Canada's envoy to India to head IDRC

New Delhi, Feb 21 (UNI) Mr David Malone, Canada's High Commissioner to India, has been appointed President of International Development Research Centre (IDRC).

He will succeed Ms Maureen O'Neil who has been heading IDRC for ten years.

His appointment is effective from July 1, IDRC's Regional Office for South Asia and China said in a statement here today.

Mr Malone, who is also non-resident Ambassador to Bhutan and Nepal, is an accomplished diplomat and respected scholar. He joined the Department of External Affairs in 1975 and served in increasingly senior positions in Ottawa , Cairo , Amman and New York before being posted here.

From 1998 to 2004, he was President of the International Peace Academy in New York, an independent non-profit research organization.

He has taught at a number of universities in Canada, France and the United States and published numerous books and articles on international relations.

IDRC's New Delhi office is celebrating its silver jubilee this year. Dr Pratap Mehta, President and Chief Executive, Centre for Policy Research, is on IDRC's 21-member Board of Governors.

IDRC was created by the Canadian Parliament in 1970 to help developing countries use science and technology to find practical, long-term solutions to the social, economic and environmental problems they face.

Its support is directed towards building an indigenous research capacity to sustain policies and technologies that developing countries need to build healthier, more equitable and more prosperous societies.

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