5. The Commission, in liaison with the ECB and, where appropriate, with the IMF, shall examine with the Member State concerned the changes and updates that may be needed to its macroeconomic adjustment programme in order to take proper account, inter alia, of any significant gap between macroeconomic forecasts and realised figures, including possible consequences resulting from the macroeconomic adjustment programme, adverse spill-over effects and macroeconomic and financial shocks.

Canada's contribution was instrumental in helping to finance the development of the pilot program on climate resilience, which will fund programs in nine of the poorest and most vulnerable countries and two regions.

- On interventions (what): the Programme will focus on: (i) crucial investments to protect, maintain and recover productive and social assets vital for food security to allow economic integration and long-term rehabilitation, and (ii) addressing vulnerability to shocks and strengthening people’s resilience through support for crisis prevention and management;

Drawing on the experience of past commissions, the New Freedom Commission concluded that its objective should be to foster progress by staged, in­cremental, changes in major federal programs such as Medicaid, Medicare, and Social Security, rather than by seeking “big-bang” reform measures or increased support for specific men­tal health programs.

It was very interesting, because we had a meeting with maybe 25 representatives, and we were discussing Aboriginal Head Start; we were discussing early childhood development programs and the need for such programs, and it was really quite shocking for us to learn, as two members of Parliament on this subcommittee from different political parties, and obviously not agreeing on many things.I think we were of the same mind when we concluded our meeting, that there was a terrible lack of partnership between government agencies and first nations communities in east Vancouver.

In addition to the policies sustaining the rural sector, the EU should target specific support on increasing the competitiveness and productivity of African agriculture through: (i) policies and programmes to improve the functioning of national and regional input and output markets, including through rural infrastructure and to promote organic farming and fair trade; (ii) the management of shocks, in particular through novel insurance instruments; and (iii) the strengthening of pro-poor, demand-driven agricultural research and exten ...[+++]sion, in particular by promoting research collaboration between the European and African research communities, at the level of the Consultative Group on International Agricultural Research (CGIAR) and by supporting regional research coordination mechanisms.