In addition to organizing discussions and interactions, which are the main modes of NESAC's functioning, the Center also carries out research reports by its intellectuals, in collaboration with various NGOs and INGOs. Short synopses of some of them are as follows.

1. Responsiveness of the Political System at the Local Level
Submitted to the Department of International Development (DFID)'s Kathmandu office and carried out by NESAC in January 2003, this report attempts to uncover the major political actors at the local level, their organizational structures, ideologies and understanding about poverty and development. Thus it aims to reveal the relationship between political actors and local people, the motivating factors of the people involved in the political institutions, how poor people relate to them and how much they are responsive to poor and marginalized people.

2. Review of Poverty Alleviation Initiatives in Nepal
This report is a part of a research initiative which aims to inventorize and analyze poverty alleviation programs, implemented during 1991-2001. In the countries which comprise the South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation (SAARC). The initiative has been sponsored by the UNDP's South Asia Poverty Alleviation Programme (SAPAP) - and contracted through the UNOPS. Unlike previous SAARC- level research exercises of a similar nature, which focused on the identification of the poor and the measurements of poverty, this initiative sought to describe and review initiatives and programs on poverty alleviation.

In keeping with a more or less standard regional format prepared for the exercise, which may eventually lead to a regional based comparative analysis, the report center-stages several themes germane to a program of poverty alleviation. The report develops each of the themes as a separate chapter.

The report was prepared by a team led by Chaitanya Mishra, Suman Sharma, Parthiveshwar Timilsina, Jagannath Adhikari and Anil Bhattarai served as members of the team. In addition, Shankar Aray, Rabi Sainju and Dipendra Pant assisted during the preparation of the report. Read the full text of the report.

3. Civil Society in Nepal: Some Self-Reflection
This report was prepared as part of a research project carried out in collaboration with Institute of Development Studies, University of Helsinki, Finland by Anil Bhattarai, Arjun Thapalia, Manju Thapa and Somat Ghimire. The research was completed in 2002 under NESAC’s supervision.

This study attempts to work out the evolution of the civil society di´scourses in Nepal. Basically, it tries to find out the international and national concept of civil society in Nepal, the transformation of practices and discourses of civil society in the last one decade and the role of international and national context in those transformations.

The report concludes that Nepali civil society is involved in the conventional development work. The lack of initiative for the preservation of the democratic system in the face of onslaught from both extreme right and left reflects the same. But the report also presents the need to change the role of civil society organizations. The report says, the suspension of democratic rights is almost a non-issue to the NGO's. However, there are other civil society actors like journalist groups and writers who have begun to come forward to challenge the increasing curtailment of citizen's rights and violation of human rights. Civil society is still largely unconcerned about imagining a democratic political future. Read the full text of the report

4. Exercise of Voices by Poor People in Nepal
Prepared by the general secretary of NESAC, Hari Prasad Bhattarai, this research study was submitted to (DFID)'s Kathmandu office. This report attempts to identify the barriers faced by poor and marginalized people in exercising their voices. The overall objective of the study is to assess the political participation of the poor and the marginalized. This study analyses the ways in which they have been exercising their voices. Poor people express their voices as voters, as member of a group, as political actors and so on. This study, by looking at voting patterns and preferences, endeavors to assess the nature of their participation. It also looks at the linkages between social mobilization and empowerment of the poor. Read the full text of the report.