Seeds and Science: Profile of IDRC Awardee Christina Holmes 2006-09
Christina Holmes' professional interests and motivations are complex, but it all comes down to the inescapable fact that, as she puts it, "everyone has to eat." Today she is focused on answering the simple question: Where does our food come from?
Partner in Profile: Envisioning a Wired Nation — M.S. Swaminathan 2006-09
A close advisor to Prime Minister Indira Gandhi in the 1960s, M.S. Swaminathan was a key architect of the "Green Revolution" that drastically increased India’s food supply. Today, Professor Swaminathan has his eye on the challenges of the future, not on the accomplishments of the past.
Chong Sheau Ching: Advocating for Change 2006-06
If there's anyone who knows the role education can play in aiding international development, it's Chong Sheau Ching. She is passionate about its part in empowering people – especially women – through knowledge, because learning changed her life.
Global Governance and Global Education: Many Questions Researcher Profile, Karen Mundy 2006-04
The Global Campaign for Education (GCE) has designated 24–30 April 2006 as its “Global Action Week” to focus international attention on education as a universal right. It's a matter close to the heart of IDRC awardee Karen Mundy, a world-renowned scholar of comparative education now based at OISE/University of Toronto.
Researcher Profile: Alain Olivier's Lessons Learned in Africa 2005-05-02
Alain Olivier is dedicating his career to understanding the role of trees on farmland in the Sahel. He has pushed his research beyond the limits of his field of study to comprehend the complex relationships between farmers, trees, and other crops, and has uncovered the many cultural implications associated with the planting of a sapling in Africa.
Researcher Profile: Linda Campbell’s Quicksilver Quest 2005-04-15
Spurred by concerns over crude refining methods used by small-scale African gold miners, Linda Campbell began testing for mercury in Lake Victoria’s fish and water six years ago. Blue cooler in tow, she has since tested fish throughout East Africa’s Rift Valleys, with surprising results.
Researcher Profile: Breeding New Respect for Farmers in Cuba 2005-01-19
When Soviet trade and assistance ceased after the collapse of the communist regime in 1989, the impact on large-scale, industrial agriculture in Cuba was devastating. Imported fertilizers, petroleum, and other agricultural inputs to improve yields became impossible to come by. Cuban plant breeders and farmers faced a seeming paradox — to try to grow more and better produce with fewer modern inputs. Humberto Ríos was pivotal in trail-blazing a new approach to agriculture in Cuba that helped to address this challenge. It’s an approach that draws upon the knowledge of small-scale farmers and focuses on low-input organic agriculture.
In Profile: Dr Veena Jha 2004-07-30
Dr Veena Jha, the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development’s (UNCTAD) India Programme Coordinator, is the editor of a forthcoming book on product standards. In this profile, the India-based economist talks about her career and the impact of product standards on trade in the developing world.
Man on a Mission: Researcher Profile, Dr Onno Purbo 2003-11-17
For Indonesian information technology (IT) expert Dr Onno Purbo, a self-financed, bottom-up Internet infrastructure is the key to achieving a knowledge-based society in developing countries. A former professor, Purbo has bypassed the government and telecommunications companies to help the Indonesian people acquire low-cost, build-it-yourself neighbourhood networks to deliver Internet and telephone services. Sharing knowledge is his mission: most of his writings, 40 books and hundreds of articles, are available on the Web, free of charge.
A Tribute to Brazilian Researcher, Fernando Branches 2003-03-07
"Dr Fernando Branches was a Brazilian cardiologist who taught me many unforgettable lessons about doing research in the South — lessons that have stayed with me in my work as a program officer and team leader for the International Development Research Centre (IDRC)." In this tribute to the late Dr Branches, IDRC’s Dr Jean Lebel outlines his impressions of the man who was referred to by all who knew him as "the good doctor".
Researcher Profile: Touhami Abdelkhalek, MIMAP-Morocco Coordinator 2002-12-23
"There are two Moroccos," says Dr Touhami Abdelkhalek, professor and researcher at Morocco’s Institut national de statistique et d’économie appliquée (INSÉA) — traditional and modern. Morocco is also rich and poor.
It is this second country that holds his attention. Dr Abdelkhalek coordinates a network of researchers working to understand poverty and develop appropriate poverty reduction strategies. The team is part of the Micro Impacts of Macroeconomic and Adjustment Policies (MIMAP) network, supported by the International Development Research Centre (IDRC), that links researchers, policy officials, nongovernmental organizations, and international experts in a dozen countries of Asia and Africa.
Creating Connections with Women in India: Researcher Profile, Brenda Cranney 2002-10-18
In 1998, Brenda Cranney was awarded a Young Canadian Researcher’s Award from the International Development Research Centre (IDRC) to do research on women and community forestry in India. From working in freezing temperatures to encountering a purification ritual, her research proved challenging in ways she never anticipated. But not only did she find her work in India personally rewarding, it also set the direction for the work she would pursue in the years to come.
Researcher Profile: Brian Szuster 2002-05-24
A heated debate has been raging in Thailand for years, embroiling politicians, scientists, environmentalists and farmers. The argument is over an industry that, some say, is threatening the environment and others feel is important to sustain their economy. Canadian geographer Brian Szuster and a team of academics is helping resolve the issue of shrimp farming.
Preserving Rwanda’s Medicinal Plants: a profile of Léopold Ntezurubanza 2002-04-19
The Karisoke Research Centre, located in Rwanda's Volcano National Park, has long specialized in the study and protection of mountain gorillas. It was there, in 1974, that Léopold Ntezurubanza first became interested in the astonishing properties of medicinal plants. Those early experiences launched him on a mission to preserve Africa’s medicinal plants and to document their use in traditional healing.
Abdoulaye Diagne, Senegalese Economist 2002-03-28
Abdoulaye Diagne smiles easily and often. His cheerful demeanour belies the enormous challenge posed by the fight against poverty, the focus of his research and his daily work. The director of the Centre de recherche en économie appliquée (CRÉA) at the Université de Dakar, Dr Diagne is also the coordinator of the Micro Impacts of Macroeconomic and Adjustment Policies (MIMAP) program in Senegal.
Solving Pieces of the Argan Puzzle: Researcher Profile, Zoubida Charrouf 2001-11-23
“I didn’t know that I bothered people ... well, I knew that I did, but I didn’t know quite how much.” Zoubida Charrouf, Professor in the Science Faculty of Mohamed V. University, in Rabat, Morocco is quietly trying to explain some of the hurdles she faces. “People reproach me three things. They reproach me for having helped women get out of the house. They reproach me for having improved the extraction of argan oil. And they reproach me for being interested in a tree that belongs to ordinary people, not to academics.”