Afghanistan committee  I think it would be premature for me to give you that information. Currently what's happening is that the various donors are staking out what can be done across the country. We can approach it two ways. We could approach it either by addressing it geographically and picking an area, or systemically by dealing with the training of professionals or institutions.

Afghanistan committee  Oh, no, we've announced that we would be providing.... It is a ramp-up quickly over the next five years, from 2010 to 2015, so we would be programming fairly quickly. It always takes some time to develop that programming, but we would be providing $45 million on that issue over the next three years--or yes, $15 million a year over the next five--

Afghanistan committee  I can honestly say that I don't think I have that information to give you right now. It could be 1% of addressing all the nutritional needs or 1% of addressing the obstetric needs. That analysis really has to be done.

Afghanistan committee  I can tell you, though, Mr. Chair, that the minister was in Afghanistan in May and had a round table with experts in the field. There is certainly a view that Canada has a leadership role to play in that area, because it has provided great leadership on the coordination of education programming.

Afghanistan committee  Yes. The minister has stated that we would continue to work to eradicate polio,.

Afghanistan committee  If I may, Mr. Chair, I will take the second one first. We are winding down our projects and programming in the Kandahar area, that is true; we'll be working on a national program. That doesn't mean the reach that we will be attempting to get...it includes throughout the country, including Kandahar; the idea would be to build capacity with the national government, to provide necessary training to allow those departments to be able to reach down into the provinces.

Afghanistan committee  Speaking from memory, and depending on the year, I think Afghanistan has the second- or third-worst newborn mortality rate. It's a very prevalent issue. We have had some basis of programming, including working with obstetrics in the Mirwais hospital. Since the government's announcement of the $1.1 billion on the G-8 initiative, the minister announced her countries of focus and included Afghanistan.

Afghanistan committee  On every issue or on MNCH?

Afghanistan committee  The project that we began will be completed for 2011. It's a rehabilitation of the process that was in place and a rehabilitation of the waterways—

Afghanistan committee  The $50 million project that we undertook with SNC-Lavalin was to rehabilitate the existing dam. And yes, it will be ready.

Afghanistan committee  Yes.

Afghanistan committee  Yes. Thank you very much for that question. We did multiple projects. UNDP elected an overall body that dealt with preparing the elections, so there were projects that included building the capacity of the IEC and providing things like women searchers, so that women would be able to go and vote, to access public awareness campaigns, and to access independent polling booths, so that women could vote on the institutional side for election day.

Afghanistan committee  You're not right about it--

Afghanistan committee  No. Canada is giving no money directly to the Afghan government. Canada is giving money to the Afghanistan Reconstruction Trust Fund, which actually programs according to those Kabul priorities. So the Government of Afghanistan has developed its priorities pursuant to their development strategy and, now, the Kabul conference.

Afghanistan committee  I'm not in a position to say what we will do project by project as we move forward, but it is certainly something we have supported in the past through the UNDP, and we'll certainly look at it as we develop programming with women. But I do want to be straightforward: our focus will be on education and humanitarian assistance.