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"Sustainable and equitable human activity depends on men and women's control of their own social and economic progress, on equitable access to knowledge, and on an indigenous capability to generate and apply knowledge."

In June 1992, at the United Nations Conference on Environment and Development (UNCED) — the Earth Summit — in Rio de Janeiro, Canada designated IDRC as a lead organization in implementing Agenda 21, UNCED's global environmental action plan for governments and communities. The announcement recognized "the Centre's proven track record in supporting research in developing countries" and its unique contribution to development over the previous 20 years. It also offered the Centre a challenge well-matched to its own strengths and capabilities, particularly in the areas of research and capacity-building for development.

Following the announcement, IDRC undertook to build on the Earth Summit's ideas. The result was a new program framework for 1993–1997 that ensured that all programs were to be oriented explicitly toward sustainable and equitable development. But as was noted in IDRC, An Agenda 21 Organization, published in 1992: "even though IDRC has been active in many of the key areas in Agenda 21, it will not, and should not, try to cover all of them."

IDRC's Priorities

While IDRC's program framework has gone through several iterations since 1993, most areas of work have evolved from priorities identified at UNCED. The Centre's programing for 2000–2005 concentrates support in three areas of enquiry, anchored in Agenda 21 priorities:

• Environment and Natural Resource Management: The Centre focuses on meeting the needs of current and future generations by recognizing the importance of research that will help people protect the environment and manage natural resources.

• Information and Communication Technologies (ICTs) for Development: Agenda 21 noted that many developing nations had "a general lack of capacity in many areas for the collection and assessment of data; for their transformation into useful information; and for their dissemination." IDRC programing for ICT development is based on the understanding that these technologies have enabling impacts on health, education, governance, employment, resource management, and enterprise.

• Social and Economic Equity: Agenda 21 recognized that the "economic policies of individual countries and international economic relations both have great relevance to sustainable development." The Centre supports research on trade policy, poverty alleviation, health, environmental economics, and tobacco control, among others.

The Way Forward

In September 2002, representatives of governments, United Nations agencies, multilateral institutions, the private sector, and other major actors will meet in Johannesburg to review progress since UNCED and identify further actions and priorities. Regardless of the successes lauded or failures deplored at the World Summit on Sustainable Development, it is clear that IDRC has lived up to the mandate conferred upon it a decade ago.

The following section of the Web site provide a glimpse of the breadth of support that IDRC provides and the achievements of those — mostly in the South — who have received such support. The examples, grouped according to Agenda 21's four sections, present only a tiny portion of the Centre's contribution to research for sustainable and equitable development in the decade since Rio.

These examples represent a way forward as much as a look back. As stated in IDRC's Corporate Strategy and Program Framework, 2000–2005: "The cornerstone of the Centre's work will be an ever stronger link to the aspirations and needs of the people in the developing countries of the world. Sustainable and equitable human activity depends on men and women's control of their own social and economic progress, on equitable access to knowledge, and on an indigenous capability to generate and apply knowledge."

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