Thank you, Chair. You can't go very far with three minutes.
They've been very excellent panels, the first one and now this one.
I think we need to shift how we look at Africa. We thought we knew what Africa was about; it was always poverty and aid, etc. Now I'm listening to you suggesting that there are three areas that we should invest in. I think one of them is economic development, obviously, with job creation, know-how and expertise. I think we all buy that.
Another thing that I have a question about is health. You are the only person who has spoken about health infrastructure. If people aren't healthy, they can't work. If they don't have an education, as you said earlier on, Mr. Akuffo, then they can't work. It's not simply a one-size-fits-all of just looking at trade or just looking at economic development. We need to look at a broader picture that includes healthy people, educated people, trained people who are able to work.
I have a question.
I buy into all that, and everyone has spoken about that. What I want to ask is this. We talk about 54 nations in Africa. Is the African Union the place to start? Europe is made up of 57 and more nations, and we've dealt with the European Union. Is the African Union the pivot that we need to start working in to create some kind of synergy among African countries? That's what I wanted to ask about, because Africa is very diverse and very disparate in many ways.
You talk about wealthy North Africa. You talk about other countries that are doing well—South Africa, Kenya, etc.—but there are other countries where there's the issue of democratic institutions and where corruption is rife. How do you build things in those countries? How do we deal with those things? Is the African Union the place we go, or do we have to deal with countries on a case-by-case basis? Then we don't have an African strategy; we have individual bilateral strategies.
I just want to get some answers, because it's quite difficult and complex.
Please go ahead, Mr. Akuffo.