The year was marked by a significant increase in the Foundations interventions to support the efforts by African countries to develop capacities to meet their development goals. Under the guidance of our Strategic Medium Term Plan (SMTP), a total of US$ 51 million was approved to fund 23 projects and programs which represented an increase of US$34 million over the level of 2003. This brought the total number of grants approved to date to 136 and the amount of funds committed by the Foundation to projects and programs to US$ 252 million.