introduction
Editorial
The first year of the new century marked a new start for
the Institut de Recherche pour le Développement. The
research and service units (some 95 in all) began work on
1 January 2001, and during the year the final aspects of
the Institute’s new scientific organisation were completed. Other changes were the arrival of a new
Chairman on 1 October and the renewal of half the
management team. The scientific council elected its
chairman, and the nomination procedure began for the
chair of the consultative committee on professional conduct and ethics. So it is a good moment for all of us to
take stock of our strengths, our current challenges and
those we shall have to face.
The new structuring as research and service units, at the
initiative of researchers and based on the projects they
have suggested, has already demonstrated its value and
promise. It is enriched by partnerships with other
research bodies, since one-third of our units are involved
in joint research units (UMRs). The IRD is thus fully
engaged in the national and international network of
modern scientific research. It is essential that there be a
European development research space, and the IRD is
pushing hard in that direction.
In April 2001, a multi-year objectives contract was signed
with the French Ministries for research and foreign affairs.
This provides an essential framework for our relations
with our overseeing authorities and stipulates performance indicators for our work, which are currently being
devised. This contract commits both the government and
the Institute to accomplishing the IRD’s mandate.
The new scientific organisation is not quite complete, or
at any rate has not yet reached cruising speed. It will be
constantly monitored to ensure that it functions according to its founding principles.
The IRD also needs a form of management suited to the
complexity of its missions and the geographical and thematic diversity of its activities. This aim is an ambitious
one, but crucial. Scientific and administrative management need to be combined in varying doses. We have
high hopes of the administrative simplification and modernisation plan (PMSA), the service project examining
such issues as the role of research departments and their
directors, the frameworks for various types of convention, and the financial management structure. Also
involved is a master plan for information systems, the
SDSI, which will involve major financial investment. The
PMSA concerns all IRD people, whether they work in
Paris, Niamey or Nouméa, and combines all our concerns
and energies. It contributes to team work and the emergence of an institutional culture that both respects the
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heritage of the past and unflinchingly faces the challenges of modern research. This ability to adapt and
change is one of our strengths as an institution.
With its new scientific organisation and effective management, the Institute’s prime task now is to demonstrate its capacities in research for development.
This is a challenge to be met with solutions from both
within the Institute and outside. It is a conceptual challenge in terms of defining the very nature of development research and of development itself. It is a daily
challenge to give our research a development content. It
is up to us to encourage new approaches. The preparations for the Johannesburg Summit on sustainable development are a contribution to this process.
We also need to adopt new practices in our partnerships
with scientific, social and political actors in the countries
of the South. Partnership with the South means sharing
our questions, our doubts and our ambitions from the
outset. Whatever the burdens of history, this means
respect for difference as a source of enrichment and
understanding.
Jean-François Girard
Chairman,
IRD Board of Trustees
The IRD around the world
Sweden
United Kingdom
Belgium
Switzerland
See page 37 for
IRD establishments
in France.
Tunisia
United States
Lebanon
Morroco
Senegal
Senzgal
Mexico
Mali
Colombia
Martinique
Carribean
French
Guiana
Guinea
Ecuador
Brazil
Peru
India
Niger
Guadeloupe
Costa Rica
French
Polynesia
Egypt
China
Syria
Israel
Côte
d’Ivoire
d'Ivoire
Thailand
Burkina Ethiopia
Faso
Central
African Republic
Benin
Kenya
Sri Lanka
Togo
Congo
Seychelles
Indonesia
Vanuatu
Cameroon
Madagascar
Bolivia
Paraguay
La Réunion
Chile
Staff
South
Africa
200
Tenured staff
Senegal : Establishments
60
30
Local staff
United States: Other allocations
1
Staff breakdown at 31 December 2001
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New
Caledonia