civil society & ICT

31.08.2004 Mobile phones and satellite tracking systems are helping communities in the
semi-arid region of sub-Saharan Africa locate their herds easily and avoid
conflicts over grazing land.

31.08.2004 The seventh UN ICT Taskforce meeting, to be held in Berlin on 19-20 November
2004, will discuss policy issues, financing and the role of stakeholders in
creating an enabling environment for digital development.

31.08.2004 A network of Internet kiosks promises to give farmers in Philippines access
to information from agriculture-specific websites. Over the next one year,
the Open Academy for Philippine Agriculture will set up cybercafes in
farming villages as part of a government plan to modernise the country’s
agriculture.

27.08.2004 A workshop on the World Summit for Information Society (WSIS) being held in Colombo in September 2004 has invited research papers. CTO Forum 2004 will discuss regulatory models, connectivity and ICT applications.

27.08.2004 UNDP and the government of Azerbaijan are partnering to shape up the country’s e-governance programme. The proposed national governance network will also help curb corruption in Azerbaijan.

27.08.2004 A workshop in Nepal has emphasised the need to share story-telling in a structured manner using multimedia applications. The participants concluded that video clips, photographs and other multimedia tools make the knowledge conveyed by stories more effective.

26.08.2004 India’s communications regulator, Telecom Regulatory Authority of India, has
brought out a consultation paper to explore policy issues on community radio. Stakeholders are invited to send their comments on the paper by September 15, 2004.

25.08.2004 The African Computing and Telecommunications Summit will be held in Mauritius from 7-9 September 2004. ACT 2004 aims to help build partnerships in mainstreaming Africa’s ICT sector.

25.08.2004 The second Annual Report of the United Nations Information and Communication Technologies Taskforce reviews the efforts of the organisation in forging public-private partnership in using ICTs for Development. The taskforce has been promoting an action plan on meeting development goals for the World Summit on the Information Society.

24.08.2004 Funds from the non-profit sector will help start a network of independent radio stations in Afghanistan as the country prepares for elections in October 2004. International assistance groups will remain the biggest single source of advertising income for these stations for the next two years.

24.08.2004 An Indian NGO is conducting audience research as the first step towards launching a community radio project in the country’s Jharkhand state. The World Bank-funded initiative will give rural communities a chance to raise issues that concern them through programmes broadcast from the government-run radio station.

23.08.2004 The Australian government has sought comments from the public as it prepares inputs to be submitted at the Working Group on Internet Governance meeting on September 20- 21, 2004. Views on the composition of the working group and its work can be sent by August 28, 2004.

23.08.2004 Fighting the image of a corrupt nation, Nigeria is using Information and Communications Technologies to bring transparency and accountability in governance. Stakeholders and the administration are harmonising plans to initiate models that give the people a say in governance.

23.08.2004 The United Nations World Food Programme has launched a colour-coded Internet map that highlights the hunger-prone parts of the world in real time. The crises focused on in the inaugural edition include Darfur in Sudan, Bangladesh, Peru and Afghanistan.

20.08.2004 As most of the citizens in Africa use mobile phones, information dissemination using portable handheld devices is easy. International Development Research Centre, Canada is exploring the way to provide health information using such devices.

19.08.2004 The Third World Institute is inviting research proposals on Internet governance and funding mechanism as part of the second phase of WSIS. The research will strengthen the discussions on information society policies, especially for developing nations.

19.08.2004 Eleven Afghan journalists learnt to make radio programmes more listener-friendly at a month-long course in Kabul. The “My Life is Afghanistan” programme was meant to arm the journalists with radio skills by which they could highlight the lives and experiences of ordinary Afghans.

19.08.2004 Radio professionals can challenge the limits of creativity at a workshop in
Ontario, Canada, in September 2004. The programme organised by the
Association of Independents in Radio will show producers new ways of
capturing and manipulating sound and creating original work.

18.08.2004 Both the civil society and private sector in Kenya have raised concern at their exclusion from consultations on the drafting of the country's ICT policy. The draft policy is said to have left out several critical ICT issues.

18.08.2004 Both civil society and the private sector in Kenya have raised concerns about their exclusion from consultations on the drafting of the country's ICT policy. The policy is said to exclude several critical ICT issues in a country of poor public access to the internet.