International Development Research Centre

OTTAWA, ONTARIO, CANADA

IDRC Summary

The Act of Parliament creating the International Development Research Centre (IDRC) assigns the Centre a unique role among Canadian institutions and a distinctive place among international development agencies. IDRC's mission can be stated succinctly:

Empowerment through knowledge.

These three powerful words express the relationship between knowledge and development, and the conviction that empowerment through knowledge is the key element in the development of nations, peoples, communities, and individuals. Research provides the means for the acquisition of appropriate knowledge and, by extension, for development. The capacity to conduct research, therefore, is a necessary condition for empowerment. IDRC is dedicated to creating, maintaining, and enhancing research capacity in developing regions, in response to needs that are determined by the people of those regions in the interest of equity and social justice.

The task before us is to translate the Centre's mission into a clear program framework that will guide and inform the detailed decisions to be made in consultation with our research partners and that will permit an assessment of our progress. To do so requires the following:

In the coming decade, IDRC will strive to consolidate and reinforce a vision of itself as a results-oriented, "research-for-development" organization. This implies developing and sharing with others a conception of IDRC that emphasizes the potential benefits of the research it supports, that links developing countries with global research agendas and potential beneficiaries with local problem-solving efforts, and that is capable of influencing others as a result of the quality and innovative character of its work.

Additional information can be obtained through the IDRC Library server. Login as guest to access to the system.

IDRC Location

International Development Research Centre
P.O. Box 8500
Ottawa, Ontario K1G 3H9
CANADA

Tel: 1-613-236-6163
Cable: RECENTRE OTTAWA
Telex: 053-3753
Fax: 1-613-238-7230

IDRC Datasets

The IDRIS database

Datasets from other organizations containing environmental, earth science, and global change information can be located through CIESIN's Gateway.

Related Organizations

Information about related organizations can be located in CIESIN's Organizational Guides.