Providing practical suggestions for applying for funding and proposal writing, this toolkit is based on interviews with experienced research fundraisers in both developing and developed countries. Obtaining funding for your research is a difficult achievement, so we hope this guide will help give your proposal the best possible chance of success.

Associated Newspapers of Zimbabwe (ANZ), the publishers of the banned “Daily News” and the “Daily News on Sunday” have reportedly defied an order by the Retrenchment Board to pay 153 retrenched workers severance packages totaling ZW$ 2,3 billion (approximately 433 962 US dollars).

Due to the progress that computers and technology have made, e-learning has become a cost-effective method of improving training standards in both schools and work places. In South Africa, legislation such as the Skills Development Act and modern thinking has made computer-based training imperative in the work place.

A network of lawyers sponsored by the Media Foundation for West Africa will attend a meeting in September to discuss strategies for protecting journalists' rights in the region. Eight lawyers from different countries in West Africa are expected to participate in the meeting, scheduled for September 27 to 29 in Accra, Ghana. Representatives from media associations and free expression advocates are also invited to attend. Participants will discuss ways to ensure that legal advice is quickly available to journalists who face legal action.

Journalist Mbuyi Tshibwabwa, who is also known as "Mbote ya Kabambi" ("The Big Hello"), has been in hospital since 22 August 2004 after being severely beaten at a military court in Goma, North Kivu province's main city, eastern Democratic Republic of Congo. Tshibwabwa is a military journalist and host of the local television show "Armée et peuple" ("The Army and the People").

Reporters Without Borders has called for the immediate release of the editor of the independent daily paper Jamhuuriya, Hassan Said Yusuf, who was arrested on 1 September for the 15th time in the past decade in Hargeisa, capital of the self-styled state of Somaliland. It called on the government to explain his detention by a dozen police who burst into the paper's offices late at night with an arrest warrant as he and his staff were preparing the next day's edition of the paper and took him to the city's main police station.

On 4 September 2004, State Security Service (SSS) officers raided the editorial offices of "The Insider Weekly" news magazine, based in Lagos, and arrested its production manager, Raphael Olatoye, after sealing up the offices. The security agency later accused the magazine of treason, sedition and subversion over a string of articles critical of President Olusegun Obasanjo and his government.

If you are a mid-level or senior programme manager, social worker, senior government officer or planner, a health care professional, or have an interest in ageing issues, then this course is for you.

A US-based press freedom watchdog has urged authorities in Somaliland, the self-declared republic in northwestern Somalia, to release the editor-in-chief of two newspapers arrested at the end of last month. New York-based Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) said that Hassan Said Yusuf, the editor-in-chief of the independent Somali-language daily, Jamhuuriya, and its weekly English-language edition, The Republican, was picked up from his office in Hargeisa, Somaliland's capital, on 31 August.

The Coalition on the International Criminal Court has announced the launch of the 2nd Edition of Insight on the ICC. The Insight primarily focuses on important developments at the International Criminal Court and in The Hague, with the aim of informing interested constituencies and fostering the development of a dedicated ICC community in this host city.

AITEC has been invited by the Act ICT Industry Alliance of Mauritius to hold the sixth annual ACT Summit in Mauritius due to the attendance it will attract from ICT professionals and managers from throughout Africa, as well as other international participation, thus promoting the country's position as a supplier of ICT services and expertise.

The Southern African NGO Network (SANGONeT) and the South African National NGO Coalition (SANGOCO) are convening a national ICT roundtable event for civil society organisations to be held on 9 September 2004 in Johannesburg. The event will focus on the Second National Operator (SNO), which will be licensed on 17 September 2004, as well as the fourth draft of the ICT Empowerment Charter. For more information or to register for the event, visit:

The "Siyanda Update" is a monthly newsletter featuring the latest gender mainstreaming resources available on the Siyanda website http://www.siyanda.org/. Siyanda aims to assist busy gender practitioners with locating essential gender mainstreaming resources quickly and easily. It is also an interactive space where gender practitioners can share ideas, experiences and resources with like-minded colleagues. To subscribe or unsubscribe from the "Siyanda Update", please go to: http://www.siyanda.org/subscribe.htm

The International Confederation of Trade Unions (ICFTU) has reported that workers taking part in an illegal strike at Botswana's largest mining firm, Debswana, are being evicted from company-owned homes. It is warning that the evictions could have serious social consequences on the stability of the region and that replacement mine workers have not been properly trained, reportedly leading to two deaths. Between 2,500 and 3,000 workers have been involved in the strike.

Mr Daniel Batidam, Executive Secretary of the Ghana Integrity Initiative (GII), has urged the media to expose corrupt practices among the people entrusted with public office. Talking at an anti-corruption workshop, he said that politicians often "give cheap talk about fighting corruption...without the media holding them accountable to what they say in order to promote good governance." Mr Batidam also said that aspiring politicians were already influencing voting patterns at the primaries by giving money to gain favours from the party delegates.

The International Veterinary Science and Medicine School of Dakar, Senegal, has launched an initiative to help pastoralists avoid conflicts, environmental problems and animal diseases during their annual migrations. Instead of relying on conversations at weekly markets, the initiative enables pastoralists to track the movement of herds and obtain information on the state of different pastures by using mobile phones, the Internet and global positioning systems.

Ahead of this week's FOSS Day in South Africa, history is being made with the release of computer software which has been translated into a number of South Africa's official languages. Translate.org.za has spent two years developing the software in Zulu, Sepedi and Afrikaans. Speaking before the launch, the organisation's director said that "this is the first Africans-helping-Africans, no strings attached, Free Software word processor."

The Internet Society of South Africa (ISOC-ZA) has joined other organisations in calling for the government to urgently address the high cost of bandwidth in the country. In a statement, the organisation said that the true cost of bandwidth is clear from the dramatic slow-down in the growth of Internet users in SA. A recent report shows that growth slowed to 6% in 2003. At this rate, only one in ten people in SA will have Internet access by 2006.

Nigerian mobile operator M-tel has introduced a N250 mobile phone recharge card into the market to create better access for subscribers. The move follows its market survey which revealed that most subscribers in the country could not afford the N400 recharge card and needed a lower tariff.

Southern Africa's largest association of independent grassroots publishers will be formally launched at a small media summit near Johannesburg on September 16. The new Association of Independent Publishers of Southern Africa (AIPSA) is expected to launch with a membership of 120 rural, township, and neighbourhood publishers from across the region. The new body will incorporate the 126-year-old Community Press Association (CPA) and the Independent Media Alliance (IMA), and will automatically gain membership of the umbrella Print Media South Africa (PMSA) association.