On Tuesday, May 29, the Honourable Josée Verner, Minister of International Cooperation, released the following statement:
"CIDA's aid to Afghanistan in general - and Kandahar in particular - is delivering concrete results in critical areas like health, education and community development.
Canada's approach is to help Afghans help themselves, and the progress is tangible. For example, our support for health programming is resulting in more than 40,000 children's lives saved every year.
CIDA disbursed $139 million in aid to Afghanistan last year, including $39 million to Kandahar - an 8-fold increase over the past year.
Furthermore, Canada will invest an additional $200 million to Afghanistan for governance and reconstruction.
Canada is among the top five donors to Afghanistan.
In Kandahar, our assistance has largely focused on basic needs. We work closely with experienced partners such as the UN High Commission for Refugees, the World Food Programme and UNICEF."
The country director of the World Food Programme, Richard Corsino, has stated that "food aid in 2006 was in excess of 10,000 metric tonnes, and is planned to double in 2007...in large part this increase is possible owing to the contributions of CIDA".