News

Position Announcement - Senior Project Officer

IDRC is seeking qualified candidates for the position of a Senior Project Officer in Tegucigalpa, Honduras. The IDRC-CIDA Project "Building Learning Systems for Honduran Development" seeks to strengthen the capacity of  people and institutions in Honduras to plan and implement development projects and policies that support the poor and other vulnerable populations by facilitating broad-based dialogue, power sharing and multistakeholder research. This is a novel collaborative arrangement between CIDA and IDRC with significant potential to impact on Government and donor planning. Working within the Environment and Natural Resources Management (ENRM) Program Area, the incumbent provides intellectual leadership in setting project directions and develops research projects related to the objectives of CIDA's and IDRC's Programs in Honduras.

Deadline for applications: April 15, 2002

For further information visit: http://archive.idrc.ca/careers/ann_e_pr235.htm

Signature of Letter of Intent

Dr. Roberto Bazzani, Program Officer, represented IDRC in the visit to Mexico where National Health Institutes (INS) of Mexico and the Canadian Health Research Institutes met from January 28 - February 1^st, 2002. They interchanged ideas and defined common interest areas for future collaboration. A Memorandum of Agreement between the Secretaría de Salud de México and the Canadian Health Research Institutes was signed in order to develop specific cooperation programs. Some highlighted areas were: environmental health, genetics, health needs of vulnerable populations and indigenous communities, migrants, elder people and youth, research on health policies, telemedicine, etc.

MEDPLANT - Global Information Network on Medicinal Plants

MEDPLANT the Global Information Network on Medicinal Plants was created in 1999 as a support to the existing medicinal plant networks. Over the last several months MEDPLANT has been working with its partners to develop a communication tool for sharing information and facilitating discussions. Thanks to support from IDRC and Bellanet, MEDPLANT is proud to announce the creation of an interactive website at http//source.bellanet.org/medplant/
 

Mercosur Network - new portals

The Mercosur Economic Research Economic (REDMERCOSUR) has recently innaugurated two new sections in their website: a) "Mercosur Direct Investment Portal" all about Foreign Direct Investment and b) "IDRC-Mercosur Portal" a guide to English-Language information concerning the Mercosur.

For further information visit: http://www.redmercosur.org.uy/

Competitive funds, fellowships, contests and vacancies

IDRC-LACRO Internship Program

IDRC Regional Office for Latin America and the Caribbean launches a new call for 2001-2002 interns to work in Montevideo, Uruguay

Deadline: May 4, 2002

For further information visit: http://archive.idrc.ca/lacro/becas/becas01-02.html

Building the Concepts and Tools for Assesing Human Health Status Outcomes within an Ecosystem Approach to Human Health - Call for Proposals 2002-2003

The Training Awards are intended to encourage promising graduate students to achieve a more holistic understanding of the relationships between environment, health and development. This year's competition focuses on building concepts and tools for assessing human health status outcomes within an ecosystem approach to human health, focusing on the multiple dimensions of the health and well-being continuum.

Deadline for applications: May 10, 2002

Further information at: http//www.idrc.ca/ecohealth/news_e.html

IDRC Funding Partner in the Equator Initiative

In support of the World Summit on Sustainable Development (WSSD), to be held in Johannesburg, South Africa from August 26 - September 4, 2002, IDRC is partnering with the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), the UN Foundation, and Environment Canada to showcase highly successful and innovative partnerships in sustainable development through the Equator Initiative. The Equator Initiative seeks to promote a worldwide movement to reduce poverty and conserve biodiversity through the recognition of local achievements, the fostering of South-South capacity building, and by contributing to the generation and sharing of knowledge. 

Deadline for applications May 15th, 2002

For more information and to download application forms, please visit http://www.undp.org/equatorinitiative/index.htm

Other IDRC Calls announced in our January issue

1) "An Ecosystem Approach to Human Health for the Prevention and Control of Chagas Disease, Dengue and Malaria in Central America and the Caribbean" - Call for Proposals
http://archive.idrc.ca/lacro/becas/ecosalud_e.html

2) "Public and Private Sector Support to Research: Changing Roles and Policy Responses" - Call for Proposals
http://archive.idrc.ca/research/xroks_e.html

3) "Competiton - Gender, Globalization and Land Tenure" 
http://archive.idrc.ca/awards/egendinf.html

4) "Peace Building and Reconstruction" Central American Competitive Grant Selection Process 2002-2003: Call for Proposals
http//www.idrc.ca/peace/en/centralamerica.html

New IDRC approved projects

IDRC has approved the following projects in the LAC Region:

100955 - Reforming the Treaty of Democratic Security in Central America
101046 - Public Policy and Internet in Nicaragua and Costa Rica
101047 - A Southern Agenda on Trade and Environment (IISD/ICTSD/Ring)
101107 - Internet, privacy and the Judiciary in LAC
101200 - Medicinal Plants South American Network - Phase II
101259 - Survey of City Experiences with Credit and Investment for Urban Agriculture Interventions

For further information visit the IDRIS Database. The database has more than 7000 records containing information of all projects financed by IDRC in the last 30 years. Searches can be done by title, country, institution and will result in an abstract with basic information of the research study and links to related documents (some of them in full text).

The database has been updated with information up to December 2000. It can be accessed at
http://idrinfo.idrc.ca/
 

New IDRC publications

Documents resulting from IDRC funding (full text)
 

1) "State of the Art of Telecenters in Latin America" http://www.tele-centros.org/estarte/index.html

• "Conserving Biodiversity, Supporting Livelihoods in Panama's Rainforest"




• "Coping with water crisis in Cuba"
  

Conferences

II World Mines Ministers Forum - March 13 - 15, 2002

The Forum took place in Toronto and aimed to interchange visions on the challenges and progress of the mining sector in relation to sustainable development. Cristina Echavarría, IDRC's Mining Policy Research Initiative made a presentation on the challenges the MMSD-LA project has in the South American region in the workshop organized by NRCan "Sustainable Development: the path to Johannesburg". Further information http://www.mmsd-la.org

I Planning Meeting of the ICA with the Mercosur countries, Bolivia and Chile

The meeting took place in Fortaleza, Brazil during March 14-15, 2002. The objective of the Meeting was too carry out a preliminary consultation for input to the first meeting of the ICA Hemispheric Advisory Board which will take place in Washington, May 2002.

The meeting gathered 25 relevant stakeholders, active in ICTs for development within the private sector, government sector, CSOs and applied research sector of the above-mentioned countries of the region.

For further information visit: http://www.icamericas.net

Small-Scale Mining Workshop

UNESCO and IDRC, with the cooperation of EKAMOLL are organizing the "Small-Scale Mining Workshop" which will be held in Lima, Perú 4-5 April, 2002.

For further information visit:http://www.mmsd-la.org/noticias/noticias.htm

III MMSD LA Meeting in Lima

The III MMSD LA Meeting will take place in Lima, Perú from April 2-3, 2002. The meeting is organized by GRADE

For further information vist: http://www.mmsd-la.org/noticias/noticias.htm