Dr. Simon Carter is Team Leader of the Minga Programme Initiative of the International Development Research Centre (IDRC), a position he has held since 1998. Minga funds the work of developing country researchers and their Canadian partners on participatory approaches to the management of natural resources, in Latin America and the Caribbean. After completing a BA in geography at the University of Newcastle-upon-Tyne, Simon worked toward a PhD as a visiting research associate at the International Centre for Tropical Agriculture (CIAT) in Colombia in the mid-1980s. His research focused on the challenges faced by small farmers in environmentally and socio-economically marginal areas of Colombia, Paraguay and Ecuador. From 1992 to 1998, he worked with the Nairobi-based Tropical Soil Biology and Fertility Programme, researching farmersī soil fertility management strategies and land use change in Kenya, Tanzania, Zambia and Zimbabwe. His main interests are in understanding how people's natural resource management strategies respond to changing economic, political, social and environmental conditions, and in strengthening local and regional institutions to ensure more equitable and sustainable resource use.