Thank you.
Those are big questions. On the 0.7%, we hope Canada will move toward 0.7%. As you say, it's an important target. I think it's part of actual leadership in the world. I think Canada has had an enormous impact not just through providing money but also through taking leadership on many issues, over many years, whether on child health and maternal mortality or on the issue around women's and girls' empowerment, and on refugees. But the aid money complements and builds and helps lever that leadership even more.
I know it's a journey to get to 0.7%, having seen it in the U.K. It takes many years, but I think that having a plan to get closer and closer to it is very important. Even though aid is not the magic solution to all of these problems, it is part of the solution; and again, in these uncertain times, it's an important part of that mix of strategies that's needed to address all the problems that we've talked about today.
In terms of the U.S. administration, as you know, UNICEF's biggest supporter historically has been the U.S. in terms of money. Interestingly, it's the U.S. administration and the U.S. public. We raise more money from the U.S. public and have more supporters in the U.S. than almost anywhere in the world—not per capita, but in terms of absolute numbers.
There are some encouraging signs. This year in terms of the proposals that have gone to Congress, our core income is actually going up under this administration. That isn't the case for all UN agencies, but what we don't know is about 2018 and 2019, and what the proposals will be then. I think the honest answer to your question is that we don't know. We're talking to the U.S. administration, but they have many issues on their agenda. I'm not sure we're top of their list at the moment, so I don't know what the final outcome will be. We're hopeful that we'll be able to maintain this very powerful partnership with the U.S. government and with this administration. We have many friends from all different parties on the Hill. We also have friends in this administration, too, but it's too early to know what the long-term impact of any U.S. decisions will be on either UNICEF or the UN.
Our job, as a UN agency, is to make the case about the impact and the results we're achieving on the ground and, hopefully, through that dialogue they will also then see the benefit of investing in children.
A bit like we'll be saying at the G7 summit in a few weeks' time, I hope that even if you disagree on some of these bigger issues, actually everyone can agree on children. In a way, that's our message.