IDRC describes its mission to be1: "The cornerstone of the Centre's foundation is a commitment to improve people's lives through the generation and use of knowledge. The sustainable and equitable use of global and indigenous resources depends on equitable access to knowledge and research capability, and on men and women's direct involvement in their own social and economic progress.
"To improve lives through research and the application of knowledge, the Parliament of Canada created and empowered IDRC with a far-sighted legal mandate (IDRC Act, 1970) "to initiate, encourage, support and conduct research into the problems of the developing regions of the world. In fulfilling this mandate, the Centre has concentrated on encouraging and supporting Third World scientists to conduct research in their own institutions and, in so doing, has assisted the developing regions to build up the research capabilities, the innovative skills and the institutions required to solve their problems."
The thrust of this document will be to identify the issues researched, the institutions, which performed the research, and where detailed results can be found.
The applied research supported by IDRC was directed to three geographic
areas: Eastern and Southern Africa, West Africa, and India.