Foreign Affairs committee  To put this into an order of magnitude, on a typical partnership, such as what Drayton Valley is doing in Tanzania, it could be $30,000 to $40,000 a year in terms of CIDA dollars. We calculate that generally the contribution is about 50% of the CIDA dollars. So all the phenomenal work that Drayton Valley is doing in Tanzania around local government capacity building, working with the AIDS orphanages, and building and setting up the community foundation, which Gord was talking about earlier, is done on a shoestring.

Foreign Affairs committee  We include the contribution.

Foreign Affairs committee  I can say a little more on the volunteer aspect. Typically someone who goes as a volunteer overseas is going for around two weeks, and then they're hosting people back here from time to time. It's not a huge percentage of their work life, but it is a significant element. When we talk about 2,500, we're talking about 2,500 individuals who have been involved in this kind of thing over the life of the work that we've been doing.

Foreign Affairs committee  It's CIDA. That $12 million is the CIDA contribution. The actual value of the work we do on that $12 million is about $20 million.

Foreign Affairs committee  CIDA runs an intern program, and I think we anticipate maybe six interns in the next fiscal year. We'd love to have lots more, because they do great stuff. The HIV/AIDS, TB, and malaria question has been raised by our African partners particularly, and as we go into our planning for the next three-year cycle, this will become more prevalent.

Foreign Affairs committee  The Palestinian project has been in operation since 1997. We started off and have been working in the town of Rafah, which is right on the border of the Gaza Strip and Egypt. Canada has been in Rafah since 1948, when it started a refugee camp that is still called Canada Camp. Our partners in that project were and are the local government of Rafah, the neighbouring local government of Khan Yunis, and the Association of Palestinian Local Authorities.

Foreign Affairs committee  No, it's just our project.

Foreign Affairs committee  Do you want me to answer that right now? It has been Fatah all along. In the recent round of local elections, Hamas won the election, but the results were thrown out. So at this point there's an appointed administrator from the Fatah government who is running the town of Rafah.

Foreign Affairs committee  Or elected officials.

Foreign Affairs committee  Your question is specifically related to AIDS?

Foreign Affairs committee  Yes. The AIDS component, first of all, is focusing on the governance elements of AIDS in local communities. It isn't about medical issues or personal health; it's about how a municipality thinks of urban planning and working with a community that suddenly has tonnes of orphans and a lot of grandparents as parents, or single parents.

Foreign Affairs committee  Within the framework of our program, we are working in francophone African countries such as Mali and Burkina Faso. We hope to work in Niger some day. Gord mentioned Montreal and Quebec City. There's also the Municipality of Sainte-Élisabeth. People in the City of Saguenay are working very hard and doing very interesting things in Vietnam.

Foreign Affairs committee  You had asked a question about the section entitled “Lessons learned in democratic development”, in which we stress institutions and the process, rather than individuals. Obviously, we are working with individuals, but it's essential that this be in the context of an institution.

Foreign Affairs committee  Yes. The advantages for Canada are... Do you want me to continue?

Foreign Affairs committee  Okay. Perhaps I can pick up on that question and say that if one steps back from the local level and looks at the projects we end up doing or the different countries we end up working with, a lot of those decisions are made around the analysis of the context within the local countries.