Features Career Opportunities Read IDRC’s Employment Philosophy Contact Information How to get in touch with our offices around the world. Canada's IDRC: Meeting the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) A few examples of how IDRC’s broad avenues of research support the United Nations Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) both directly and indirectly. IDRC Annual Report 2004-2005 IDRC's Annual Report 2004-2005 is  available on line. IDRC's strategy and program directions 2005-2010

The International Development Research Centre (IDRC) is a public corporation created by the Parliament of Canada in 1970 to help developing countries use science and technology to find practical, long-term solutions to the social, economic, and environmental problems they face. Support is directed toward developing an indigenous research capacity to sustain policies and technologies that developing countries need to build healthier, more equitable, and more prosperous societies.

IDRC's mission
Research themes
Complementary activities
Regions
Organization and budget

IDRC’s mission: Empowerment Through Knowledge

In carrying out its mission, IDRC provides funds and expert advice to developing-country researchers working to solve critical development problems.

• funds applied research by researchers from developing countries on the problems they identify as crucial to their communities. Most projects supported result from direct exchanges between the Centre and developing-country institutions;
• provides expert advice to those researchers;
• builds local capacity in developing countries to undertake research and innovate.

Research themes

The Centre supports research under the broad themes of

• Environment and Natural Resource Management,
• Information and Communication Technologies for Development,
• Innovation, Policy and Science,
• Social and Economic Policy.

Complementary activities

IDRC funds and administers a training and awards program for young Canadians and nationals from developing countries. By supporting academic study and offering opportunities for hands-on experience, IDRC helps countries of the South to provide themselves with a critical mass of trained and experienced researchers and gives a new generation of Canadians an opportunity to participate actively in international development issues.

Partnerships

Through its Canadian partnerships program, IDRC fosters alliances and knowledge-sharing between scientific, academic, and development communities in Canada and the South.

IDRC also works in partnership with other donors to increase the resources going to researchers in the South.

Regions

To better serve its international mandate IDRC has six regional offices:

• In Africa: Nairobi, Kenya; Dakar, Senegal; and Cairo, Egypt.
• In Asia: New Delhi, India; and Singapore
• In Latin America and the Caribbean: Montevideo, Uruguay.

Organization and budget

A Crown corporation, IDRC works collaboratively with many federal government departments, especially Foreign Affairs Canada and the Canadian International Development Agency.

Guided by a 21-member, international Board of Governors, IDRC reports to Parliament through the Minister of Foreign Affairs.

IDRC's Parliamentary appropriations were $122.3 million in 2004/05.

IDRC Governor Margaret Catley-Carlson Named a Trudeau Foundation Mentor 2006-01
Ms. Catley-Carlson joins other accomplished Canadians in working with Trudeau Foundation Scholars, who are outstanding doctoral candidates in the social sciences and humanities.

Two IDRC Partners Recognized for Work to Improve the Lives of Women in Poor Rural Communities 2005-12
Development through Access to Network Resources (D.Net) is the winner of the Gender and ICT Awards 2005 for its Pallitathya Help-Line (Call Centre for the Poor and Underprivileged) project, and Zoubida Charrouf has been awarded the prestigious Trophée de la Solidarité for improving the lives of women in the villages of Tamanar and Tidzi, Morocco.

Select Content on the IDRC Web Site Available in Arabic 2005-10-26

About IDRC Archive 2005
Corporate material, events, and announcements.

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