6 November 2009
Addis Abeba — IDRC officially announces its 40th Anniversary at a reception in honour of the 2009 World Food Prize winner professor Gebissa Ejeta to be held at the Addis Ababa's Intercontinental Hotel on 11th November, 2009 at 6.30pm.
The Ethiopian agronomist Professor Gebisa Ejeta's efforts to protect an important food crop netted him the 2009 World Food Prize. Professor Ejeta is credited with developing a variety of sorghum resistant to both drought and the parasitic weed striga. This stronger strain yields as much as four times the amount of grain as traditional varieties.
IDRC was an early supporter of Ejeta's work to protect crops against striga in the 1970s and 1980s. In his 2007 book, Integrating New Technologies for Striga Control, Ejeta credits this investment and IDRC's "uncommon model of providing national talent in developing countries with direct resource support and encouragement," for spurring early advancements in this research.
The US$250000 World Food Prize is awarded annually to acknowledge the contribution of individuals who have improved the quality, quantity, or availability of food in the world. It is considered the international development equivalent of the Nobel Prize.
The IDRC reception will attended by IDRC Alumni based in Ethiopia some of whose special achievements have also been recognised. The reception sets the stage for celebrating how IDRC's research has made a difference in the world.
IDRC has supported 72 projects in the country since 1972. These projects, some of which were regional in scope, represent an allocation of CA$17.8 million.
Over the past three decades, IDRC has supported research in Ethiopia to improve agriculture and health, reduce poverty, prevent conflict, and foster community-based natural resource management.
Most recently in 2009, the Ethiopian Development Research Institute and the Ethiopian Economic Association/Ethiopian Economic Policy Research Institute were awarded grants by the Think Tank Initiative. The Initiative supports independent policy think thank in Africa, enabling them to provide sound research that informs and influences national policy. It is partnership between IDRC, the William and Flora Hewlett and the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation.
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