This conference will focus specifically on a wide range of new and practical information, communication and technology (ICT) services, solutions and applications relevant to the work of civil society organisations in Southern Africa.

One thing Kenya is certainly not short of is good weather. In one of Nairobi's poorest neighbourhoods, people have started working to make the best of the free energy potential of the sun. Orders are already beginning to flood into the Kibera Community Youth Project (KCYP) for solar panels built in a small workshop in the heart of one of Africa's biggest slums.

On World Habitat Day, 2005, Habitat International Coalition’s Housing and Land Rights Network (HLRN) launched a new interactive and participatory feature on its website. It is an initiative by HLRN officers and members to build a simple database that will host basic information on the world’s most common housing and land rights violations.

This book presents a collection of writings from the broad field of communication for development and from closely related areas of research and practice. The editors' aim is to present "an integral reflection upon where the still-emerging field of communication for development is coming from and, particularly, where we believe it should be heading." This book aims "to integrate reflection on epistemology, theory, methodology and successful case studies in order to move the field towards a new phase, enabling media and communication practitioners to respond better to the realities of a glocalized world."

The Community Voice Initiative, a project led by the Ifakara Health Research and Development Centre (Tanzania) has developed several tools to facilitate the incorporation of community voice and preferences in district planning processes. A policy manual, success stories and challenges, pictures as well as a video documenting the project, are now available on-line through the URL provided.

The conference on reducing firearm related mortality and morbidity has a specific focus on data collection and linkage, policy development, and practice of researchers and practitioners in the field for reducing and preventing firearm related death and injury.

Resource Alliance's 12th East Africa Fundraising Workshop will be held 6th - 9th December 2005 in Mombasa, Kenya. The workshop will be held in partnership with Kenyan Association of Professional Fundraisers (KAPF).

The October issue of the newsletter of the Centre for Justice and Reconciliation is now available at www.cjr.nl. It includes:
* Update about the Manual for African Faith-Based Community Leaders
* Highlights from the International Criminal Court
* More information on CJRs new staff members

The Communication Initiative has introduced its revamped database of global media coverage on human rights issues. This feature is part of the Communication Initiative’s Human Rights Window. It allows for a one-stop search related to media coverage for each individual article in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. Articles from over 200 developing country newspapers and 10 leading global newspapers are featured in the database.

The Media Institute of Southern Africa (MISA) Botswana chapter has launched the Setswana version of the African Charter on Broadcasting. This is part of the African Charter on Broadcasting's effort to encourage countries in the region to promote their indigenous languages. The African Charter was itself launched in May 2002 as one of the products of the African Commission on Human and Peoples Rights and serves as one of the modern blueprint for policies and laws determining the future of broadcasting and information technology in Africa.

A private Ghanaian radio station has just launched an operation to raise funds for the purchase of police equipment. Kumasi-based Kapital Radio is hoping this project will raise 150 million cedis (8.99 million CFA francs). The manager of the station said that the initiative was designed to help the security forces improve their fight against criminality. Local police chiefs welcomed this "noble idea" and have already donated 5 million cedis (299,000 CFA francs) to the fund. This amount was matched by the management of Kapital Radio.

In a bid to advance self-regulation in the press, veteran media practitioners and stakeholders have set up a board to prepare for formation of an independent media council in Uganda, writes Evelyn Lirri in the Daily Monitor. The council, which will be controlled by journalists and media stakeholders, will be independent of government control and will become operational by July 2006.

The Committee to Protect Journalists has condemned the jail sentence given to a magazine journalist who reported on alleged corruption in the distribution of food aid during this year's famine in Niger. On September 27, a court in the northern town of Agadez convicted Abdoulaye Harouna, publication director of the monthly Echos Express, of defaming the local governor, Yahaya Yendaka. The court sentenced him to four months in jail and fined him 520,000 CFA francs (US$950).

While satellite television often attracts the lion's share of analysis about new media and their effect on prospects for democratization in the Middle East and North Africa, another technology may already have had at least as large an impact: the Internet. In Morocco, where the regime has severely constrained, controlled or silenced independent print media through direct and indirect censorship, the Internet has become an important instrument for unrestricted flows of information, which in turn is leading to the emergence of a more vibrant public sphere.

In what appears to be a political move to thwart the business growth of the Zimbabwe Independent and Standard newspapers, the Zimbabwe Revenue Authority (Zimra) has for the past six months kept under lock and key a satellite dish and accessories belonging to the group at its container depot in Beitbridge. Zimra is demanding that the equipment must first be licensed before it is released. The equipment does not require licensing since it is used to receive news, not to transmit it.

“We recognise the importance of teachers in the dissemination of ICT knowledge and propose enhancing the ICT competence of teachers in the developing world through establishing innovative learning and knowledge communities of teachers and defining a professional development model to enhance ICT competence of teachers in order for them to utilise ICT in pedagogically meaningful ways.” A project proposal related to this goal reportedly involves Helsinki University of Technology, the Universities of Helsinki, Mauritius, Botswana and Geneva - through appropriate centres at each - as well as Botswana's Ministries of Education, and of Science and Technology.

Low-cost satellite-based Internet responds to the access crisis in Africa and provides a potentially affordable opportunity for connectivity. Every square inch of Africa is covered by satellite bandwidth. However, restrictive telecom policies stop this from supporting Africa's development. To achieve Africa development goals and overcome the restrictions on access to bandwidth there must be an open skies policy.

By the end of the second phase of the World Summit on the Information Society this November in Tunis, the role to be played by civil society in bridging the digital gap and democratising communications will be clearly defined. But many activists are less than optimistic about the eventual outcome, reports Inter Press Service. Until now, governments have included civil society and the private sector in discussions on all of the themes addressed, including the most controversial ones, like the issue of Internet governance. Nevertheless, non-governmental organisations (NGOs) have doubts about whether this cooperation will be maintained in the future.

Thousands of people evicted from Gishwati forest and relocated to Gaseke district in Gisenyi province are seriously in need of a hospital and health centres to improve on the looming health crisis. "The government gave us houses and plots for farming, but we are facing a great problem concerning lack of a hospitals," a resident claimed. The residents say contagious air and waterborne diseases are now common due to lack of appropriate health services. Residents also lack schools for their children, since those available are not enough for hundreds of children in the communal settlement.

A new wave of land seizures has hit Zimbabwe as the government enters the final stage of a campaign to evict the last remaining white commercial farmers from their properties after nationalising the country's land. The latest wave has hit eastern Zimbabwe, especially Chipinge district, where farmers are now being forced out. Gangs of Zanu PF militia backed by police overran at least two farms this week, beating and threatening farmers and managers before chasing them off the land.