About IDRC
A Crown corporation, we support leading thinkers who advance knowledge and solve practical development problems. We provide the resources, advice, and training they need to implement and share their solutions with those who need them most. In short, IDRC increases opportunities—and makes a real difference in people’s lives.
Working with our development partners, we multiply the impact of our investment and bring innovations to more people in more countries around the world. We offer fellowships and awards to nurture a new generation of development leaders.
What we do
IDRC funds research in developing countries to create lasting change on a large scale.
To make knowledge a tool for addressing pressing challenges, we
- provide developing-country researchers financial resources, advice, and training to help them find solutions to local problems.
- encourage knowledge sharing with policymakers, researchers, and communities around the world.
- foster new talent by offering fellowships and awards.
- strive to get new knowledge into the hands of those who can use it.
In doing so, we contribute to Canada’s foreign policy, complementing the work of Global Affairs Canada, and other government departments and agencies.
Members:
Resources
Displaying 51 - 55 of 324Agronomic challenges and opportunities for smallholder terrace agriculture in developing countries
Improving land productivity is essential to meet increasing food and forage demands in hillside and mountain communities. Tens of millions of smallholder terrace farmers in Asia, Africa, and Latin America who earn $1-2 per day do not have access to peer-reviewed knowledge of best agronomic practices, though they have considerable traditional ecological knowledge. Terrace farmers also lack access to affordable farm tools and inputs required to increase crop yields.
Field schools and plant clinics : effective agricultural extension approaches to fight the coconut lethal yellowing disease and improve livelihoods of smallholder farmers in Grand-Lahou, Côte d’Ivoire
Field schools and plant clinics are key extension tools to fight Côte d’Ivoire lethal yellowing disease (CILY) that severely impacts the livelihoods of thousands of smallholder farmers in Grand-lahou, Côte d’Ivoire. This paper describes the processes in establishing and organizing field schools, plant clinics, Women Coconut Fairs and Women Groups in CILY-affected villages of GrandLahou. Land acquisition is one of the main issues that affect women within the coconut value chain in Grand-Lahou: women are denied access and control over farmland, and work at their husband’s plantations.
Land live : land ownership in rural India and intra household exchanges
The study examines the role of land ownership in shaping the well-being of older Indians by using data from the India Human Development Survey II (IHDS-II). In a society structured around extended households it focuses on the exchanges between parents and adult children in order to explore possible financial motives involved in elder care. Three aspects of well-being are considered: co-residence, medical expenditure and decision-making power within the household.
Large scale land acquisitions for investment in Kenya : is the participation, and benefits of affected local communities meaningful, and equitable? - a case study of the situation in Lamu, Isiolo and Siaya counties
The paper examines the pace of land acquisitions in terms of creating legislative and policy options to safeguard local communities that are directly affected, including compensation for land that is taken, and protecting community interests in the socio-economic and environmental continuum of investment projects, from design to implementation. The absence or weakness of formal landholding and land registration systems was evident in most research sites in Isiolo and Lamu.
From global rights to local practices : fostering participation at the micro-level in Latin America - final technical report
The project aims to create actionable policy proposals to make spaces of participation more effective in five countries in Latin America, and to contribute to the needs of existing social movements within their local contexts. Currently the study is mapping specific effects of implementation of participatory reforms on the distribution of power and resources in communities, the pathways through which such effects are produced, the accountability of domestic decision-makers, and impacts on successive iterations of legal reform.