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This past year, IDRC President Maureen O'Neil told conferences of the Association of Universities and Colleges of Canada (AUCC) and Ryerson University that some of the new bounty Canadian universities will enjoy from the Canada Foundation for Innovation and the Canada Research Chairs needed to be directed to increased research collaboration with Southern researchers. "The university atlas must include the developing regions of the world," she said.

IDRC had heeded the call to link Canadian and developing-country knowledge institutions 20 years earlier when, at the government's request, it established a cooperative program to bring research institutions into closer partnership. The Canadian commitment was in direct response to the proposal by developing countries at the 1979 United Nations Conference on Science and Technology for Development that "direct linkages should be established between the research and development systems of developed and developing countries." Today, partnerships between Southern and Canadian researchers are an integral part of IDRC's programing: in 2000/01, about 13 percent of the Centre's budget was used to support Canadian collaboration. And if the intent then was to help bridge the developing world's scientific and technological gap, now it is equally dictated by the challenges of globalization.

Forging Broad-based Alliances

These linkages build on an existing — and abiding — interest on the part of Canadians in the developing world. To enhance that understanding IDRC seeks to enable a variety of groups in Canada to contribute to, and benefit from, international cooperation. A case in point are the universities: IDRC helped strengthen development scholarship by contributing to the establishment of chairs at the University of British Columbia and Laval University. An IDRC grant is helping to transform McGill University's Centre for Developing Area Studies into an interuniversity research centre for international studies involving three other Québec universities. And IDRC is now engaged in the second round of a joint venture with the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council, the "Canada in the World" Research Grants.

The flip side of "Canada in the World" is "the World in Canada." And that world is represented by a wealth of institutions and organizations. Some, such as AUCC, the Canadian Council for International Co-operation, and the Canadian Association for the Study of International Development, offer IDRC linkages with important constituencies: universities, NGOs, and development scholars, respectively. Others are notable for the importance they accord to involving citizens — particularly youth — in international issues, in innovative ways, from media fellowships to cross-Canada tours of The Global Change Game, an interactive, award-winning program that educates people about global issues. As students in Okotoks, Alberta, wrote after participating in the game: "We gained a better understanding of the issues challenging us in our international community both in the present day, and in the future. On a smaller scale, we also learned the valuable tools of cooperation, communication, and responsibility."

Many Approaches, Multiple Benefits

Partnerships between Canadians and their Southern counterparts can take many forms, and bring many benefits. Here are some examples.

Cross-national education for sustainable development
How can communities be part of the global economy while maintaining environmental practices that will sustain development in the future? This was what 174 participants from 31 countries — all midcareer professionals from a variety of disciplines — tried to determine last August as they pondered how to balance resource extraction with tourism in British Columbia communities. In 1998, these associates in the Leadership for Environment and Development (LEAD) International program had delved into the intricacies of water management on China's Loess Plateau. Founded in 1991 by the Rockefeller Foundation, LEAD's mission is to develop a global network of leaders who are able to develop policies that emphasize sustainable and equitable use of the Earth's resources. Canada was the first industrialized country to join LEAD in 1994: today there are 12 member programs of LEAD International, encompassing more than 40 countries. IDRC has supported 85 Canadians in the LEAD Canada program.

Training the trainers: a new university learns to do research
Process is often as important as content. This is certainly the case in a collaborative community-based natural resource management project in Laos that links York University (Canada), the University of Sydney (Australia), Chiang Mai University (Thailand), and the National University of Laos (NUOL). The goal: to build research capacity at the very new NUOL by carrying out small projects on natural resource management and food security, both critical issues for Laos' largely rural population. Because NUOL's faculty members have limited research experience, a great deal of attention is devoted to introducing them — in the Lao language — to a wide range of applied research methods and concepts. Equally important, says project leader Peter Vandergeest of York University, Toronto, the project is helping them develop a picture of the larger, critical role universities can and should play in the country — generating knowledge at the local level that can influence national policy. The participation of Chiang Mai University, a rural university that has become a regional centre, is crucial in this regard. For Vandergeest, many rewards come from "the opportunity to learn about a new country, new issues, a new context." Parallel funding for the project comes from the Rockefeller Brothers Fund and the East–West Center (Hawaii).

An award-winning collaboration in Cuba
In the inner city core of Havana, Cuba, 170 000 people crowd in just over 3 square kilometres of tenements, with few municipal services. Ill health and violence flourish. To improve the situation, the city launched a pilot project in 1996: an intensive rehabilitation program of Cayo Hueso, one of the districts, carried out by and for the community. To help determine how best to use their scarce resources, the National Institute for Hygiene, Epidemiology, and Microbiology (INHEM) and the University of Manitoba assessed community needs.

The partnership continues in an evaluation that is linking INHEM with neighbourhood popular councils, community urban development groups, and the University of Manitoba. The university contributed skills and research knowledge and helped develop methods of determining the effectiveness of measures taken to improve life in Cayo Hueso. Jean Lebel, team leader of IDRC's EcoHealth program initiative, considers that "the Cuban and Manitoban research teams both benefited enormously by being able to develop a methodological approach that is on the cutting edge of a new field: applying an ecosytem approach to understanding human health." Ultimately, he says, "the scientific community at large as well as other countries with the same type of development problems could benefit." In January 2001, the project was awarded the Cuban Academy of Sciences Award (Health), one of the most prestigious scientific recognitions in Cuba.