On a small scale, through a grant of $200,000, we helped Mexico get DDT eliminated from their malaria control program through the parallel agreement of NAFTA on the environment at the end of the 1990s. The model we used in Mexico that worked with the researcher there was translated for the entire Central America region with the elimination of DDT for malaria control. That's a very good example.
When the Ebola vaccine happened, IDRC had been funding research on emerging and re-emerging diseases for over 15 years. When the Ebola crisis happened, we knew that the Public Health Agency of Canada had the vaccine. The Canadian Institutes of Health Research was ready to fund a vaccine trial. IDRC had the contact in the field in Guinea, and we were in a network with WHO and other agencies with Global Affairs to launch the testing of the Ebola vaccine in Guinea and to get a 100% success rate in eliminating the transmission of Ebola.
Is it over? No, because this vaccine needs to be tested in different conditions under different regimes, and that's the nature of research. That's an investment of $7 million for Canada altogether, I believe, that makes a very big change in the world.
I will give you another example that I don't often use, but one that tells a lot about the work of IDRC. When Nelson Mandela became the ANC chief, he came to Canada—under I think it was the Mulroney government—and asked for help for the transition to an anti-apartheid system without bloodshed. The government asked IDRC what we could do.
We said we would sponsor research with researchers from South Africa who were part of the diaspora or who were in South Africa, to look at the justice system, institutions, government, urban design, and research design. The research system is the same as Canada with NSERC and SSHRC, the granting councils.
Nelson Mandela was elected. Over half of his cabinet was composed of ministers who had received grants from IDRC in their careers. This is an impact for me that we don't measure. We cannot predict this, but the influence it has is still lasting, because any time there's a South African delegation in town, they come to IDRC, and we work with them. We don't interfere with their business, but we provide support in places where they feel there is a need, and our Canadian taxpayers' money makes a difference in the lives of these people.