The experience gained from IDRC-supported projects has been both diverse and project-specific while also providing enough common themes and trends from which to distil broad "lessons learned". There is little doubt that IDRC now supports research which is conducted differently than in the past, looks at issues in a more holistic manner and handles the research results in a much more conscious and deliberate fashion. This is not only the case for desertification projects, but also for projects supported in many other sectors and fields.

However, the author would not like to give the impression that all possible lessons have been distilled and implemented. Project experience also indicates that there is room for improvement and refinement. IDRC staff and supported researchers have learned a great deal about desertification, its causes and symptoms and possible solutions; we have also learned that there is much we do not yet know.

Many of the more successful IDRC-supported projects have become more integrated, i.e. 1) multi-sectoral (research concentrates less upon technical solutions and recognizes the interactions between ecosystem and production system components and sectors) and 2) multidisciplinary (research combines biophysical and technical issues with socio-economic, institutional and cultural issues).

IDRC projects are more likely to achieve planned objectives if local people have a substantial role in setting needs and priorities and if dissemination of research results is targeted for users in an appropriate fashion (eg. in the local language). Who actually does research (eg. university-trained scientists or farmers themselves), where (eg. on or off farms), and why, are becoming larger concerns for IDRC-supported projects. The focus has been shifted from technology to people as
projects have become more participatory, often relying upon the local knowledge of beneficiaries to inform key parts of the research.