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Why We Do It
IDRC focuses on creating knowledge — knowledge that will benefit humanity. For nearly 40 years, we have helped researchers and innovators in poor countries find new ways to improve health, reduce poverty, and promote democracy. This scientific and technical know-how has enriched the lives of people in developing countries — often in dramatic ways.
 
  • Through the IDRC-supported Tanzania Essential Health Interventions Project (TEHIP), Tanzania is getting closer to reducing under-five deaths by two-thirds before 2015. The idea? Save lives by ensuring that all parts of the health system work well together through small but strategic investments. The effects have been dramatic: Tanzania reduced child mortality by an astonishing 40% over five years in two test districts. The TEHIP model is being adapted for use in Burkina Faso, Ghana, and Nigeria.
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  • Mongolia, despite its isolation, has become a pioneer in using the Internet as a tool for development, through a lasting partnership with IDRC that continues today. In a country where travel overland can be difficult, at times impossible, the Internet is playing a crucial role in bringing much-needed services such as education and health care to remote areas.
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  • When IDRC first supported pioneering research on bamboo and rattan in 1979, the world knew little of their positive environmental potential. But that’s changed, thanks to work undertaken by the International Network for Bamboo and Rattan, created by IDRC in the early 1990s. Bamboo and rattan are at the centre of major initiatives in Asia, Africa, and Latin America that are combatting global warming, fighting soil erosion, protecting forests, and enhancing communities’ access to water.
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  • For migrant workers all over the world, sending part of their earnings home to support their families and communities is common practice. Until recently, Uzbek workers living abroad paid fees as high as 10% to transfer these funds. Thanks to evidence-based recommendations drawn from IDRC-supported research, those fees are coming down and innovations are leading to greater competition and more choices for consumers in Uzbekistan.
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Latest Projects

The emerging and re-emerging zoonotic diseases affecting Brazil today result from complex interactions between natural and human systems. Zoonotic diseases such as hantavirus pulmonary syndrome, rabie

Latest Projects

Climate change poses a significant threat to agrarian societies in tropical regions. In Punjab, which produces more than half of India's annual food grain production, there is rising uncertainty in th

Latest Projects

Information and communication technologies (ICTs) can play an important role in helping communities prepare for and adapt to the effects of climate change. Various projects can attest to the potential

Latest Projects

The Fifth International Conference on Information and Communication Technologies and Development (ICTD2012) will take place 12-15 March 2012 at the Georgia Institute of Technology (Georgia Tech) in At

Latest Projects

This grant will support a program of fellowships and workshops on the link between security, organized crime, drugs and democracy in Latin America and the Caribbean (LAC). The program is expected to h

IDRC at a Glance

Globally

6 regional offices: Cairo, Egypt; Dakar, Senegal; Nairobi, Kenya; New Delhi, India; Singapore; Montevideo, Uruguay

IDRC at a Glance

Budget

Parliamentary funding of IDRC is 3.9% of all of Canada's international assistance

IDRC at a Glance

Globally

103 Canadian grantees

IDRC at a Glance

2010–2011 Annual Report

$195.6 million in Parliamentary appropriations, represents 79% of IDRC’s annual budget

IDRC at a Glance

Globally

924 research activities

IDRC at a Glance

Since 1970

4,000+ fellowships and awards granted

IDRC at a Glance

2010–2011 Annual Report

$50.9 million from donor contributions

Why We Do It
IDRC funds researchers in the developing world so they can build healthier, more prosperous societies
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