Sub-Saharan Africa
Research focus
For almost 50 years, IDRC has supported researchers and innovators in sub-Saharan Africa to work with communities to find ways to improve health systems, develop inclusive economies, promote good governance and inclusive justice systems, address climate change, boost agricultural productivity to enhance food security, and leverage information and communication technologies.
Our programming brings stakeholders together across disciplines and sectors for greater impact on a larger scale. This knowledge and collaboration contributes to the realization of the African Union’s Agenda 2063, the continent’s blueprint for inclusive and sustainable development.
Angola
Benin
Botswana
Burkina Faso
Burundi
Cameroon
Cabo Verde
Central African Republic
Chad
Comoros
Democratic Republic of Congo
Djibouti
Equatorial Guinea
Eritrea
Ethiopia
Gabon
Gambia
Ghana
Guinea
Guinea Bissau
Ivory Coast
Kenya
Liberia
Lesotho
Madagascar
Malawi
Mali
Mauritania
Mauritius
Mozambique
Namibia
Niger
Nigeria
Republic of Congo
Rwanda
Senegal
Sao Tome & Principe
Seychelles
Sierra Leone
Somalia
South Africa
South Sudan
Swaziland
Tanzania
Togo
Uganda
Zambia
Zimbabwe
Angola
Angola
Benin
Botswana
Burkina Faso
Burundi
Cameroon
Central African Republic
Chad
Democratic Republic of the Congo
Djibouti
Equatorial Guinea
Eritrea
Ethiopia
Gabon
Gambia
Guinea
Guinea-Bissau
Côte d'Ivoire
Kenya
Lesotho
Liberia
Madagascar
Malawi
Mali
Mauritania
Mozambique
Namibia
Niger
Nigeria
Rwanda
Senegal
Sierra Leone
Somalia
South Africa
South Sudan
Eswatini
Tanzania
Togo
Uganda
Zambia
Zimbabwe
Projects in South of Sahara
- Supporting Africa’s science granting councils to develop policy frameworks and enabling structures for public-private sector partnerships
- Enhancing SGCI strategic communications and research uptake
- Fund for Future Climate-smart Livestock Systems in Africa – operating costs for capacity building
- Strengthening the capacity of Africa’s science granting councils in the use of data and evidence in policy and decision-making
- Strengthening capacities of the National Commission for Science and Technology – Malawi in the management of research and innovation projects
- Management of research and innovation funds by National Research Fund – Mozambique
- Strengthening the capacities of the National Science and Technology Council of Zambia in the management of research and innovation projects
- Interactive bilingual online course on integrating gender equality and inclusion for high quality research
- Supporting Africa’s science granting councils to fund and manage research and innovation projects
- Generating evidence for school-driven food system transformation to support equity and resilience in Africa
- View all projects in South of Sahara
Projects in Benin
- Post-COVID-19 recovery: Overcoming economic hardship and violence against women in southern Benin
- Post‑COVID19 Recovery: Overcoming Economic Hardship and Violence Against Women in Southern Benin
- The distributional impacts of innovation support programs for small and medium enterprises in Benin and Senegal
- Strengthening gender inclusion in agricultural research for more conclusive results in West Africa
- Grassroots Legal Empowerment and Social Movements Partnership to Close the Justice Gap for the Urban Poor in West Africa
- Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics (STEM) Teacher and Student Education for Primary Schools – STEPS
- Solar energy and biotechnologies for women entrepreneurs in the mangroves of Ramsar Site 1017 in Benin (SEWomen)
- Emergence of a female middle class and demand for childcare in West Africa
- Impacts of the introduction of the Guev cooker on the economic empowerment of women in Benin and prospects for implementation at scale
- Simulations and field experiments of policy responses and interventions to promote inclusive adaptation to and recovery from the COVID-19 crisis
- View all projects in Benin
Country Profile
We’ve supported Benin researchers since 1985. Positive developments have included rapid alert committees to inform farmers about climatic hazards in their communities. Researchers also trained large numbers of farmers in sustainable agricultural practices, and gave the country’s decision-makers tools to design policies to combat poverty.
Access to health care
To encourage better access to health services, IDRC-supported research in Benin contributed to the “Bamako Initiative.” Adopted by many African leaders, it aims to improve access to health care and essential medications throughout Africa. Researchers proved that buying generic drugs wholesale considerably diminished treatment costs.
Farming in urban and rural settings
Our funding in agricultural research in Benin has helped improve small farm operations. For example, the Songhai Centre trains farmers to lessen environmental degradation and adopt effective agricultural techniques to help them earn a profit. With our support, a network of telecentres was established in three small Benin cities. Using distance learning, these centres teach farming techniques and business skills to rural farmers.
Research in Houéyiho, a district of the economic capital, Cotonou, made it possible to evaluate and protect against the health risks associated with small-scale market gardening. Urban market gardeners adopted simple measures, such as building latrines, to successfully prevent transmission of the malaria parasite and improve the health of farmers and their families.
100 activities worth CAD22.4 million since 1985

Our research is helping
- create sustainable food production in the Sahel region
- reduce the negative effects of climate change on food security and rural poverty
- reduce urban air pollution, which causes more than 36 million deaths annually worldwide
- establish strong research capabilities at Benin’s Institute for Empirical Research in Political Economy
- support ecohealth initiatives in Eastern and Southern Africa — exploring how changes in the earth's ecosystems affect human health
Projects in Botswana
- Predictive modelling and forecasting of the transmission of COVID-19 in Africa using artificial intelligence
- Strengthening the capacity of Africa’s science granting councils in the use of evidence in policy and decision-making
- Strengthening the capacities of science granting councils in gender and inclusivity
- Support for research call management in Botswana
- COVID-19 Africa Rapid Grant Fund
- View all projects in Botswana
Projects in Burkina Faso
- Renewable energy, agriculture value and entrepreneurship: Barriers, opportunities, and policy implications
- Strengthening knowledge, evidence use and leadership in the Global South on forced displacement: Focus on Francophone West Africa
- Support for the management of national and collaborative research and innovation projects in Senegal
- Improving the integration of women and adolescent girls in the informal sector into pandemic response measures
- Catalyzing policy improvement in Africa for maternal, newborn, sexual and reproductive health
- Gender-transformative research in Africa: collective learning and synthesis to improve sexual, reproductive and maternal health rights and services
- Strengthening partnerships and collaborative learning in social systems to improve evidence-informed policies in LMICs
- Action to empower adolescent mothers in Burkina Faso and Malawi to improve their sexual and reproductive health
- Gender-transformative approaches to address unmet adolescent mental, sexual, and reproductive health needs in Ghana, Niger, and Burkina Faso
- Improving knowledge on gender norms to promote gender equality in schools in Africa
- View all projects in Burkina Faso
Country Profile
Our long history of research support in Burkina Faso dates back to 1973 — one of the few West African countries with a national coordinating centre for research. Our support has enabled the centre to launch a biennial forum where decision-makers, scientists, and the public can discuss research results and innovation. We have also enabled researchers to create an online justice system database so leaders can re-orient health policy. This database allows the poor access to services at regional hospitals.
Food and incomes
Our contributions improved food security for rural residents through research on wild fruit. It led to better harvesting, processing, and marketing techniques, as well as improved information on the fruit’s nutritional value. Research also made it possible for harvesters to sell sought-after products in cities, while preserving the wild orchards’ natural biodiversity. In collaboration with Canadian experts, researchers developed a press to extract butter from shea tree nuts. Hundreds of villagers and numerous small enterprises now produce and sell a wide range of food and cosmetic products using the butter, and export them to developed countries.
Evidence to foster self-sufficiency
IDRC-funded researchers designed a system for communities to collect and track data to accurately understand poverty. The information helps communities address their most pressing problems. For example, more people in the small village of Yako now have adequate food to eat, and more of their children attend school. The village has also started a community vegetable garden, installed a solar-powered water pump, and built more solid housing.
178 activities worth CAD$40.5 million since 1973

Our support is helping
- validate and promote already-existing research results and innovations
- strengthen research and advocacy for Africa’s green revolution
- institute a university master’s program in health systems and policy analysis
- improve food security in the context of climate change, with incentives for farmers and researchers
Projects in Burundi
- The Forum of African Women Educationalists’ gender-sensitive school model as an innovative response to the challenge of gender equality
- Building a new generation of female PhD scholars in gender, agriculture, and food security in East Africa
- Knowledge and Innovation Exchange hub for education in Francophone Africa
- Supervision and Mentorship of Women in Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics’ Postgraduate Programs in Sub-Saharan Africa
- One hundred new women PhDs in economics for Francophone Africa by 2025
- View all projects in Burundi
Projects in Cabo Verde
- Responsible artificial intelligence lab
- Rectifying the effects of COVID-19 on vulnerable populations in West Africa: a research-action (RECOVER)
- Knowledge and Innovation Exchange hub for education in Francophone Africa
- Taking advantage of the gender dividend to accelerate economic growth in ECOWAS
- View all projects in Cabo Verde
Projects in Cameroon
- Enhancing surveillance and detection of mpox across Africa
- Strengthening partnerships and collaborative learning in social systems to improve evidence-informed policies in LMICs
- Land restoration for post-COVID-19 rural and indigenous women’s empowerment and poverty reduction in Cameroon
- Preventive legal empowerment: early alert and action to strengthen rights in the context of land-based investments
- Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics (STEM) Teacher and Student Education for Primary Schools – STEPS
- Support project in response to the effects of COVID-19 in the livestock sector in West and Central Africa (COVID-19-AFS)
- Partnership for Equity, Evidence, and Rapid Response in Social Systems (PEERSS) Coordinating Organization (previously RREP coordinating organization)
- Predictive modelling and forecasting of the transmission of COVID-19 in Africa using artificial intelligence
- Improving community teacher development in the digital era
- Impacts of public policies related to COVID-19 pandemic on the informal sector, young people, and women
- View all projects in Cameroon
Projects in Chad
- Improving knowledge on gender norms to promote gender equality in schools in Africa
- Support project in response to the effects of COVID-19 in the livestock sector in West and Central Africa (COVID-19-AFS)
- Improving community teacher development in the digital era
- Strengthening the use of open data in Francophone Africa to improve policy and citizen engagement and drive innovation
- Using data for improving education equity and inclusion
- Knowledge and Innovation Exchange hub for education in Francophone Africa
- Bridges to impact through innovative educational technology: forging links between policy, research, and practice
- One hundred new women PhDs in economics for Francophone Africa by 2025
- Youth school-to-work transition in francophone Africa: A case study of Burkina Faso, Cameroon and Chad
- View all projects in Chad
Projects in Democratic Republic of the Congo
- Socio-cultural determinants of sexual violence and child marriage in the Democratic Republic of Congo
- Enhancing surveillance and detection of mpox across Africa
- Decentralize and operationalize the One Health platforms in Guinea and the Democratic Republic of Congo
- Improving knowledge on gender norms to promote gender equality in schools in Africa
- Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics (STEM) Teacher and Student Education for Primary Schools – STEPS
- The Forum of African Women Educationalists’ gender-sensitive school model as an innovative response to the challenge of gender equality
- Strengthening bilingual and multilingual learning systems in Francophone Africa
- Exploring and learning from evidence, policy, and systems responses to COVID-19 in West and Central Africa
- Using data for improving education equity and inclusion
- Knowledge and Innovation Exchange hub for education in Francophone Africa
- View all projects in Democratic Republic of the Congo
Projects in Equatorial Guinea
Projects in Ethiopia
- Support for management of research calls by Ethiopian Bio and Emerging Technology Institute
- Generating evidence on a nutrient-dense diet-centred approach to support Ethiopia’s food systems transformation pathway
- Decolonizing knowledge systems: towards a practical Southern-led approach
- IDRC Forced Displacement Research Chairs’ Network: Strengthening knowledge, evidence use and leadership in Global South on forced displacement
- The effects of lease financing on small and medium-sized enterprises and inclusion in Ethiopia
- Inclusive child-to-child learning approach: scaling up inclusive play-based learning for smooth transition from pre-primary to primary school
- Strengthening knowledge, evidence use and leadership in the Global South on forced displacement: focus on East Africa
- Strengthening partnerships and collaborative learning in social systems to improve evidence-informed policies in LMICs
- Reducing women’s care burden and improving their economic wellbeing through establishment of community-based childcare centers
- The Back2School Project: Scaling an accelerated learning model for out-of-school girls in rural communities in Ethiopia, Kenya, and Tanzania
- View all projects in Ethiopia
Country Profile
Ethiopia has faced numerous challenges in recent decades, including sporadic conflict, recurrent drought, and famine. These crises have greatly affected agriculture and quality of life. They have also shaped our funding priorities.
Safe and sufficient access to food
Improving agriculture and nutrition in Ethiopia has been an ongoing IDRC priority. In the 1970s, we supported Ethiopian scientists’ efforts to breed hardier, higher-yielding varieties of sorghum that were adapted to high altitudes. Research also focused on protecting sorghum from the parasitic weed striga, which led to the development of a drought- and striga-resistant variety.
We also provided pioneering support to an African initiative that worked in five East African countries to preserve scarce land and water resources. In Ethiopia, this resulted in more effective pest-control strategies, better quality water, and new food and cash crops.
More recently, research has introduced more nutritious, higher-yielding chickpea varieties and identified better production techniques. This has resulted in yields exceeding those of traditional varieties by 60–90%. The healthier legumes and nutrition education have helped children gain weight, a key indicator of nutrition.
Improved health and well-being
Research to identify how to reduce anemia in preschool children found that food cooked in iron pots could boost their iron intake. These findings led the World Food Programme to explore the use of iron pots as a sustainable strategy to reduce iron deficiency in emergency and refugee situations.
Our support for health research led to the creation of a master’s program in public health at Addis Ababa University, with the collaboration of Canada’s McGill University. The program is still going strong. Past graduates have found senior posts within the Ministry of Health and district health offices.
179 activities worth CAD45.5 million since 1972

Our support is helping
- address youth employment in micro- and small-businesses
- empower the rural poor to better manage natural resources for greater food and income security
- promote the use of edible legume seeds — like chickpeas, lentils, and faba beans — for alternate sources of protein, income, and food security
- strengthen knowledge-sharing between scientists and policymakers in Kenya and Ethiopia
- build research capacities within Ethiopian policy research think tanks
Projects in Gabon
- Knowledge and Innovation Exchange hub for education in Francophone Africa
- One hundred new women PhDs in economics for Francophone Africa by 2025
- Reducing vulnerabilities of West and Central African communities to pandemic threats through a research and capacity strengthening initiative
- View all projects in Gabon
Projects in Gambia
- Strengthening knowledge, evidence use and leadership in the Global South on forced displacement: Focus on Anglophone West Africa
- Promoting positive early-learning outcomes through strengthened capacity in learning through play: evidence from Nigeria, Gambia and Kenya
- Gender-transformative research in Africa: collective learning and synthesis to improve sexual, reproductive and maternal health rights and services
- Shifting gender norms for improved maternal and adolescent health in The Gambia and Ghana
- Rectifying the effects of COVID-19 on vulnerable populations in West Africa: a research-action (RECOVER)
- Data use innovations for education management information systems in the Gambia, Uganda, and Togo
- Using data for improving education equity and inclusion
- Strengthening access to quality comprehensive health education in The Gambia
- Addressing Teen Pregnancy and Early Marriage in The Gambia
- Taking advantage of the gender dividend to accelerate economic growth in ECOWAS
- View all projects in Gambia
Projects in Guinea
- Supporting health and economic well-being of women for an inclusive, sustainable and equitable post-COVID-19 recovery in Guinea
- Energy transition for women’s economic empowerment through the horticultural value chain in Guinea and Senegal
- West African One Health actions for understanding, preventing, and mitigating outbreaks
- Decentralize and operationalize the One Health platforms in Guinea and the Democratic Republic of Congo
- A new model of bridging classes to improve learning of out-of-school children and youth
- Exploring and learning from evidence, policy, and systems responses to COVID-19 in West and Central Africa
- Rectifying the effects of COVID-19 on vulnerable populations in West Africa: a research-action (RECOVER)
- Knowledge and Innovation Exchange hub for education in Francophone Africa
- One hundred new women PhDs in economics for Francophone Africa by 2025
- Taking advantage of the gender dividend to accelerate economic growth in ECOWAS
- View all projects in Guinea
Projects in Guinea-Bissau
- Support project in response to the effects of COVID-19 in the livestock sector in West and Central Africa (COVID-19-AFS)
- Rectifying the effects of COVID-19 on vulnerable populations in West Africa: a research-action (RECOVER)
- Using data for improving education equity and inclusion
- Knowledge and Innovation Exchange hub for education in Francophone Africa
- Reducing vulnerabilities of West and Central African communities to pandemic threats through a research and capacity strengthening initiative
- Taking advantage of the gender dividend to accelerate economic growth in ECOWAS
- View all projects in Guinea-Bissau
Projects in Kenya
- Expanding virtual incubators to assist refugees and other marginalized persons to develop economic sustainability
- Operationalizing a just transition in Africa
- Scale up supply and use of precooked beans for food security, incomes and environmental conservation by leveraging public-private partnerships
- Beyond the informal water paradox: integrating formal and informal water systems for inclusive development
- Enhancing surveillance and detection of mpox across Africa
- Renewable energy, agriculture value and entrepreneurship: Barriers, opportunities, and policy implications
- Promoting resilience, preparedness, adaptation and response in 4C (COVID-19, conflict, climate change and rising cost-of-living) emergencies
- Food systems transformation in Kenya: Translating evidence to policy action
- A just energy transition: Localization, decent work, SMMEs and sustainable livelihoods
- Generating evidence for school-driven food system transformation to support equity and resilience in Africa
- View all projects in Kenya
Country Profile
Kenya has long been the economic hub of East Africa, but despite significant economic strides in the past decade, poverty and inequality remain.
Our long-term support for research in the country has focused on areas such as rural development, agriculture, health, education, and climate change adaptation.
We have also prioritized economic research to strengthen economic debate and promote evidence-based decision-making. For example, IDRC helped launch the Nairobi-based African Economic Research Consortium. Now an independent public organization, the Consortium is addressing the shortage of policy-oriented economic researchers in sub-Saharan Africa. Hundreds have graduated from the Consortium’s master’s and doctoral programs, and they now form a cadre of influential economists who contribute to their national economies from within the region’s governments, private sector, and universities.
Digital solution for peace
Researchers discovered that a deadly conflict in 2012 between farmers and nomadic herders in Kenya was fuelled largely by rumours. To prevent a repeat occurrence, Canada’s Sentinel Project and Nairobi’s iHub technology incubator launched “Una Hakika”, a mobile application that enables communities to report, track, and verify rumours. The application has reached approximately 45,000 beneficiaries in Tana Delta and is being scaled in Lamu County and Nairobi to reach approximately 1 million people.
Evidence-based policy for health
Research on the impact of communications and information technologies is strengthening Kenya’s health system. Thanks to our funding, the Kenya Medical Research Institute has generated the evidence needed by the Ministry of Health to revise the national e-Health strategy, develop the first-ever e-Health policy, and establish mobile health, or m-health, standards and guidelines. These health interventions are now better regulated to protect patient information and advance patient health.
604 research activities worth CAD142.1 million since 1972

Our support is helping
- improve access to justice for 1.5 million people in Nairobi’s informal settlements
- address health inequities and examine the feasibility of e-Health in Kenya
- restore and expand Kenya’s capacity to conduct high-quality policy-relevant research
- enhance women’s economic opportunities
- preserve farmers’ livelihoods with a cattle lung disease vaccine
- strengthen farmers’ ability to deal with climate change impacts
Projects in Liberia
- Enhancing surveillance and detection of mpox across Africa
- West African One Health actions for understanding, preventing, and mitigating outbreaks
- Rectifying the effects of COVID-19 on vulnerable populations in West Africa: a research-action (RECOVER)
- Taking advantage of the gender dividend to accelerate economic growth in ECOWAS
- View all projects in Liberia
Projects in Madagascar
- Farmer-driven assessment of climate-resilient crop varieties and downstream impacts for improved food systems in Madagascar and Togo
- The Forum of African Women Educationalists’ gender-sensitive school model as an innovative response to the challenge of gender equality
- Strengthening the use of open data in Francophone Africa to improve policy and citizen engagement and drive innovation
- Women in Trade knowledge platform to boost inclusive and sustainable growth
- Using data for improving education equity and inclusion
- Knowledge and Innovation Exchange hub for education in Francophone Africa
- Improving tools to enable comprehensive surveillance of antimicrobial resistance in humans, animals and the environment
- Climate and Resilience - Operating costs for capacity building
- Validation of scalable and sustainable models for taenia solium control based on vaccination of pigs
- Science decision-makers dialogue for integrated coastal and marine zone management
- View all projects in Madagascar
Projects in Malawi
- Inclusive child-to-child learning approach: scaling up inclusive play-based learning for smooth transition from pre-primary to primary school
- Gender-transformative research in Africa: collective learning and synthesis to improve sexual, reproductive and maternal health rights and services
- Action to empower adolescent mothers in Burkina Faso and Malawi to improve their sexual and reproductive health
- Prioritizing options for women’s empowerment and resilience in food tree value chains in Malawi (POWER)
- Closing the justice gap - critiquing legal-empowerment approaches to address police abuse in Malawi
- Policy foundations, country dialogues, and analytics for food system transformative integrated policy in Rwanda, Malawi, and Ghana
- Harnessing COVID-19 data to support public health and economic decision-making in Kenya and Malawi – COVID AI
- Strengthening the capacity of Africa’s science granting councils in the use of evidence in policy and decision-making
- Strengthening the capacities of science granting councils in gender and inclusivity
- COVID-19 Africa Rapid Grant Fund
- View all projects in Malawi
Country Profile
Given that 85% of Malawi’s population is agricultural smallholders, our focus has been largely on supporting farming systems. Early efforts improved crop production and processing methods.
For example, researchers developed a low-cost wooden tool to shell groundnuts, saving farmers time and money. Research modified hand pump designs to make them more durable. The Government of Malawi then began manufacturing the improved devices and engaged local villagers to install them.
While we continue to support research on agriculture, high rates of HIV/AIDS infection have shifted our priorities to health and nutrition. As well, the impact of climate change has focused research attention on helping farmers adapt to variable rainfall patterns.
More nutritious crops
Our support has aided the fight against poverty and malnutrition in Malawi. Researchers helped health institutions find ways to address degraded soils, food insecurity, and child malnutrition.
For example, more than 7,000 farmers in the Ekwendeni region adopted the recommendation to rotate traditional corn crops with legumes, such as groundnuts and
pigeon peas. The results: healthier children, improved soils, and larger harvests without the use of fertilizers. The community’s food security has increased and farmers have gained income by selling surplus crops.
Food security and HIV/AIDS
Our funding supported the creation of the Regional Network on HIV/AIDS, Livelihoods and Food Security, which highlighted the complex links between HIV/AIDS and access to nutritious food. Researchers showed that AIDS contributes to food insecurity by depleting the agricultural workforce, and diverting spending from farm inputs to health care.
They also found that the threat of hunger contributes to the transmission of HIV/AIDS, because it forces some Malawians to engage in high-risk sex to subsist. With the Network’s help, the Government of Malawi integrated food and nutrition programs into its HIV/AIDS prevention strategy.
98 activities worth CAD23.6 million since 1978

Our support is helping
- test adaptation strategies to address climate change, health, and food security
- explore urban-rural interdependence and the impact of climate change on food supply systems
- simplify tools and training to improve access to high-quality patient care for HIV/AIDS, tuberculosis, and other diseases
- increase young rural women’s political participation in Malawi
Projects in Mali
- Exploring the impacts of the war in Ukraine on lower-income countries
- A new model of bridging classes to improve learning of out-of-school children and youth
- Using artificial intelligence to combat COVID-19 in Senegal and Mali
- Support project in response to the effects of COVID-19 in the livestock sector in West and Central Africa (COVID-19-AFS)
- The Forum of African Women Educationalists’ gender-sensitive school model as an innovative response to the challenge of gender equality
- Strengthening the use of open data in Francophone Africa to improve policy and citizen engagement and drive innovation
- Rectifying the effects of COVID-19 on vulnerable populations in West Africa: a research-action (RECOVER)
- Climate and Resilience - Operating costs for capacity building
- Knowledge and Innovation Exchange hub for education in Francophone Africa
- One hundred new women PhDs in economics for Francophone Africa by 2025
- View all projects in Mali
Projects in Mauritania
- Knowledge and Innovation Exchange hub for education in Francophone Africa
- One hundred new women PhDs in economics for Francophone Africa by 2025
- Reducing vulnerabilities of West and Central African communities to pandemic threats through a research and capacity strengthening initiative
- Taking advantage of the gender dividend to accelerate economic growth in ECOWAS
- View all projects in Mauritania
Projects in Mozambique
- Women Feeding Cities: gender-transformative, resilient and sustainable COVID-19 recovery of the informal food sector in secondary cities
- Catalyzing policy improvement in Africa for maternal, newborn, sexual and reproductive health
- Gender-responsive education and transformation: early childhood education through play for scale in Mozambique and Rwanda
- Strengthening the capacity of Africa’s science granting councils in the use of evidence in policy and decision-making
- Strengthening the capacities of science granting councils in gender and inclusivity
- COVID-19 Africa Rapid Grant Fund
- Support for research call management in Mozambique
- Climate and Resilience - Operating costs for capacity building
- Science decision-makers dialogue for integrated coastal and marine zone management
- Building ecosystem services for poverty alleviation
- View all projects in Mozambique
Projects in Namibia
- Women Feeding Cities: gender-transformative, resilient and sustainable COVID-19 recovery of the informal food sector in secondary cities
- Just stranded assets transitions and the informal sector in sub-Saharan Africa
- Predictive modelling and forecasting of the transmission of COVID-19 in Africa using artificial intelligence
- Strengthening the capacity of Africa’s science granting councils in the use of evidence in policy and decision-making
- Strengthening the capacities of science granting councils in gender and inclusivity
- COVID-19 Africa Rapid Grant Fund
- Support for management of research calls by Namibia’s National Commission on Research, Science and Technology
- Stranded assets and climate change in the context of sustainable development in Africa
- Climate and Resilience - Operating costs for capacity building
- View all projects in Namibia
Projects in Niger
- Gender-transformative research in Africa: collective learning and synthesis to improve sexual, reproductive and maternal health rights and services
- Mazan Daga and adapted care for better maternal health in Niger
- Strengthening gender inclusion in agricultural research for more conclusive results in West Africa
- Gender-transformative approaches to address unmet adolescent mental, sexual, and reproductive health needs in Ghana, Niger, and Burkina Faso
- A new model of bridging classes to improve learning of out-of-school children and youth
- Support project in response to the effects of COVID-19 in the livestock sector in West and Central Africa (COVID-19-AFS)
- Rectifying the effects of COVID-19 on vulnerable populations in West Africa: a research-action (RECOVER)
- Stranded assets and climate change in the context of sustainable development in Africa
- Knowledge and Innovation Exchange hub for education in Francophone Africa
- Amplifying youth voices to promote sexual and reproductive health and combat gender-based violence in West Africa
- View all projects in Niger
Projects in Nigeria
- Enhancing surveillance and detection of mpox across Africa
- Characterizing transmission dynamics and evaluating medical countermeasures to inform the clinical and public health response to monkeypox
- Opening pathways to justice for LGBTQI+ individuals in West Africa
- Using data to improve gender equality and fight climate change and corruption in public procurement
- Strengthening knowledge, evidence use and leadership in the Global South on forced displacement: Focus on Anglophone West Africa
- Investigating outcomes of senescence on microglial physiological and immune functions: implications for viral infection and Alzheimer's disease
- Gender inequality and rural women’s health in post-COVID-19 Nigeria: towards inclusive and sustainable rural women’s health in Nigeria
- Understanding the gendered impact of COVID-19 on young self-employed Nigerian women and co-producing solutions that foster better systems
- Promoting positive early-learning outcomes through strengthened capacity in learning through play: evidence from Nigeria, Gambia and Kenya
- Gender-transformative research in Africa: collective learning and synthesis to improve sexual, reproductive and maternal health rights and services
- View all projects in Nigeria
Country Profile
Nigeria has earned a reputation for training some of the best researchers in Africa — despite periods of repressive military rule. Since the country’s return to democracy in 1998, our support has focused on improving Nigeria’s health system and developing sound national economic and environmental policies.
Health care and anti-poverty programs
Our support has allowed researchers and professionals in many African countries, including Nigeria, to access essential medical information. An online information network, HealthNet, brings valuable medical information to the most remote areas by satellite. This service allows professionals to offer an improved level of service to their patients.
We also fund effective and influential economic research in Nigeria. For example, the IDRC-supported Nigerian Institute of Social and Economic Research provides policymakers with data on the impacts of public policies on households and small businesses. This research forms the basis for anti-poverty programs.
Better harvests
Our support for researchers has yielded advances in agriculture. For example, researchers have encouraged the widespread use of soy, a healthy legume. Nigeria is now one of the major soy producers in Africa.
Research conducted in southwestern Nigeria on agroforestry allowed farmers to combine tree planting with food crops. This helps combat the negative impact of deforestation, while increasing soil fertility and giving poor rural villages extra income.
191 activities worth CAD69.2 million since 1972

Our support is helping
- promote tobacco control laws and policies
- increase food security and empower resource-poor rural women farmers
- revitalize the health care system to deliver effective, efficient, and equitable primary health care in two states
- enhance the abilities of Nigerian think tanks to conduct research and influence policy
Projects in Rwanda
- Climate change, gender, equality, social inclusion: distributional implications and costs of adaptation (ECONOGENESIS)
- Enhancing surveillance and detection of mpox across Africa
- Generating evidence for school-driven food system transformation to support equity and resilience in Africa
- Management of research and innovation funds by National Council for Science and Technology – Rwanda
- Strengthening loss and damage response capacity in the Global South (STRENGTH)
- Gender-responsive education and transformation: early childhood education through play for scale in Mozambique and Rwanda
- Grounded evidence-based research and learning – enhancing the impact of legal-empowerment programs in Africa
- Reorienting the private sector to enable climate-smart agricultural solutions to address gender inequalities
- Policy foundations, country dialogues, and analytics for food system transformative integrated policy in Rwanda, Malawi, and Ghana
- Impact of social and educational early childhood care and education programs on women’s empowerment in Burkina Faso and Côte d’Ivoire
- View all projects in Rwanda
Projects in Senegal
- Legal empowerment of rural women for a better management of climate change impacts in Senegal
- Consolidating knowledge on the impact of COVID-19 on informal workers to drive policy and action
- Innovate for clean-powered agro technologies
- Support for the management of national and collaborative research and innovation projects in Senegal
- The distributional impacts of innovation support programs for small and medium enterprises in Benin and Senegal
- Catalyzing policy improvement in Africa for maternal, newborn, sexual and reproductive health
- Artificial intelligence for gender equality and inclusion innovation research network
- Responsible artificial intelligence lab
- Advancing women's participation in livestock vaccine value chains in Nepal, Senegal and Uganda
- Energy transition for women’s economic empowerment through the horticultural value chain in Guinea and Senegal
- View all projects in Senegal
Country Profile
We have long supported research in Senegal, one of West Africa’s more stable democracies. For example, we supported the 2011 opening of the African Institute for Mathematical Sciences in Mbour. Part of an emerging network of centres, the Institute offers advanced training in mathematics to Africa’s brightest graduates, increasing the continent’s scientific and technical expertise.
Our funded research has reduced poverty, and improved urban agriculture and education. For example, a system for tracking poverty helped local authorities design more targeted and effective programs for the poor. In the Tivaouane district, a new nutrition program for children and expectant mothers addresses needs identified by a survey.
Urban agriculture
Many studies in Dakar, the capital of Senegal, have demonstrated the vital role of farming within the city — especially important for local authorities. Urban farming in Dakar helps feed residents, provide jobs, and lets the city better manage its garbage and wastewater. In addition, one of our research grantees showed city residents how to treat wastewater with an aquatic plant. Treated water can then be safely used to irrigate gardens. The United Nations human settlement program, HABITAT, listed this innovation as a “best practice,” and the World Bank integrated it in its programs.
Information technology for improved learning
Research supported by Canadian experts piloted a project on the use of information technology in a Dakar school. The project improved students’ reading and writing ability, and rapport between teachers and students. The experiment showed that information technology in the classroom encourages greater student independence and leads to better academic results. The project’s success led the Senegalese Education Ministry to use digital technology as a principal strategy to improve the quality of teaching and learning throughout the country.
416 activities worth CAD68.9 million since 1972

Our support is helping
- improve research quality in Senegal, and strengthen links to policy outcomes
- understand the impacts of youth migration on rural labour markets
- develop strategies to deal with the tonnes of electronic and computer waste donated from other countries
- determine why laws, strategies, and systems to protect women from violence are not working, and offer recommendations
- find solutions for climate change flooding in Dakar’s out-of-control urban sprawl
- support anti-smoking campaigns using higher taxes as disincentives
Projects in Sierra Leone
- Enhancing surveillance and detection of mpox across Africa
- Strengthening knowledge, evidence use and leadership in the Global South on forced displacement: Focus on Anglophone West Africa
- Teacher capacity building for play-based early learning in Ghana and Sierra Leone
- Exploring the future of women in Sierra Leone: a futures literacy action-research project
- West African One Health actions for understanding, preventing, and mitigating outbreaks
- A comparative study of accelerated education programs and girls’ focused education models in Ghana, Nigeria, and Sierra Leone
- Strengthening inclusive open data systems in Africa and Southeast Asia
- Rectifying the effects of COVID-19 on vulnerable populations in West Africa: a research-action (RECOVER)
- Using data for improving education equity and inclusion
- Integrating early child education in sectoral planning
- View all projects in Sierra Leone
Projects in South Africa
- Operationalizing a just transition in Africa
- Consolidating knowledge on the impact of COVID-19 on informal workers to drive policy and action
- A just energy transition: Localization, decent work, SMMEs and sustainable livelihoods
- Ukuvula Isango: women's empowerment and post-pandemic reconstruction in rural South Africa
- Strengthening the impact of South Africa's COVID-19 Social Relief Distress Grant among unpaid caregivers of adolescents living with HIV
- Trade and market levers influencing South African and sub-Saharan African food environments
- IUSSP – Emerging ethics and human rights issues in the digitization of population register systems, 2022–2023
- Seeds of good anthropocenes: fostering food-system transformation in Africa
- Gender-transformative research in Africa: collective learning and synthesis to improve sexual, reproductive and maternal health rights and services
- Catalyzing the care economy in South Africa
- View all projects in South Africa
Country Profile
South Africa has enjoyed considerable growth since the end of apartheid in 1994, but the benefits are distributed unequally. Many citizens still lack clean water, proper health care, and economic opportunity. Our support has focused on finding solutions for these challenges, along with ways to capitalize on the country’s strong research capacity. Our work in South Africa began through a program designed to prepare the country’s future leaders to govern in a multi-racial democracy. Early research focused on health, urban issues, and economic and industrial policy. Further research helped deliver more effective diagnosis and treatment of HIV/AIDS and tuberculosis.
Building a strong competition regime
We helped fund the government’s efforts to establish a strong competition regime to guarantee a fair marketplace. To bolster competition authorities in the region, we supported the African Competition Forum’s creation in 2010. Our research funding also helped increase competition and reduce taxes on information and communication technologies, extending their reach. Another key area of support allowed the public greater access to telecentres.
Protecting against climate change
Raising livestock is the backbone of the country’s agriculture system, but infectious diseases take a heavy toll. Researchers from the University of Alberta and the Agricultural Research Council in South Africa are developing an innovative livestock vaccine to protect goats, sheep, and cattle against five important viral infections with a single dose.
South Africa’s agriculture sector faces considerable impact from climate change, as do its urban residents. In the Cape Flats, a low-lying coastal zone outside Cape Town, researchers identified better ways to address flooding. As a result of their work, the municipality collaborates more closely with communities and civil society organizations for solutions to flood risk, and carries out educational campaigns.
390 research activities worth CAD102.1 million since 1989

Our support is helping to:
- develop long-term responses to climate change in vulnerable, semi-arid areas
- enable evidence-driven social and economic development
- assess the effectiveness of health-promoting taxes
- find better ways to control foot and mouth disease in livestock
- assess the effectiveness of health-promoting taxes
Projects in South Sudan
- Strengthening knowledge, evidence use and leadership in the Global South on forced displacement: focus on East Africa
- Advancing Gender Equality in Fragile Food Systems in the Sahel
- Integrating early child education in sectoral planning
- Supervision and Mentorship of Women in Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics’ Postgraduate Programs in Sub-Saharan Africa
- View all projects in South Sudan
Projects in Tanzania
- Climate change, gender, equality, social inclusion: distributional implications and costs of adaptation (ECONOGENESIS)
- Management of research and innovation funds by Commission for Science and Technology – Tanzania
- Investigating the impact of blockchain technology in promoting inclusive innovation in Tanzania’s agricultural supply chains
- Decolonizing knowledge systems: towards a practical Southern-led approach
- IDRC Forced Displacement Research Chairs’ Network: Strengthening knowledge, evidence use and leadership in Global South on forced displacement
- Catalyzing transitions to employment and firm development for youth and women – evidence from Tanzania’s Economic Empowerment Scheme
- Catalyzing policy improvement in Africa for maternal, newborn, sexual and reproductive health
- Strengthening knowledge, evidence use and leadership in the Global South on forced displacement: focus on East Africa
- Capacity strengthening in responsible artificial intelligence (AI) research in Africa: AI for Development research lab in Anglophone Africa
- Empowering women-owned businesses through public procurement in Tanzania
- View all projects in Tanzania
Country Profile
We have a rich history of supporting research in Tanzania, a politically stable democracy. Although the country has reduced the poverty rate and achieved good economic growth in the last decade, Tanzania remains one of the world’s poorest nations.
Successive Tanzanian governments have recognized the importance of improving health and agriculture in order to reduce poverty. Our support for research in these areas, as well as climate change, has contributed to significant advances.
Strengthening health systems
A decade-long research project carried out with funds from IDRC and Global Affairs Canada has enabled researchers to identify the major causes of death and disease by district. With this information, Tanzania’s Ministry of Health is able to allocate medical supplies and health services accordingly. As a result, child mortality in the two test districts declined by 40%, and adult mortality by 17% over five years. Tanzania has since rolled out the program nationally.
Tanzania is a country of focus for the multi-funder Innovating for Maternal and Child Health in Africa program. Canadian and Tanzanian researchers are joining forces with local health policymakers to develop community-based practical health interventions to reach mothers and children in rural Tanzania.
Building climate change leaders
Developing effective leadership is a critical element of addressing climate change challenges. For more than a decade, we have provided grants that foster the capacity to advance and apply scientific knowledge to climate change adaptation. Tanzania’s Institute of Resource Assessment led the fellowship program, providing grants to more than 120 early and mid-career professionals and researchers from 18 African countries with policy, masters, doctoral, post-doctoral, and teaching fellowships. These professionals now contribute to increasing the continent’s capacity to face climate variability and change.
248 activities worth CAD79.4 million since 1972

Our support is helping to:
- revitalize the ability of Tanzanian think tanks to conduct research and influence policy
- finance fellowships and foster links between researchers and institutions in Tanzania
- reduce maternal and child deaths
- encourage youth engagement for community safety
- promote vitamin A fortified oil to combat malnutrition
Projects in Togo
- Opening pathways to justice for LGBTQI+ individuals in West Africa
- Farmer-driven assessment of climate-resilient crop varieties and downstream impacts for improved food systems in Madagascar and Togo
- Multisectoral approaches to rites and initiations for the exercise of sexual and reproductive health rights of adolescent girls
- Rectifying the effects of COVID-19 on vulnerable populations in West Africa: a research-action (RECOVER)
- Data use innovations for education management information systems in the Gambia, Uganda, and Togo
- Using data for improving education equity and inclusion
- Knowledge and Innovation Exchange hub for education in Francophone Africa
- Amplifying youth voices to promote sexual and reproductive health and combat gender-based violence in West Africa
- Scaling innovation – Data Must Speak about positive deviant approaches to learning
- One hundred new women PhDs in economics for Francophone Africa by 2025
- View all projects in Togo
Projects in Uganda
- Digital agripreneurship innovation to enhance post-pandemic resilience among refugee women and youth in Nakivale refugee settlement, Uganda
- Supporting the Uganda National Council for Science and Technology to facilitate the utilization of research in the manufacturing sector
- Scale up supply and use of precooked beans for food security, incomes and environmental conservation by leveraging public-private partnerships
- Enhancing surveillance and detection of mpox across Africa
- Renewable energy, agriculture value and entrepreneurship: Barriers, opportunities, and policy implications
- Innovations to monitor knowledge-sharing results – exploring the Overton platform to track policy influence
- Economic and health impacts of COVID-19 pandemic on adolescent girls working in artisanal and small-scale mining sectors in Uganda and Ghana
- Women rise together across the life course (Write-life)
- Impact of COVID-19 on livelihoods and HIV risk and vulnerability among women living in urban informal settlements in Uganda
- Exploring the impacts of the war in Ukraine on lower-income countries
- View all projects in Uganda
Country Profile
Uganda’s poverty rate has been on a steady decline. However, this progress is being challenged by extreme droughts, neighboring conflicts, increasing poverty in the northern part of the country, and rising inequalities.
Improving smallholder farmers’ livelihoods and nutrition
When we started supporting research in Uganda in 1972, agriculture was a major focus. Funding in these early years enabled Ugandan researchers to develop disease-resistant varieties of sorghum and bananas, thereby increasing yields and improving the livelihoods of farmers.
Now groundbreaking agricultural innovations in Uganda and Kenya are being supported by the multi-funder program Cultivate Africa’s Future. Researchers have developed pre-cooked bean products that drastically reduce cooking times from three hours (for unprocessed beans) to only 10 minutes. This innovation is helping to break the most significant bean consumption barriers: long cooking times and high energy costs.
Enhancing healthcare in isolated areas
Our funding helped develop the Uganda Health Information Network, an electronic system that successfully addresses information and data flow problems in an under-resourced health system. Hand-held computers, mobile caching services, and mobile telephones enable health workers in isolated areas to record immunization and disease cases, order medicine, and share prevention and treatment information. Now used in hundreds of health centres, the technology has enhanced healthcare delivery while cutting costs.
Eliminating the digital divide
We were one of the first organizations to support the development of a Ugandan strategy for adopting and integrating information and communications technology (ICT). Our research on ICTs influenced decision-making and policies. Studies informed Uganda’s ICT and universal access policies in the early 2000s — the first of their kind on the continent. These policies are taking communication services to rural areas, where more than 80% of the population lives. Uganda’s success has become a model for many other African countries.
328 activities worth CAD71.4 million since 1972

Our support is helping
- promote land policies that are fair to women
- stimulate high-quality, policy-relevant research among key institutions
- introduce pre-cooked beans for food, nutrition, and income
- develop effective health care interventions in post-conflict areas
- create resilience to the water-related impacts of climate change in Uganda's cattle corridor
Projects in Zambia
- Promoting inclusive innovation in small and medium-sized enterprises: evidence from Zambia and Zimbabwe
- Scaling the School Readiness Initiative: strengthening school and community capacities for adoption of play-based learning in Uganda and Zambia
- Grounded evidence-based research and learning – enhancing the impact of legal-empowerment programs in Africa
- Pathway to change: towards gender justice in STEM research in Africa (GeJuSTA)
- Uprooting injustices and establishing formal linkages for inclusive, integrated African cities
- Scaling a youth-led social support and mentorship program to improve education quality for marginalized girls in Tanzania, Zambia, and Zimbabwe
- Strengthening school-based in-service teacher mentorship and support
- Just stranded assets transitions and the informal sector in sub-Saharan Africa
- Catalyzing an ecosystem of AI for development-oriented entrepreneurs and innovators
- Strengthening the capacity of Africa’s science granting councils in the use of evidence in policy and decision-making
- View all projects in Zambia
Projects in Zimbabwe
- Promoting inclusive innovation in small and medium-sized enterprises: evidence from Zambia and Zimbabwe
- Scaling a youth-led social support and mentorship program to improve education quality for marginalized girls in Tanzania, Zambia, and Zimbabwe
- The Inclusive Home-based Early Learning Project
- Predictive modelling and forecasting of the transmission of COVID-19 in Africa using artificial intelligence
- Strengthening the capacity of Africa’s science granting councils in the use of evidence in policy and decision-making
- Simulations and field experiments of policy responses and interventions to promote inclusive adaptation to and recovery from the COVID-19 crisis
- Strengthening the capacities of science granting councils in gender and inclusivity
- Support for research call management in Zimbabwe
- COVID-19 Africa Rapid Grant Fund
- Leadership as a lens to strengthen higher education for stronger science systems in Africa
- View all projects in Zimbabwe
Country Profile
Zimbabwe was already a recognized centre for research and higher education when we began supporting research there in 1981. Deteriorating economic and political conditions, along with a mass exodus of researchers and academics, made it more challenging to work in Zimbabwe.
Much of our efforts are now aimed at preserving research capacity inside the country. Our areas of focus have included forestry and tree crops, public health challenges such as malaria and AIDS, agricultural technology, and communal land and wildlife management.
Since the unity government in 2009, we’ve supported a national dialogue on post-crisis reconstruction and development. Our funds enabled researchers to conduct a poverty survey to determine areas of most need. Discussions with key decision-makers have helped bring the benefits of economic growth to Zimbabwe’s poorest populations.
Food security, nutrition, and health
Early research strengthened access to quality food by developing ways to produce and process indigenous vegetables, helping raise awareness of their nutritional value. Working with IDRC-supported researchers, local farmers produced enough vegetable seeds to sell to local seed companies.
Fairness in health
Ongoing support for research on health systems is having an impact in Zimbabwe. The Regional Network on Equity in Health in East and Southern Africa has been working since 1999 to reduce unnecessary and unfair differences in peoples’ health status. For example, it helped Southern African nations measure the need for health services in order to allocate public resources to those most in need. In 2011, Zimbabwe’s Ministry of Health and Child Welfare adopted some of these measuring tools.
Our funding has also enabled UNICEF and the ministries of health in Zimbabwe and Kenya to institute maternal death reviews in each country. Information on pregnancy-related deaths has led authorities to improve the quality of health services for expectant and new mothers.
134 research activities worth CAD23.7 million since 1981

Our support is helping
- promote sound policies for poverty recovery and growth
- coordinate research on women’s participation in micro- and small-businesses
- explore more sustainable, universal, and equitable health financing as a first step toward universal health coverage in Zimbabwe
- raise the profile of migrant entrepreneurs and the growth of informal cities
- investigate post-harvest solutions to reduce contamination in grain
- strengthen evidence-based policy research and advocacy for Africa’s green revolution
Regional Offices
Nairobi, Kenya
PO Box 62084 00200, Nairobi, Kenya
Street address: Eaton Place, 3rd floor
United Nations Crescent, Gigiri, Nairobi, Kenya
Phone: (+254) 709-074000
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Dakar, Senegal
Immeuble 2K Plaza, route des Almadies,
P.O. Box 25121 CP10700 Dakar Fann, Senegal
Phone: (+221) 33 820 09 66