department of Global Affairs, the Department of National Defence and elsewhere?