In 1997, IDRC launched its Acacia initiative in an effort to empower African communities with the ability to apply new information and communication technologies, or ICTs, to their own social and economic development. Now, 7 years later, the Acacia initiative presents this unique and groundbreaking three-volume collection of original research on this important and timely issue. This volume documents the processes used, and institutions created, to bring computers and connectivity into schools, as a means of enhancing the use and integration of ICTs in teaching and learning. Information and Communication Technologies for Development in Africa. Volume 3 Networking Institutions of Learning – SchoolNet. Edited by Tina James, Published September 2004 ; 294 pages; tables, illustrations. ISBN 2-86978-117-2 (CODESRIA) ISBN 1-55250-008-X (IDRC).

Zimbabwe's ruling ZANU-PF party has claimed victory in a weekend by-election after the opposition Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) failed to field candidates for the local poll. ZANU-PF retained the Masvingo district parliamentary seat in southern Zimbabwe, which fell vacant after the death last month of 69-year-old Eddison Zvobgo, a founding member of ZANU-PF. The ruling party now holds 98 of 150 seats in parliament, two short of the two-thirds majority that would allow it to amend the constitution.

President Thabo Mbeki's younger brother, Moeletsi Mbeki, deputy president of South Africa's Institute of International Affairs, made world headlines when he said Africans were better off under colonialism. Moeletsi criticises his brother's relationship with Zimbabwe's cruel ruler Robert Mugabe, and is unimpressed with his black economic empowerment programme, which he says creates a destructive "culture of entitlement" among blacks. Moeletsi also pointed out that, in the past 20 years, China has pulled 400 million of its citizens out of poverty, while Nigeria has pushed nine million into poverty!

President Paul Biya's early lead in Cameroon's presidential election has not come as a surprise. Biya has ruled Cameroon for the past 22 years and opposition parties have accused him of resorting to massive fraud in order to win a further seven-year term. While only 4.6 million of Cameroon's 16 million population made it onto the electoral roll on Monday, there have been numerous reports of individuals casting several votes each.

President Museveni hit out U.N. Emergency Relief Coordinator Jan Egeland for suggesting that the suffering caused by war in northern Uganda was comparable to that in Sudan's strife-torn Darfur. Egeland urged the international community last week to focus on northern Uganda and the atrocities of the Lord's Resistance Army. Museveni questioned, "In what way is it like Darfur? True, people are in camps because of attacks by the terrorists. But it seems some people don't want us to defeat the terrorists."

Somalia's most stable region, the breakaway Somaliland enclave, expressed opposition on Tuesday to new Somali President Abdullahi Yusuf, underscoring its hostility to a man long seen as the territory's arch foe. The Somaliland government warned Yusuf, a warlord elected head of state on October 10th by lawmakers at peace talks held in Kenya, against any attempted aggression and said it was on alert against any move to reunite Somaliland with the rest of Somalia.

Initiatives like the New Partnership for Africa's Development point towards neoliberalism as the guiding philosophy. Is neo-liberalism what is driving our renewal agenda? Do African intellectuals have consensus about its relevance for our continent? Are intellectuals committed to building a body of knowledge that supports this philosophy? Are African capitalists prepared to support this necessary research? While the African Renaissance represents moving Africa forward in terms of development, education, good governance etc, African Renaissance lacks a philosophical base to guide, lead and bring countries together.

Ivory Coast's President Laurent Gbagbo has said that rules on who is eligible to become head of state will be decided by referendum and only after rebels start disarming. An amendment to permit presidential candidates born of one instead of two parents of Ivorian origin would allow Alassane Ouattara, a former top International Monetary Fund official and arch-rival of Gbagbo who is popular in the rebel-held north of the country, to stand for president in elections scheduled for 2005.

Social pensions in developing countries can raise the poorest older people and their families out of dire poverty, says HelpAge International in a new report. The Age and Security report provides the first comprehensive survey of social pension schemes in developing countries, and analyses how these regular cash payments can improve the lives of older people and their families.

Chad, Ethiopia, Kenya and Swaziland have ranked last for the way their governments run public affairs in a U.N. survey of 28 African countries that was released Tuesday. The four countries fell short on corruption , political representation, economic management and respect for human rights, said the survey by the U.N.'s Economic Commission for Africa. Cameroon, Angola, Kenya and Nigeria are ranked as the most corrupt of the 28 countries surveyed.

The World Food Programme (WFP), the food arm of the UN, spent over $11.4 million (R74.1 million) to buy over 47 000 tons of maize and other food materials in South Africa last year. This emerged yesterday at the fourth annual African aid, disaster management and relief procurement conference in Johannesburg. "We buy food to satisfy the needs of the people," Joop Menkeld, the WFP's procurement officer said. Over 14.4 million people are set to be affected by disaster every year.

Nurses in hospitals and health centres across Burundi began a two-day strike on Monday to demand better working conditions, while the government would not start talks with the union. Hospitals and health centres in the capital, Bujumbura, and in the provinces of Makamba, Kayanza and Bururi could only provide minimum service. The striking nurses listed 14 demands, including one for overtime pay, stating that the current arrangement was unacceptable.

Mozambique's National Elections Commission (CNE) on Tuesday said a decision to exclude election observers from the final vote tallies would not cast doubt over December's poll results. The CNE announced on Monday that international observer missions would be excluded from the final provincial and national poll count, stating that the decision was "in line with the electoral laws". This has sparked concern that the move could compromise the legitimacy of the general elections.

The Mauritanian government has arrested Saleh Ould Hanenna, the mastermind of last year's military uprising against President Maaouiya Ould Taya, who had been on the run for 16 months. Ould Hanenna was the mastermind of a failed coup attempt on 8 June 2003 which led to two days of heavy fighting in the capital Nouakchott before forces loyal to Ould Taya regained control.

United Nations workers and hundreds of volunteers have vaccinated more than seven million children in Madagascar against measles to prevent a potentially lethal outbreak on the giant Indian Ocean island. The month-long drive against the world's biggest vaccine-preventable killer saw trucks and planes delivering 10 million doses of the vaccine throughout the country, which is bigger than France.

The Acting United Nations Humanitarian Coordinator, Mr Jesper Morch appeals to the international donor community to make contributions to the Humanitarian Response Fund for Somalia. Since April 2004, the Fund has disbursed over US$1 million to international NGOs for projects in prioritised drought and conflict affected areas of Somalia, including Gedo, Lower Juba, Sool, Sanaag, Bari and Nugal regions. The Fund is almost completely exhausted, while the needs on the ground are increasing with the failure of the recent rainy season.

The Centre for the Study of Violence and Reconciliation in South Africa (CSVR) is working on a mapping exercise on Transitional Justice Research in Africa, to eventually set up an African Transitional Justice Research Network that will increase the capacity of local researchers and civil society institutions to effectively conduct empirical research and advocacy programmes. CSVR is presently seeking information about research reports or ongoing projects on issues of transitional justice (including truth commissions, prosecutions, community reconciliation, memorialisation and reparations programmes, etc). For more info or to contribute: Emmanuel Kisiangani: [email protected] (research in Southern, Central and East Africa); and Franklin Oduro: [email protected] (research in West and North Africa).

The Science and Development Network (www.scidev.net) is delighted to announce that the new edition of the Africa Newsletter, focusing on science communication and gender issues, is now available. Coinciding with the news that Kenyan environmental activist and politician (and former scientist) Wangari Maathai has won the Nobel Prize for Peace, the October newsletter includes profiles of women scientists and women science journalists as well as reporting on some innovative science communication projects.

Rights organisations and leading African intellectuals support call for continental level treaty Rights organisations and leading African intellectuals support call for continental level treaty protection for academic freedom, freedom of expression and media freedom

The African Union Conference of intellectuals from Africa and the Diaspora has made recommendations to the African Union and member states to repeal all laws and practices that undermine academic freedom, freedom of expression and media freedom in all African countries.

The conference, which was held in Dakar from the 6th to 9th of October, also urged states to realise that these freedoms are prerequisites for the contribution of intellectuals and all citizens to the development of the continent and must be protected through a continental level treaty. In addition to the conference recommendations, 48 media freedom, freedom of expression, rights organisations and leading intellectuals have called on AU member states to revoke these anti-academic freedom, anti-free expression and anti-media laws within a given time frame.

They also urged all concerned persons, organisations and institutions (media, academic, rights based, intergovernmental etc) to support and join the campaign for the establishment of a continental level treaty to protect academic freedom, freedom of expression and media freedom in Africa

The signatories include Noble laureate Professor Wole Soyinka, two of Africas leading legal minds and Professors of government and law respectively Mahmood Mandani and Bereket H SELASSIE, Adigun Ade Abiodun Chair of the United Nations Committee on the Peaceful Uses of Outer Space, Grace Bansa of Encyclopaedia Africana, Professor Atukwei Okai Secretary General of Pan African Writers Association, Thandika Mkandawire Director UN Research Institute for Social Development, Dialo Bagayoko Professor of Physics at the Timbuktu Academy, Mamadou Diouf Professor of AfroAmerican and African Studies, Tukufu Zuberi Professor of Sociology, Dr Obadiah Mailafiah Economist with the African Development Bank and African Development Fund and Adebayo Olukoshi of CODESRIA (Council for Development of Social Science Research in Africa).

Other Signatories include distinguished scholars and experts from the sciences, arts and social sciences from universities and institutions in Africa and the Diaspora; and representatives of rights organisations, Rotimi Sankore Coordinator of CREDO for Freedom of Expression & Associated Rights, Gabriel Baglo Director of the Africa office of the International Federation of Journalists, Chidi Odinkalu Africa Legal Adviser for the Justice Initiative, Luckson Chipare Director Media Institute of Southern Africa, Dr Firoze Manji Director of Fahamu and Aime Joof-Cole, of FAMEDEV, Inter-African Network For Women, Media, Gender and Development. [Statement and full list of signatories attached]

Speaking in support of a treaty to protect the said rights Professor Soyinka reiterated, A nation develops through the liberal flow of ideas. Freedom of expression guarantees that flow and thus, the fullest development of the nation

The signatories commended the African Union and in particular the Commission of the African Union and its Chairperson for organising the CIAD and call on all relevant institutions and governments to provide adequate resources for the AU and its Commission to continue its good work of accelerating the development of the African continent.

The gala and opening of the Conference was attended by the Heads of State of Senegal President Abdoulaye Wade (host of the conference), Olusegun Obasanjo of Nigeria (Current Chairperson of the Africa Union), Yuweri Museveni of Uganda, Thabo Mbeki of South Africa, Vice president of Gambia Mrs Isatou Njie Saidy and Chair of the Commission of the African Union and former President of Mali Professor Alpha Konare. Libyan President Moumar Khadafi addressed the conference via a live video link.

Nobel laureates Nelson Mandela, Wole Soyinka and Frederick De Klerk also made contributions to the conference supporting the declaration for a decade of peace.

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A new corruption case began on Monday in Lusaka, charging Zambia's former president Frederick Chiluba with siphoning off $488 000 (about R3-million) when he ruled the southern African country between 1991 and 2001. In the latest case, Chiluba and his two co-defendants are accused of spiriting away a total of one million dollars. The two businessmen face nine counts out of which six also involve Chiluba.