This toolkit provides tips and practical suggestions for applying for funding and proposal writing. It is based on interviews with experienced research fundraisers. Obtaining funding for your research is a difficult achievement, so this guide will help give your proposal the best possible chance of success.

Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology (KNUST) has become the first tertiary institution in Ghana to acquire the services of e-campus network facility to support learning and research work among students and lecturers. The facility would also serve as a platform for distance learning and enhance research between the university and other academic institutions in Europe and North America through advanced technologies such as the Voice Over Internet Protocol (VOIP) aided communications.

On May 17 Uganda joined other countries in commemorating that 142nd anniversary of the International Telecommunications Information Society day held at the Hotel Africana. At the function the acting Permanent Secretary in the Information Communication Technology (MOICT) ministry, Dr. Godfrey Kibuuka announced that the Ugandan government has started laying a 2000sq.km national transmission backbone cable that will be ready for the CHOGM to be held in November.

The Digital Freedom exposition has highlighted the relationship between education and a culture of digital freedom. The South African government spoke of the policy decisions which favour an approach that includes Open Source Software, and attempts to harness the digital revolution. A number of the keynote speakers highlighted areas that digital freedom could enable progress, but there was a resounding agreement that education stands to benefit enormously from digital freedom.

Ghana is bringing on board four laws to sanitise the national Information, Communication and Technology (ICT) environment. The bills, which are: The National Information Technology Agency (NITA), Electronic Transactions, Electronic Communications, New Telecommunications Amendment bill have undergone all the legislative rituals awaiting the approval of Cabinet.

The Kenyan Section of the International Commission of Jurists and the entire Freedom of Information Network celebrates the dawn of an era in Kenya marked by the introduction of the Freedom of Information Bill, 2007 in Parliament Yesterday 17th May 2007 by Hon. Gideon Moi on behalf of Hon. Prof. Anyang’ Nyong’o.

Ghana’s Minister of Education, Science and Sports, Papa Owusu Ankomah, has announced that his country’s government will introduce universal ICT education into Ghana’s core educational system in September. The minister took the opportunity to make the annoncement while opening an ICT training workshop for researchers from both Ghana and neighbouring countries to consider his country’s future policy on ICT. He was able to declare a major change - in the very near future.

The Media Foundation for West Africa (MFWA) is disappointed by the refusal of Nigeria's President Olusegun Obasanjo to sign into Law the Freedom of Information Bill sent to him for assent by the National Assembly last March. We view the President's action as a major set back for West Africa region in the struggle to ensure popular participation in democratic processes.

Hrinfo has expressed dismay that Egypt's Judge Abdel Fatah Murad has asked the Administrative Judiciary Court to block 29 websites, in addition to the 21 he had previously requested be made inaccessible. The judge amended his original list of websites following a 5 May 2007 investigation of the case by the court, resulting in a total of 50 websites presently vulnerable to closure as a result of the judge's request.

Although the move to normalise the legislative environment for the media in Somalia is welcome, ARTICLE 19 is concerned that the Draft Law strays into areas of regulation and registration that will seriously hinder freedom of expression. Furthermore, ARTICLE 19 believes the proposed law goes well over the top "with strict obligations of accuracy to be enforced through imposition of harsh criminal penalties."

An ambush on the convoy of a provincial Governor in Somalia claimed the lives of two journalists of the country’s privately-owned Radio Jowhar, Abshir Ali Gabra and Ahmed Hassan. The two journalists were travelling with the Governor of the central province of Middle Shabelle, Mohammed Omar Deele, when the ambush took place.

The Angolan government forcibly evicted 20,000 poor people, including small-scale farmers, and destroyed 3,000 homes between 2002 and 2006 in the capital, Luanda, "to facilitate development and 'beautification' in the public interest". Human Rights Watch, an international lobby group, and SOS Habitat, an Angolan non-governmental organisation that focuses on housing, have published these findings in a report released Tuesday titled '"They pushed down the houses" - Forced evictions and insecure land tenure for Luanda's poor'.

One week after the Association of Tunisian Journalists (AJT) released a report calling for increased access for all media to the nation’s news sources, the Ministry of Communications responded by promising improvements in the media sector.

The Kenyan Internet market is set for a big change as the players transform their strategies to take advantage of new opportunities. With legal VoIP, they are now no longer looking at just offering Internet access. Once the long-delayed interconnect agreements are sorted out, these newcomers will start making inroads into the voice market. With the arrival of cheaper, plentiful international bandwidth in 2008, those who will flourish in a competitive market will no longer primarily sell bandwidth.

Phambu Lutete, the publisher of the Kinshasa-based bi-weekly newspaper "La Tolérance", has been in the custody of Kinshasa's Provincial Police Inspection (IPK) unit since his arrest on 6 May 2007. On 8 May, Lutete was transferred to the Kinshasa/Matete High Court Prosecutor's Office. The journalist was charged with "threatening and attempted swindling" of Pauline Ipeluka, a senior official with Kinshasa's property tax office.

Rwanda's President Paul Kagame has called for a merged ICT policy for East Africa - a move that will allow for easy cross border interconnectivity. Opening an East African broadband workshop at Serena Hotel in Kigali this week, President Paul Kagame noted that there is great need to adopt a harmonized East African ICT policy that would create free extension of inter-regional ICT connections.

The Mauritian Prime Minister, Dr Navinchandra Ramgoolam, launched the NEPAD e-Schools Demonstration Project on 3 May 2007 at Belle Rose State Secondary School, in Plaine Wilhems District, in south-eastern Mauritius. The project is a joint venture of the Mauritian Government, Cisco Consortium, Microsoft Consortium, and NEPAD e-Africa Commission. The launch, which covers six schools across the country, makes Mauritius the eighth country to launch the project after Uganda, Ghana, Lesotho, Kenya, Rwanda, Egypt and South Africa.

We are pleased to announce the 8th Forum on Telecommunications/ICT Regulation in Africa (FTRA-2007), organized by the Telecommunications Bureau (BDT) in collaboration with the Communications Commission of Kenya (CCK). The "Infrastructure Sharing" Forum will be held in Nairobi, Republic of Kenya from 6 to 7 June 2007 and will be chaired by, Eng. John Waweru, the Director General, CCK.

Femmes Africa Solidarité (FAS) has an UNPAID internship position in its International Secretariat in Geneva, Switzerland. FAS aims to create strengthen and promote the leading role of women in the prevention, management and
resolution of conflicts on the African continent. The candidate should be interested in actively participating in gender based conflict resolution and peace building in Africa.

Reporters Without Borders has condemned the imprisonment for the second time this year of journalist Houssein Ahmed Farah, a contributor to the opposition weekly Le Renouveau and brother of its managing editor, Daher Ahmed Farah. The state prosecutor yesterday ordered him detained in the capital’s Gabode prison.