Document(s) 5 of 10

Dr. William David Hopper, IDRC’s founding president, had a distinguished career in international development. In addition to leading IDRC through its formative years, Hopper worked with the Ford and Rockefeller Foundations, and was vice-president of the World Bank. When Prime Minister Pierre Elliott Trudeau announced Hopper’s appointment in April 1970, his qualifications were considered ideal because of his extensive experience in the field of research for development and his reputation as “one of the fathers of the Green Revolution” in South Asia. The Toronto Daily Star introduced IDRC’s newly appointed president with great enthusiasm: “This man is moving Canada into the big leagues of aid foundations.”

Hopper played a central role in defining the directions of IDRC’s policies and activities during its formative years; decisions made during his presidency had a lasting impact on the Centre. The key elements of IDRC’s tenets, such as responsiveness to the demands of researchers from the South, and capacity building were defined during Hopper’s tenure and have guided the Centre’s activities through its history.

Hopper strongly defended the international composition of IDRC’s Board of Governors and staff at all levels. He was convinced that this feature of IDRC’s human resources would have a positive impact on the way the Centre would perceive international development priorities and carry out its operations. To this day, the multicultural aspect of the Centre’s staff and Board remains one of its most unique characteristics.

Born in Ottawa on February 22, 1927, David Hopper completed a degree in agriculture at McGill University in 1950 and obtained his Ph.D. in agricultural economics and cultural anthropology from Cornell University in 1957. He spent two years studying the economic organization of a village in India to gather material for his Ph.D. dissertation.

After completing his studies, Hopper embarked on a short academic career, working as a university professor until 1962. He was associate professor in agricultural economics at the Ontario Agricultural College (1957) and was visiting professor of agricultural economics at Ohio State University (1958) and the University of Minnesota (1960).

When his appointment was announced in April 1970, Hopper was in India, making the final arrangements to leave his job with the Rockefeller Foundation. He had worked out of New Delhi since 1962, when he became an agricultural economist with the Ford Foundation. In 1966, Hopper became associate field director for the Rockefeller Foundation’s agricultural program in India. Hopper also served as a consultant to the World Bank on Indian agricultural development (1963-65), and as deputy team leader for the Asian Agricultural Survey of the Asian Development Bank (1967-69). For the small Canadian community in New Delhi, particularly those involved in international development activities, Hopper was a source of intellectual inspiration as well as a revolutionary model with respect to rural development.

Hopper brought to IDRC not only his impressive academic and professional experience, but also his enthusiasm for a new way of delivering development assistance, whereby aid recipients in developing countries would be able to set their own research priorities. Through his experience in India, Hopper was led to challenge the widespread assumption that Indian peasant farmers were incapable or unwilling to accept the advice of Western experts on how to improve their crops. For Hopper, the trouble was not with the farmers, it was with the Western experts whose ideas were not appropriate to Indian conditions. Hopper’s insight underlies one of the basic principles that have guided IDRC’s strategy and activities since 1970: sustainable answers for problems faced by developing countries must be found and applied by the South. IDRC’s role is to understand, support, and cooperate. In his statement to the inaugural meeting of IDRC’s Board of Governors, Hopper argued that the Centre’s priority should be to “assist the developing regions to build up the research capabilities, the innovation skills and the institutions required to solve their problems.”

In a 1979 interview, Hopper reassessed some of his earlier views on international development. When asked what he would do differently if he were starting the IDRC afresh in 1979, he stated that, given the same scale of funding, there was not a lot he would change. He reiterated his conviction that developing-country scientists should decide their own priorities and conduct their own research, even if they had to make mistakes in order to grow. He would, however, recommend spending more money with developed-country scientists, especially on problems “where time is running out for the developing countries.”

David Hopper left IDRC in 1978, when he was appointed regional vice-president of the World Bank for South Asia. In 1987, he became vice-president for policy, planning, and research, a position that he held until 1989. After his retirement from the World Bank, Hopper occupied senior level positions at Haldor Topsoe, Inc., Ontario Hydro International, Inc., D&R Associates International, and Acres International, Inc., and subsequently worked as an independent consultant and advisor to numerous development and agriculture research institutions, including the Overseas Development Council and the Consultative Group for International Agricultural Research.

In honour of its founding president, IDRC made an endowment to the University of Guelph in 1992 to establish the David Hopper Lecture, an annual academic lecture on an international development issue given at the University of Guelph and at one other Canadian university.

David Hopper passed away on November 22, 2011.

Document(s) 5 of 10