Mr. Chair and honourable members, thank you very much for your invitation to appear this afternoon.
To build on the statement by my DFAIT colleague, I'll provide a little bit more detail with respect to CIDA's current engagement in the Democratic Republic of the Congo and the region.
It's important to note first and foremost that the problem of sexual violence is recognized not only by the international community but also by DRC's own government and its society's stakeholders. Steps are being taken to address this very serious issue.
One of the most important pledges to fight sexual violence came in 2008 when DRC President Joseph Kabila ordered a zero-tolerance policy towards the perpetrators of such acts. This declaration was followed within a year by the Stratégie nationale de lutte contre les violences basées sur le genre and the Politique nationale genre.
Both of these documents were developed by the DRC explicitly to help fight sexual violence. However, the DRC authorities remain overwhelmed. As you know, the problem is vast, and it's compounded by the size of the territory. The DRC is the size of Ontario and Quebec combined, and it has a population of nearly 74 million. The country lacks roads, which makes access extremely difficult, even for very short distances.
The police and the military have limited capacity, and the government's ability to control them over the vast territory is quite weak. There are too few properly trained, independent judiciary personnel and judges, and the state of the courts and the prisons is very poor. In this context, we are working with the DRC and with the international community with respect to prevention, to respond to lifesaving needs, to rehabilitate victims, and to help bring justice to the perpetrators of this horrific crime of sexual violence. We're doing this through a variety of projects.
My colleague mentioned briefly a couple of them.
The first that should be mentioned is a project for the prevention of sexual violence in the eastern provinces of North Kivu and South Kivu. The United Nations Population Fund, UNFPA, looks after the coordination of that project. CIDA contributes $15 million dollars over five years, from 2006 to 2011. The other partners involved are UNICEF and the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights. The project supplies medical and psychosocial support as well as socio-economic reintegration services in the two provinces. It attempts to reinforce the role of the government in terms of coordinating measures to prevent sexual violence all over the country, as well as a follow-up. Approximately 50,000 victims have had access to health care and psychosocial support and about 5,000 victims have received legal aid.
Through that project, CIDA has participated in the deliberations of the military tribunal in South Kivu, in Kalehe, where 11 army officers were tried under the charge of mass rape in the eastern region of the country. Through CIDA's financial support, in cooperation with Lawyers Without Borders, 19 very courageous women benefited from legal and judicial aid.
Canada was encouraged when the 11 high-ranked officers accused were convicted. Our contribution to the conviction of those officers is a testimony that our efforts to put an end to impunity are starting to bring about results in the Democratic Republic of Congo.
A second initiative, which was launched in 2010, was the $13.5 million seven-year contribution agreement that was signed with the Canadian NGO, CECI, Centre d'étude et de coopération internationale, for a regional project that aims to combat violence against girls and women in the Great Lakes Region.
CECI is working with a network of local experienced women's organizations to help better protect girls and women in the DRC, Burundi, and Rwanda against the physical and psychological effects of sexual violence. This is being done through the development and implementation of treatment protocols and by working to change community attitudes and behaviour towards victims.
A third initiative, LEAP, which is the learning for equality, access, and peace project, is managed by the World Bank. CIDA is contributing $4.3 million over two years from the years of 2011 and 2012. This project supports the integration of gender-sensitive activities into national programs for disarmament, demobilization, and reintegration of ex-combatants. This was developed after an evaluation of national programs that showed that the priority for services was mostly for men. Women's specific needs as civil victims, ex-combatants, and domestic or sexual slaves certainly were not being taken into consideration. This is looking to redress the balance.
More broadly, through CIDA's international humanitarian assistance Canada is able to respond to immediate humanitarian needs of those affected by armed conflicts in the eastern DRC, including victims of sexual violence.
In 2009-10 we provided $22 million to the UN, the International Committee of the Red Cross, and a number of Canadian NGOs.
While the majority of CIDA's efforts are focused on issues related to sexual violence, I should also mention that we are involved in a few other developmental initiatives in more stable parts of the DRC. Most notably, CIDA is actively contributing to maternal and child health in Kinshasa province, $28 million from 2003 to 2017.
We are currently contributing $9 million to the UNDP electoral cycle initiative in preparation for the upcoming presidential and legislative elections, and through a different mechanism we will be deploying election observers to the EU election observation mission to monitor the presidential elections in November 2008.
In conclusion, addressing sexual violence remains a high priority for CIDA. Canada's contribution in 2007, at a time when few resources and actions were directed at combatting sexual violence, is widely considered to have raised the profile of the issue internationally and to have leveraged more resources from other donors.
We're very proud to have been among the pioneers, and we are committed to continue this work with the DRC and the international community to help eradicate sexual violence.
We will also, of course, be very happy to answer any questions you may have.