Document(s) 5 of 6

The Centre
Who We Are
What We Do
Why Our Work Is Important
How We Work
Where We Work

The Centre

Canada’s International Development Research Centre (IDRC, the Centre) is one of the world’s leading institutions in the generation and application of new knowledge to meet the challenges facing developing countries.

Objective

IDRC funds applied research by researchers from developing countries on the problems they identify as crucial to their communities. It also provides technical support to those researchers. IDRC builds local capacity in developing countries to undertake research and create innovations, believing that people from developing countries must take the lead in producing and applying knowledge for the benefit of their own communities. IDRC also fosters alliances and knowledge sharing between scientific, academic, and development communities in Canada and developing countries.

Mission: Empowerment through Knowledge

The mission of IDRC remains “Empowerment through Knowledge,” i.e. to promote interaction, and foster a spirit of cooperation and mutual learning within and among social groups, nations and societies through the creation, and adaptation of the knowledge that the people of developing countries judge to be of greatest relevance to their own prosperity, security and equity.

A Crown corporation

IDRC is a Crown corporation. As a member of Canada’s international policy community, the Centre works collaboratively with a number of federal government departments, especially Foreign Affairs Canada and the Canadian International Development Agency (CIDA). Guided by an international Board of Governors, IDRC reports to Parliament through the Minister of Foreign Affairs. The Centre’s status as a Crown corporation has been beneficial to both Canada and the Centre itself. Because of its status, it can support projects that the government of Canada would like to encourage (e.g. the early days of democratic transitions in South Africa and Kenya) but may not yet be ready to become involved in for political reasons. Because of its status as a Crown corporation, IDRC can function efficiently: its administrative processes are tailored to its size and operations in Canada and abroad. It can also more easily accommodate financial partnerships with donors from other countries.

According to the Auditor General...

IDRC has been recognized by the Office of the Auditor General and others as a model of good corporate governance. Its strong governance system through and by its Board of Governors, its solid record in managing risk, and its strong audit and evaluation functions have been recognized in Canada and abroad as being global standard setters. Heritage Canada has reported that IDRC serves as an excellent example of a multicultural and bilingual employer. The Economist magazine has cited the “stunning results” of an important health project in Tanzania directed by IDRC with funding from CIDA.

International reputation and partners

As a result of its international reputation, IDRC attracts partnerships with many leading development agencies — including CIDA, the UK Department for International Development, the Ford Foundation, and Swiss Agency for Development and Cooperation — as well as with private sector partners, including Microsoft Corporation, and several other federal government departments. IDRC’s Parliamentary appropriation is $119.1 million in 2004/05.

A unique institution

The International Development Research Centre (IDRC, the Centre) is one of the world’s leading institutions in the generation and application of new knowledge to meet the challenges facing developing countries. IDRC is one of the few institutions in the world that builds local capacity in developing countries to undertake research and create innovations, based on the conviction that researchers and innovators in developing countries must take the lead in producing and applying knowledge for the benefit of their own communities.

An Act of Canadian Parliament

The Centre was established by an Act of Parliament, the IDRC Act (1970), passed by the House of Commons with unanimous support. (See Annex 6: Excerpts from the IDRC Act (1970).) IDRC is a Crown corporation. As a member of Canada’s international policy community, the Centre works collaboratively with a number of federal government departments. Guided by an international Board of Governors, IDRC reports to Parliament through the Minister of Foreign Affairs. Many leading development agencies, including the Canadian International Development Agency (CIDA), the UK Department for International Development, the Ford Foundation, and the Swiss Agency for Development and Cooperation, as well as private sector partners — including Microsoft Corporation — have chosen to partner with IDRC because of its widely recognized experience and good corporate governance.

An international Board of Governors

In accordance with the IDRC Act (1970), the 21-member Board of Governors oversees the Centre’s strategic direction. The Board comprises 11 members from Canada and 10 from other countries, including developing countries. Dr Gordon Smith is the Chairman of the Board. As President and a member of the Board, the President, Maureen O’Neil, manages the Centre’s operations with the support of the Senior Management Committee.

To deliver its mandate, IDRC relies on 450 skilled researchers, scientists, managers, analysts, and administrative and professional staff who work at the Centre’s head office in Ottawa and its regional offices in Cairo, Dakar, Delhi, Montevideo, Nairobi, and Singapore.

Canadian Heritage’s Annual Report on the Operation of the Canadian Multiculturalism Act 2002-2003 reported that “IDRC serves as an excellent example to Canadians and citizens of other countries of how people of different cultures and national origins can work together to address serious concerns that transcend borders and nationalities, and sometimes threaten the very existence of the greater global community.”

Funding

IDRC’s 2004/05 Parliamentary appropriation is $122.3 million.

What We Do

Funding applied research

IDRC provides technical support and funding to applied research in developing countries. IDRC’s work thus lies at the intersection of Canada’s innovation and foreign policy agendas. IDRC believes that research, knowledge, and innovation are the keys to long-term social and economic development.

The lack of research and innovation capacity in developing countries is acute. On average, developing countries spend 0.5% of their gross domestic product (GDP) on research and development. The industrialized countries spend between 1.5% and 3.8% of their much larger GDP on research and development. In fact, OECD countries account for over 80% of world research and development expenditure: most of that research does not address the problems of developing countries. The Global Forum for Health Research, for example, has noted that only 10% of the public and private funds spent on health research and development are directed to research into 90% of the world’s health problems, such as tropical diseases.

Sustainable and equitable development

In all its work, the Centre is guided by the principles of sustainable and equitable development, poverty reduction, and the promotion of human rights. In its current strategic plan, the Centre pursues three objectives:

• to support the production, dissemination, and application of research results leading to changes in policy and technology that enhance the lives of people in developing countries;
• to strengthen and mobilize local capacity in developing countries to undertake and manage applied research for development;
• to explore new opportunities and build selectively on past investments within its program.

The results

Canadian investments through IDRC have led to results in the following areas:

• improved capacity of individual researchers and research teams;
• institutional capacity building for research and research management;
• the development of new institutions;
• new technologies;
• new research and evaluation methodologies; and
• improved policies and practices.

Our partners in developing countries have confirmed that providing opportunities for researchers to improve their research skills, their research management skills, and their ability to ensure research results are applied in practice — capacity building — is arguably the most important and sustainable outcome of what we do. The growth of the people with whom we collaborate is an enduring contribution to long-term development.

IDRC has also played an important role in building institutions for development, including some of the member centres of the Consultative Group on International Agricultural Research, the Micronutrient Initiative, and the African Economic Research Consortium, to name just a few. Many recipients of IDRC funding have gone on to become ministers, heads of government, or senior officials of developing countries or of international organizations.

New technologies

Over the past 34 years, the Centre has also helped to develop many new technologies. These technologies have been useful for the public, private, and voluntary sectors alike. They include:

• the tri-coloured tape used to quickly and easily assess the nutritional status of children under five years of age by measuring the circumference of their midupper arm, now used by UN agencies, nongovernmental agencies (NGOs), and governments around the world;
• software for digitizing languages written in non-Roman alphabets, including Khmer, Lao, Singhalese, and Tamil;
• hullers and crushers to enable women’s cooperatives in Morocco to mechanize the processing of oil from argan nuts for the food and cosmetic industry, thereby increasing their incomes; 
• user-friendly software to facilitate the analysis and comparison of indicators such social welfare, inequality, poverty, and equity between groups to assess how they affect poverty levels;
• processing technologies to convert the waste products of the olive and sugar industries into high-protein animal feeds, turning an environmental problem into a sustainable source of income and employment in rural areas of North Africa;
• tissue culture techniques for small banana producers in Kenya to enable them to maintain virus free plant stocks and increase their incomes;
• new, more productive maize and bean varieties in Cuba as well as higher-yielding, stress-resistant barley varieties in the Middle East and North Africa, and disease-resistant cassava varieties in Africa, developed by farmers in collaboration with researchers, an approach known as participatory plant breeding;
• an Integrated Environmental Management System (SIGA) to help cities identify, prevent, and reduce potential environmental risks, using geographical information system technology, processing maps, charts, satellite images, aerial views, and other sources to identify areas that are vulnerable to environmental threats within a city’s limits.

A multi-disciplinary approach

Whether it is in the natural, social, or information sciences, IDRC’s support goes to research that takes as its starting point a development problem rather than an academic discipline. As such, most of our research is multi-disciplinary, frequently combining elements from both natural and social sciences. This is consistent with the Centre’s view that technological innovations must involve social and policy adaptation if they are to be taken up and used — innovation is a social process. The Centre’s current strategic plan (2000 – 2005) identifies three broad program areas in which the Centre will support research:

• Environment and Natural Resource Management: Research focuses on the sustainable use and management of natural resources, stressing the involvement of local communities.
• Information and Communications Technologies for Development: IDRC was one of the first development agencies to support research on the transformational powers of new information and communications technologies (ICTs) as a means to foster development.
• Social and Economic Equity: Research is directed toward issues of social and economic policy that relate to poverty reduction and enhanced social equity, including private sector development.

IDRC also funds applied research on two cross-cutting themes: gender and innovation systems. In 2003/04, the Centre had 444 active research projects.

Examples of projects

Examples of how IDRC-supported research has led to new approaches to development problems in recent years include:

• the Acacia Program of research support to assess whether and how new information and communications technologies can help communities in Africa gain control over their social and economic development;
• the Tanzania Essential Health Interventions Project (TEHIP), whose practice of evidence-based health care management helped reduce under-five mortality rates by over 40% in two districts in Tanzania with an additional investment of only US$1 per person per year;
• Ecohealth, or the ecosystem approach to promoting human health while protecting the natural environment, which has delivered both improved human health and more sustainable ways of managing the environment in several countries, for example a 40% reduction in the number of mercury poisoning cases in the Amazon;
• research networks supported by IDRC that have assisted developing countries to understand the implications of new issues in international trade negotiations, from liberalization of services trade to product standards to competition policy. In the Caribbean, for example, research supported by IDRC highlighted the ways cartels affect consumer prices, which in turn fed directly into CARICOM negotiating positions regarding the FTAA. Similarly, IDRC-supported research examining the impact of industrialized-country agricultural subsidies on cotton production in West Africa helped galvanize developing-country positions in the lead-up the 2003 WTO summit in Cancun;
• novel ways of monitoring trends in poverty and the impact of economic reform measures, through both household surveys and community-based monitoring, and the improved computer modeling of the policy impacts of economic adjustment measures, which have been adopted by local governments in Philippines and are under testing in other countries. IDRC-supported researchers using these tools in Senegal, Viet Nam, and Bangladesh have been asked to play key roles in the development of Poverty Reduction Strategy Papers in their respective countries, drawing on analysis carried out with IDRC support;
• outcome mapping, a new methodology for evaluating the qualitative outcomes of development projects, now being adopted by the World Bank and others.

(Search IDRC projects)

Canadian partnerships

IDRC promotes partnerships between Canadian researchers and their counterparts in developing countries, with clear mutual benefits. One-fifth of IDRC’s program spending goes to such partnerships. In addition, through its Canadian Partnerships Program, IDRC fosters alliances and knowledge sharing between scientific, academic, and development communities in Canada and the developing countries. A Training and Awards Program also builds the capacity of young Canadians and nationals from the developing world through support for academic study and opportunities for hands-on experience. Over the last four years, IDRC has invested more than $10 million in training, mostly for young researchers.

Why Our Work Is Important

In support of Canada's foreign policy goals

IDRC supports Canadian foreign policy goals. Its work in the developing world has contributed to Canada’s status as an important and valued participant in the international community, as a source of knowledge, and to Canada’s image as an innovative and generous country. IDRC’s work is consistent with, and pre-dates, the recent commitment that Canada’s National Science Advisor will work with the research community to identify additional steps to bring the benefits of Canadian research and development capacity to bear on the challenges of the developing world. It also supports the longterm goal of devoting no less than 5% of Canada’s R&D investment to a knowledge-based approach to development assistance.

Autonomy and flexibility

A Crown corporation operating under its own Act of Parliament, IDRC has the autonomy it needs to establish links and advance policy issues important to Canada, even when, for political reasons, the government is unable to become involved officially.

A democratic engagement

For example, Canada, through IDRC operating with both CIDA funding and its own resources, played a pivotal role in supporting the transition to democracy in South Africa and continues to support researchers there. In 1988, IDRC was one of the few international organizations working with South African researchers, mostly in the Front Line States. It helped the Mass Democratic Movement in the areas of economic policy, urban governance, and health. When the first democratic government was formed in 1994, more than half of the cabinet ministers had participated in IDRC projects. Similar examples could be cited from Viet Nam in the 1990s and the Southern Cone of Latin America in the 1970s and 1980s. IDRC is currently supporting a similar project in support of the democratic transition in Kenya with technical assistance and funding for practical, research-based innovation. It is also closely observing Zimbabwe.

Supporting access to information

IDRC has also proven to be a useful vehicle for the Government of Canada to support its agenda for promoting greater access to information and communications technologies for development. For example, IDRC’s President served as the Canadian Co-chair of the G8 Digital Opportunities Task Force along with the Deputy Minister of Industry Canada and the CEO of Telesystems. Another example is the Institute for Connectivity in the Americas (ICA), a multi-stakeholder initiative announced by the Prime Minister at the Summit of the Americas in Quebec City in April 2001. ICA involves collaboration with various partners throughout the Americas. IDRC’s contribution is to promote research on improved access to and use of ICTs in the developing countries of the Americas. Finally, Connectivity Africa (CA) was announced as part of Canada’s Africa Action Plan at the G8 summit in Kananaskis in 2002. It is modeled on the multi-stakeholder approach of the ICA. Industry Canada is a major partner. IDRC is working with the United Nations Economic Commission for Africa to develop CA’ s research program.

A source of innovations

Not only has IDRC been of benefit to Canada in its relations with the developing world, but the Centre has also been a source of practical, research-based  innovations over the last third of a century. Research supported by IDRC has been of great importance in understanding many of the major challenges faced by developing countries today, such as HIV/AIDS, the development of science and technology policy (identified by a recent Inter-Academy Council report as a key development challenge), and private sector development.

A few examples

For example, IDRC-supported research was the first to document the link between the spread of HIV and long-distance trucking routes in Eastern Africa. It was among the first research to explore the role of commercial sex in the epidemic and to document the degree to which teenagers were sexually active in countries with high HIV prevalence.

IDRC has supported the governments of Botswana, Chile, China, Jordan, South Africa, and Viet Nam to conduct path-breaking reviews of their science and technology policy. In several of these countries, IDRC has been invited back for a follow-up review. IDRC’s research has also supported private sector development through improved policy environments, through wider access to ICTs, and through the development of various directly productive technologies. Needless to say, HIV/AIDS, science and technology policy, and private sector development are of interest to more than just the developing countries. The Prime Minister has frequently spoken on these themes.

How We Work

Developing-country-based research

IDRC’s principal approach is to support research projects and related activities designed and proposed by developing-country institutions. Canadian institutions are also supported when there is collaboration with one or more partners from developing countries. The researchers and innovators whom we support may work in universities, governments, nongovernmental organizations (NGOs), or the private sector. They share a passion for innovation and change, driven by local people’s increased understanding of the problems they face and their greater capacity to tackle them, aided and informed by research that meets rigorous standards of excellence.

Development research: a collaborative venture

IDRC has always understood that development research is a collaborative venture. The Centre has encouraged partnerships that foster open and equitable participation, and facilitate an easy interaction between research insight and practical application. IDRC therefore supports not only individual researchers or research teams, but networks of researchers and research users. These networks are important ways of sharing best practices, stimulating debate on important scientific questions, and linking researchers with policymakers and other research users.

Networking

Linked to its networking, IDRC’s convening power — the ability to bring together many divergent stakeholders to discuss recent research and innovations — is considerable. Here are some examples:

• In the 1990s, IDRC was asked to convene two “Crucible Groups” — assemblies of actors with widely divergent views on intellectual property rights over genetic resources — to help move the often sterile and overheated debate forward. The idea was not to adopt a forced or false consensus, but to identify areas of agreement, areas of disagreement, and researchable questions, and so move the debate forward in a constructive manner.
• More recently, in March 2004, the Minister of International Cooperation, the Hon. Aileen Carroll, asked IDRC to convene a consultation between the Secretary General of the United Nations and Canadian NGOs.
• An IDRC forum held at Harvard University in September 2003 on the role of ICTs in poverty reduction attracted two Nobel Prize laureates in economics, as well as a host of other experts.
• IDRC was entrusted in 1992 with the management of the Expert and Advisory Service Fund to provide research and expertise in support of Canada’s contribution to the multilateral negotiations of the Middle East Peace Process. This IDRC project, funded by CIDA and managed by IDRC, and run in close consultation with Foreign Affairs, provides strategic and long-term thinking to help find solutions to the refugee problem, the issue for which Canada has special responsibility as chair of the Refugee Working Group.
• The Minister of Finance, the Hon. Ralph Goodale, has recently sought IDRC’s support to organize a high-level consultation with African thinkers on economic and trade policy issues, linked to Minister Goodale’s membership in the UK-sponsored Commission for Africa.

At the heart of Canada’s international policy community

As a member of Canada’s international policy community, IDRC remains committed to consultation and collaboration with the other members of that community. For example, the process of developing the Centre’s strategic plan 2005-2010 has involved consultation not only with Foreign Affairs Canada, CIDA, the Department of Finance, the Privy Council Office, Industry Canada, Health Canada, Natural Resources Canada, and the National Research Council, but also with scholars, officials, and innovators from developing countries. The Canadian research community — notably the research funding councils, the Association of Universities and Colleges of Canada, and several prominent Canadian scholars — also took part in the consultations.

A CIDA partner

CIDA remains IDRC’s major partner in Canada. IDRC’s comparative advantage lies in the fields of research, research management, South-South networking, inter-disciplinarity, and socio-technical innovation. CIDA and IDRC each bring their particular strengths to joint projects. This allows them to accomplish more than either agency could on its own.

In addition to our research partnerships, IDRC also enters into strategic partnerships with other donors. The purpose is to increase the level of resources flowing to applied research in and by developing countries. IDRC’s solid record of financial and risk management, and the fact that the Centre has its own separate bank account, make this sort of collaboration possible.

IDRC has been recognized by the Office of the Auditor General (OAG) and others as a model of good corporate governance. In accordance with the IDRC Act (1970), a 21-member Board of Governors oversees the direction and management of IDRC. The full Board meets three times a year, and has three standing committees: the Executive Committee, the Finance and Audit Committee, and the Human Resources Committee. The Board comprises 11 members from Canada, including the President of CIDA, and 10 members from other countries: currently, eight are from developing countries and two from OECD countries. The Chairman of the Board of Governors reports to Parliament through the Minister of Foreign Affairs.

In a recent Special Examination performed at the request of IDRC, the Office of the Auditor General concluded that “IDRC’s Board of Governors has solid governance practices in place.” Indeed, for 34 years, IDRC’s governance structure and process have incorporated features that are now being proposed as standards of good practice for all Crown corporations. These include:

• arm’s length appointment of the IDRC President by the Governor in Council, based on the recommendation of the Board;
• specification of the qualifications that Board members must have in order to be appointed;
• annual evaluation of the President’s performance by the Board;
• appointment of the Chief Financial Officer and the Corporate Secretary by the Board;
• existence of a strong Finance and Audit Committee of the Board, which reviews financial statements and all audits before they are presented to the Board.

This solid record of corporate governance has been recognized internationally. For example, the UK government’s Department for International Development is seeking to emulate elements of IDRC’s governance structure in its newly established International Advisory Board for Knowledge Management. The President of IDRC has recently accepted the invitation to become a member of this Board. As well, in February 2004, the Chairman of IDRC’s Board of Governors responded to an invitation from and provided evidence to the UK House of Commons Select Committee on Science and Technology.

IDRC employs modern management tools to maximize its transparency and accountability. For example, the IDRC’s Web site has enabled Canadians and others around the world to access more than 3.5 million page views per month. This makes it the second most frequently accessed Web site related to international development in the world. IDRC is also subject to federal Access to Information and Privacy Legislation. IDRC prepares a comprehensive Annual Report, complete with Financial Statements, that is tabled in Parliament by the Minister of Foreign Affairs. IDRC’s Annual Report has been positively rated by the Office of the Auditor General. IDRC also submits annual reports to the appropriate government institutions in full compliance with the Official Languages Act, the Employment Equity Act, and the Canadian Multiculturalism Act. IDRC management must also account to its Board of Governors for program results as well as for its financial management performance and human resources practices.

The Centre is audited annually by the Office of the Auditor General, which has always given a positive report. The OAG also performs periodic special examinations of the Centre’s operations at IDRC’s request. The last such examination was  presented to the Board and the Minister in March 2003. The OAG found that in executing its program of work, IDRC exercises probity and proper stewardship of the public resources that have been entrusted to it. It noted that “IDRC has a good structure and processes in place to measure its performance […] IDRC is continually seeking ways to improve.” This finding is in line with the findings of a long series of special examinations by the OAG over the years. An earlier OAG report, for example, included IDRC on its list of high performing Crown corporations and federal departments. The OAG had previously concluded that “IDRC operates with highly qualified, experienced and dedicated professional staff, many of whom are internationally renowned in their fields. Most project recipients we interviewed considered the IDRC approach superior to that of other international aid agencies.”

IDRC’s Audit Services (i.e. internal audit unit) has more resources than similar units in comparably sized federal institutions. The Director of Audit Services presents her reports directly to both the President and to the Chair of the Finance and Audit Committee of the Board, which helps ensure the independence of the audit function. The Finance and Audit Committee approves the annual audit plan. The Centre’s evaluation function is also strong. This year, the Evaluation Unit is tackling the issue of capacity building in developing countries. Indicators of corporate level performance have been developed. All major programs are subject to independent, external evaluations at least every four years. Individual projects are also subject to both internal and external evaluations. A monitoring and evaluation plan must be developed for each project before it is approved. The Centre also conducts periodic evaluations of cross-cutting themes, such as the ways in which research influences public policy.

Where We Work

IDRC works mostly in and with developing countries in Africa, Asia, the Middle East, and Latin America and the Caribbean. In addition to its head office in Ottawa, IDRC has regional offices in Cairo, Dakar, Delhi, Montevideo, Nairobi, and Singapore. This physical presence in the South contributes to the Centre’s ability to identify and support researchers and innovators from developing countries.

Regional offices provide important developing-country perspectives and support the broader dissemination of research results in developing countries. In 2003/04 the regional distribution of IDRC’s research funding was as follows: 54% for Africa and the Middle East, 20% for Latin America and the Caribbean, and 26% for Asia. In addition, IDRC spent a quarter of its program resources on global or inter-regional research activities.

IDRC’s staff come from over 50 different countries on all continents. All IDRC offices have staff from both Canada and other countries.

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