The first report was issued by the International Development Research Centre (IDRC) in Ottawa. This public corporation was created by our parliament in 1970 to “support research designed to adapt science and technology to the needs of developing countries.” Of the five areas of their activity that are listed, I am concerned with these three: “social sciences,” “health sciences,” and “information sciences.”

IDRC is financed “solely by the Parliament of Canada.” Its policies are set by an international board of twenty-one governors, eleven of whom are Canadian. Since 1970, IDRC has funded more than 1600 projects, and has spent $278,522,281 of our tax-dollars.

In the introduction to the IDRC report, we find that Social Sciences projects have included “population programs,” that Health Sciences is concerned with “fertility control,” and Information Sciences with “population problems.” All of these projects are run by IDRC’s  Latin America and Caribbean Regional Office which administers to some 300 million people in 32 countries.

Their Middle East office, serving 22 countries with 240 million people, is conducting an in-depth study “aimed at identifying and assessing the region’s research needs and priorities in the social sciences.”

Their Eastern and Southern Africa Regional Office, involved in 19 countries with 135 million people, has spent “in excess of $24 million, mainly in agriculture and the social and health sciences.”

Their West Africa Office (24 countries; 200 million people) “Identified the most critical problems of the region as being agricultural and socio-economic.”

All this is merely from the introduction: there is much more. Following are just two examples of projects funded in 1982-83:

1)      For the Population Council, USA, to introduce the TCU 380A and TCU 380/Ag intrauterine birth-control devices into family-planning programs around the world and to promote their use by negotiating licensing agreements and supporting informational, educational, and distribution efforts: $317,000 for 18 months.

2)      For the Yayasan Kusauma Buana, Jakarta (Indonesia) to evaluate the Norplant silastic contraceptive implant among Indonesian women with regard to its acceptability, effectiveness, and side effects and to train physicians, nurses, and midwives in insertion and removal techniques: $95,100 for 24 months.

It seems that $317,000 is going to buy rather a lot of IUDs. I wonder which drug company is getting that one. Might it be the same company that is getting rich in Indonesia?