Long-Term Solutions for a Short-Term World: Canada and Research Development

Introduction: The International Development Research Centre and Research for Development

ix i n t ro d u c t i o n The International Development Research Centre and Research for Development One of the most fascinating and inspiring aspects of international development is the dedication of individuals who are engaged finding solutions to the problems faced by the world’s poor. In this age of globalization, we are never far from those that plague developing countries. From the extremes of poverty experienced by the majority of the world’s population to the wealthiest of the wealthy, the problem of development affects us all because it is the single most important factor in the future of our world. Every other pressing global issue, from climate change to the civil unrest that engulfs much of the planet, can be said to centre on the problems of development. Although government agencies and celebrities are often seen as being at the forefront of the fight to assist the world’s poor, there are thousands of people engaged in finding solutions. An important group is the scientists who conduct research for development . They provide the foundation for the solutions proposed by the World Bank, Bob Geldof, Bill Gates, and others. Long-Term Solutions for a Short-Term World introduces some of the individuals whose dedication to research lights the elusive pathways to development. The book examines two important and understudied issues: the importance of research in international development and the work of the International Development Research Centre (IDRC). In early 2006, Bruce Muirhead and Ron Harpelle were commissioned to write a history of IDRC, a small Canadian Crown corporation that is far better known among researchers in the developing world than it is at home. IDRC: 40 Years of Ideas, Innovation, and Impact (Wilfrid Laurier University Press, 2010) focuses on the political and administrative side of the story. Like all research projects, outcomes develop over time, and one of the supplements to our work is this collection of essays on the practitioners of research for development. The essays that follow tend to be descriptive, because our enquiries into the history of IDRC required an understanding of the evolutionary process of specific research projects with clear examples of how various kinds of research is conducted in the field. As part of our research for the project we were tasked with travelling to IDRC’s six regional offices, where we conducted interviews with, among others, dozens of past and present recipients of Canadian support for social science and scientific research for development. This kind of research is directed at immediate problems faced by societies in poor countries. Some is at the macro level, focused on regional, continental, and even global challenges, but most of the research we were exposed to had as its primary focus the amelioration of general living conditions or, in its more ambitious or farsighted characterization, the alleviation of poverty among the world’s poor. Research for development is the search for long-term solutions to problems that persist despite the rapid changes taking place as the world accelerates into the twenty-first century. Our interviews for the IDRC history focused on past support from this uniquely Canadian institution and its often overlooked, but highly successful , track record of building capacity among researchers in the developing world. However, we also took on the task of determining what kinds of research were being conducted at the present time; we visited laboratories and offices of individuals addressing long-term solutions to the ongoing challenges to development. Knowledge is the single most important means for a country to achieve development goals, and the monopoly on scientific knowledge enjoyed by advanced industrial countries such as Canada does not lend itself easily to solving the perplexing problems associated with poverty in the developing world. Long-Term Solutions for a Short-Term World results from a conference held in September 2008 at the Centre for International Governance Innox i n t r o d u c t i o n i n t r o d u c t i o n xi vation (CIGI) in Waterloo, Ontario. It was held over two days with an invited audience of researchers, students, and representatives from funding agencies and NGOs. The objective of the conference was to bring together a representative group of researchers to speak about their individual work as a means of conducting a cross-disciplinary and multinational dialogue on development. The presenters were invited because each had...