In order to promote comparative research, CAPRi funds a number of CGIAR projects that contribute to policies and practices that alleviate rural poverty by analyzing and disseminating knowledge on the role of institutions in natural resource use. The grants are awarded to sponsor empirical research. Research grants were first awarded in 1999. Three CGIAR project received funding in that year:

• at ICARDA: Community and Household-Level Impacts of Institutional Options for Managing and Improving Rangeland Management in the Low Rainfall Areas of Jordan, Morocco, Syria and Tunisia;
• at ICRAF (in collaboration with ILRI): The Many Faces of Collective Action: How People come Together for Innovation, Marketing and Management of Natural Resources;
• at ILRI: Integrated Resource management: the Role of Institutional, Technology and Policy Interventions in Promoting Sustainable Livelihoods in Drought-Prone Regions in Sub-Saharan Africa.

• at ILRI: Enhancing the Role of Community Actions in Disease Control and Natural Resource Management: The Control of Animal and Human Trypanosomiasis;
• at CIAT: Social Capital, Collective Action, and Community Agro-Enterprise Development: Understanding the Linkages that Contribute to Poverty Alleviation and Sustainable Natural Resource Management;
• at CIMMYT: Collective Action for the Conservation of On-Farm Genetic Diversity in a Center of Crop Diversity: An Assessment of the Role of Traditional Farmers' Networks.

• at ICRAF: Negotiating land rights and natural resource regulations for local people: The role and effectiveness of federations of farmer and community organizations in upland watershed of Southeast Asia;
• at IPGRI: Strengthening community institutions in support of conservation and use of plant genetic resources in Uzbekistan and Turkmenistan.

• at IFPRI: Collective Action and Vulnerability: An Evaluation of Local Groups and Networks in Determining Pathways out of Poverty;
• at the African Highland Initiative: Whose Voices? Whose Choices? Sustaining Collective Action for Empowering Rural Communities and Local Stakeholders for Policy Change in Natural Resources Management;
• at CIFOR: Collective Action to Secure Property Rights for the Poor: Avoiding Elite Capture of Natural Resource Benefits and Governance Systems;
• at ICRISAT: Institutional and Organizational Innovations for Accessing Markets and Empowering Communities: Collective Action and Property Rights for Poverty Reduction in Rainfed Systems.

These 4 projects are contributing to a larger research program on Collective Action and Property Rights for Poverty Reduction lead by CAPRi in collaboration with Humboldt University, Berlin and Phillips University, Marburg, Germany.

For more information on the research grant component and a description of the individual programs funded, visit the CAPRi website.