Political, economic, and social change can allow research to inform change. IDRC shares its experience in eight countries.

IDRC recently analyzed why and how it has worked in countries in transition during the past three decades — in transition from dictatorship to democratic rule, from centrally planned to market economies, from war to peace. The goal was to better understand how IDRC gathers and shares pertinent information to inform programming and decision making. How was the Centre alerted to impending transition? How did it investigate the situation? How did it respond?

Case studies were prepared on Algeria, Burma, Cambodia, Kenya, South Africa, the Southern Cone, Vietnam, and the West Bank and Gaza. Together, with an introductory brief, these eight cases show that IDRC has long been prepared to work in high-risk contexts before and in early transition periods, has played a distinct role in supporting research and policy-making for development and has usually succeeded in adapting its programming to the fluid context.