Hundreds of community radio practitioners and experts from around the world will be meeting in Amman, Jordan, on 11-17 November 2006 to discuss ways of enabling community radio to play a more effective role in reducing poverty, supporting marginalised groups and increasing access to information for isolated communities. The occasion is the 9th conference of the World Association of Community Radio Broadcasters (AMARC).

Warren Buffett donates three-quarters of his fortune to the Gates foundation. But aren't states, rather than individuals, a better bet for delivering a fair and just world and reconciling differing interests?

This article advocates for online role playing as an educational tool that engages and promotes sustained learning. The author suggests that role playing connects students to the course material - and to each other - more intimately and successfully than a traditional lecture can. She provides technical tips for establishing an online "theatre", describes three role-playing assignment models, and evaluates those models.

Produced by Article Z, an electronic media agency, Mad Mundo uses journalism and storytelling techniques to explore the impact of globalisation on individual lives. Investigations by journalists into personal stories help to introduce wider issues of globalisation, and are combined with interactive online discussions.

Many e-Governance projects are not succeeding or are facing bottlenecks. There is resistance to change or duplication of efforts in many initiatives. There are local language issues in some cases and lack of planning in others. Lack of infrastructure is a bottleneck in some countries while in others Universal Access is an issue.

Six years ago, leaders from every country agreed on a vision for the future – a world with less poverty, hunger and disease, greater survival prospects for mothers and their infants, better educated children, equal opportunities for women, and a healthier environment; a world in which developed and developing countries worked in partnership for the betterment of all. This report shows where the Millennium Development Goals stand in 2006 in achieving these goals.

More than a third of the world’s population doesn’t have access to essential medications. Greedy drug companies, government bureaucracies, and apathy all get in the way. Some brave scientists have had enough of the high costs and red tape. They’re frustrated, they’re mad, and now they’re finding ways to buck the system.

Education International will be holding its 5th triennial World Congress in Berlin, Germany from 22nd to 26th July, 2007. The World Congress meets every three years to adopt policies and approve programmes and financial and other reports. It provides an opportunity for representatives of member organisations from all over the world to meet and consider the major issues affecting their organisations. The EI Executive Board has decided that the theme of the 5th Congress should be "Educators - Joining Together for Quality Education and Social Justice".

African countries misuse development aid from donors because of "unclear" policies, Burundi's first vice-president, Martin Nduwimana, said at an ongoing regional conference on gender and development in Bujumbura. He said to manage development aid well, African women, urban and rural, should be at the heart of the fight against poverty. If we end ... mismanagement ... we will for sure give a chance to the integration of women in all sectors,"

Up to 20,000 war-displaced people in northwestern Central African Republic (CAR) are set to benefit from the distribution of relief aid begun on Wednesday by the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) and the CAR Red Cross, an official said. "At least 100 villages around the towns of Markounda, Paoua and Batangafo will benefit from the relief operations," Alphonse Zarambaud, the programme coordinator of the CAR Red Cross, said in Bangui, the capital.

Collapsing states, violent conflicts and natural disasters shape the picture of Africa in Europe. This conference, organised by the Scribani European Jesuit Network and the Institute for Social and Development Studies, aims to challenge the common picture through an analysis of the relationship between Africa and Europe.

Organised by Oxfam Canada in partnership with the Victoria International Education Development Association, this youth symposium focusing on global justice issues promises to be empowering and action-oriented. Through a series of interactive workshops on such issues as food security, sweatshops, and the global AIDS epidemic, participants will share their experiences and help develop global alternatives.

This publication aims to support the use of monitoring and evaluation of development results. It is intended to support United Nations Development Program (UNDP) country offices in aligning their monitoring and evaluation systems with a results-based management methodology, specifically in tracking and measuring the performance of UNDP interventions and strategies.

A picture is worth a thousand words—but what happens when you’re faced with a thousand pictures? At different points in 2005, violent natural disasters and war created devastation around the world, captured in a slew of heart-wrenching images. In the midst of so many visual calls on our compassion, how do we continue to communicate the stories of people suffering and surviving human rights abuse in ways that not only move us but also inspire a belief that change is possible?

The United Nations world conference on small arms has collapsed without agreement - despite the majority of governments, including the European Union and many African and Latin American governments, backing tougher controls on the international trade in small arms and light weapons, Oxfam Great Britain said on Monday (10 July).

Social Justice Commissioner, Tom Calma, has welcomed the adoption by the United Nations Human Rights Council of the Draft Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples in Geneva on 29 June 2006. 'This is a very significant day for Indigenous peoples worldwide in the struggle for recognising their rights' said Commissioner Calma. 'Adoption by the Council brings to a close nearly twenty years of negotiations on this text in the United Nations human rights system'.

BBC wants to allow audiences to create personal radio stations from its content, its director general has said. The planned service, provisionally called MyBBCRadio, was revealed by Mark Thompson at the Radio Festival in Cambridge. It aims to give audiences more control by combining existing services such as podcasts and the BBC Radio Player.

For all the efforts of civil society and governments alike, in ensuring fair conditions for developing country agricultural sectors, the reality on the ground is somewhat more compex. This report critically analyses the influence of trade and distribution on production and production conditions in the Fresh Fruit and Vegetable sector. The report identifies the key challenges and opportunities of the sector from the perspective of poverty eradication and sustainable development.

This Guide is a resource to help development researchers make the best use of information sources available on the Internet. It offers descriptions of well known Internet resources and suggests how their use can be best applied to development research.

This ActionAid report highlights ways to make global aid more effective so that it will have a lasting, positive impact on the poor throughout the world. The report critiques excessive spending on foreign consultants, a lack of coordination with locals, and aid that never reaches poor countries as major problems. ActionAid calls for increasing the shared responsibilities between donor countries and aid recipients to solve the current shortcomings.