CBR collaborates and networks with a number of organizations with which it shares similar objectives. The list of collaborating and networking organizations has been growing over the year. Apart from various departments at Makerere University, CBR has been collaborating with Institute of Development Studies (Nairobi University), Institute of Development Studies at the University of Dar-es-Salaam, the Department of Political Science at the University of Dar-es- Salaam, the Johns Hopkins University, Institute of Development Studies (University of Sussex), Centre for Policy Studies (CPS) in South Africa, United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), Council for the Development of Economic and Social Research in Africa (CODESRIA) and United Nations Research Institute for Social development (UNRISD), Geneva.
CBR also collaborates with other Africa research organizations on the Pan-African Programme on Land and Resource Rights initiated by the Social Research Centre of the American University in Cairo in co-operation with the African Centre for Technology Studies (ACTS), Kenya; Community Conservation and Development Initiatives (CCDI), Lagos, Nigeria and Programme for Land and Agrarian Studies (PLAS), Cape Town, South Africa. CBR has been collaborating with the International Development Studies Department at the University of Roskilde, Denmark and Centre for the Studies of Social Science (CSSS), and the University of Jadvapur, Calcutta, India under the tri-continental DANIDA-funded capacity building programme on ‘Enhanced Research Capacity’ (ENRECA). Others institutions which CBR has been collaborating with include: the World Resources Institute (WRI), Washington, Series on Alternative Research in East Africa Trust (SAREAT); Department of Government (University of Nairobi), Centre for African Studies, Columbia University (New York), African Studies Centre, University of Lei den, The Arab Research Centre for Arab-African Studies (Cairo), African Association of Political Science(AAPS).
At national level, CBR not only works with academic institutions but other civil society organisations like Oxfam GB in Uganda, Action Aid Uganda, Kotido Peace Initiative, (KOPEIN), and Karamoja Agro Pastoral Development Organisation (KADEP)
In the last five years – phase one 1998 to 2001 and phase two 2002 to 2004 CBR collaborated with other researchers and research institutions in the country to undertake Participatory Poverty Assessment (PPA) processes in different parts of the country under the Uganda Participatory Poverty Assessment Research Project (UPPAP) in the Ministry of Finance, Planning and Economic Development (MFPED). In that regard, CBR has helped Ugandans to think more about issues of poverty and how policy can be made more responsive to the needs of the ordinary poor Ugandans.
In October 1994 a Network of Ugandan Researchers and Research Users (NURRU) was formed during a workshop which brought together 24 Ugandan institutions involved in research related activities. Centre for Basic Research was elected to host the NURRU Secretariat until 1999 when it acquired its own premises in Lower Kyambogo Estates. The NURRU research programme is funded by the Government of the Netherlands. In addition, CBR hosts 4 research collaboration networks, which has helped expose CBR researchers to new ideas and perspectives.
Between 1995 and 2001, CBR hosted Arid Lands and Resource Management (ALARM) network. ALARM brought together researchers from Tanzania, Kenya, Ethiopia and Uganda working on pastoral resources and environmental management issues in these countries. The research results have been published at CBR as ALARM working papers.
Since its inception in 2003, CBR has been the national research institute for the Conflict Early Warning and Response Mechanism (CEWARN) of the member countries of the Intergovernmental Authority on Development (IGAD). The main aim of the mechanism is to prevent violent conflicts across borders in the IGAD Region. The current pilot phase covers pastoral conflicts.
The network on Gender and Work in Eastern and Southern Africa (GWESA) has been hosted at from 1997 to 2002. GWESA has promoted research on the little researched area of gender and work processes in countries of Tanzania, Kenya, Zimbabwe and Uganda. The research results are being published at CBR as GWESA working papers.
CBR has been hosting a continental network on “Structural Adjustment Programmes and Workers’ Health”, from 1999 to 2002, financed by IDRC and included participating research teams from Uganda, Zimbabwe, Zambia and Nigeria. This network brought together researchers working on issues of workers’ health in the post-SAP period.