Author: Roula El-Rifai, Senior program specialist, IDRC
IDRC recently launched a network of research chairs based in 12 universities across three continents. The IDRC Research Chairs on Forced Displacement will strengthen the institutional base of knowledge production locally by developing context-relevant knowledge that enables more effective, sustainable and rights-based solutions to forced displacement challenges. The establishment of these research chairs illustrates the IDRC approach to localize knowledge production.
Knowledge localization is an essential element to address the scale and complexity of forced displacement. The UNHCR reports that the number of forcibly displaced people — including refugees, internally displaced, stateless, economic and climate-change migrants — has doubled in a decade. Yet while the vast majority of the forcibly displaced reside in the Global South, the bulk of research, knowledge and capacity to identify evidence-based solutions is produced in the Global North.