China's increased role throughout Africa has demonstrated that Beijing's Africa policy will be an important aspect of its rapid economic growth. Hence, on January 12, China officially unveiled an Africa Policy Paper which outlined the future relationship between Africa and China. As stated in its forward, the Policy Paper was created " with the view of promoting the steady growth of China-Africa relations in the long term and bringing the mutually beneficial co-operation to a new stage."

On the occasion of the World Urban Forum, IDRC is organizing a photo competition seeking photos that show us the thousands of creative ways people living in cities of the South or the developed world are tackling the challenges of urban living.

The unsung heroes of public interest computing may soon receive much more of the recognition they deserve, thanks to a new annual competition launched by the Florence and Frances Family Fund, a donor-advised fund at Tides Foundation.

The CiviCRM community seeks to make powerful advocacy, communication and eCRM tools avaliable to even small nongovernmental organizations. CiviCRM 1.4 offers groups freely downloadable software that provide a fully internationalized and localized central database of their constituents, the ability to track donations, and broadcast email.

Ethiopian President Girma Woldegiorgis said Ethiopia seeks the support of the Chinese government in its efforts to utilize the huge hydropower potential in the country. Girma made the remark while holding talks with Zhang Mao, deputy mayor of Beijing, the capital city of China, at the National Palace, the country's presidential office. Girma said the support of China would be instrumental to enable Ethiopia to tap its huge hydro-electric power potential. He said the cooperation between the sisterly cities of Addis Ababa and Beijing would contribute for an exchange of experience, especially in the areas of urban administration.

The Ugandan army has stopped providing military escorts to convoys delivering non-food aid to war-ravaged northern Uganda but relief workers say the decision is premature because the security situation in the region is still fragile. "There is no longer need to give escorts to whoever travels on the roads. We are moving from a bad situation to an improved security situation," army spokesman Lt Chris Magezi said by phone from Gulu, 380 km north of the capital, Kampala. "The situation is much better as most major roads are now motorable without any threat of ambushes."

An African student was fatally shot last Friday with a weapon bearing a swastika symbol, raising the hate crime murder toll in St. Petersburg to six in seven months. The fifth year student of the St. Petersburg State University of Telecommunications, Lamzer Samba, 28, from Senegal died instantly of two bullet wounds when he was shot from behind by an unidentified man in the early morning on his way home from the Apollo nightclub where he and his friends had been celebrating the university’s anniversary.

This is a one day conference to discuss how African organisations can play a more effective role in enhancing poverty reduction, promoting good governance and development in Africa, and promoting the well being of the African community in the UK and improve the community’s participation in the politics of the UK.

Fighting and the planting of lethal landmines in the northwest of Guinea Bissau has isolated some 20,000 people who are struggling to survive on dwindling food reserves and occasional deliveries of food and medicines by canoe. Residents say at least three people have died from treatable illnesses as the sole road that links the farming and fishing communities of Suzana, Varela and the surrounding villages with the nearest hospital about 40 kilometres east in Sao Domingos remains closed and mined after fighting between Senegal rebels and Guinea Bissau troops.

New evidence is emerging about the extent and nature of China’s involvement in Africa. A series of articles in the Financial Times claims that China "has in the span of a few years changed the pattern of Africa's investment and trade." The paper admits to "only just beginning to grapple with the implications." Trade between China and Africa has quadrupled since the beginning of this decade.

IOM UK is holding a one-day event to engage the African Diaspora in the UK in further developing the reintegration assistance given under the Voluntary Assisted Return and Reintegration Programme (VARRP). VARRP is funded by the UK Home Office and the European Refugee Fund. With participants from leading African Diaspora community organisations and NGOs in the UK, and from IOM Missions in Nigeria, South Africa, Zimbabwe, Angola, Kenya, Ethiopia, Uganda, Sudan and DRC, this will be an action oriented, workshop-based event. Participation is free and pre-register is essential. For further details, log onto:

Over 35 Non-Governmental Organisations working on trade issues in Africa have called for a speedy conclusion of the on-going global trade negotiations. The NGOs, gathered in Nairobi ahead of a African Union (AU) trade ministers meeting, say little success has been achieved since the last World Trade Organization (WTO) meeting in Hong Kong in November. The meeting is expected to provide an opportunity for Africa to advance a common position on outstanding issues so as to reap maximum benefits in global trade.

A syndication service that delivers commentary from 600 bloggers for use by newspaper publishers is set to launch on Tuesday, further blurring the lines that divide blogs and mainstream media. BlogBurst, as the service from blog technology company Pluck Corp. is known, includes headlines and articles for use by newspaper publishers in the news or feature sections of their online services, as well as print editions.

Res Publica (www.therespublica.org) is hiring a short-term, full-time project manager for a research project exploring e-advocacy and technology use by civil society in developing countries.

The editors of Children & Society are planning a Special Issue in Spring 2007 on the theme of displacement and asylum. The guest editors for this Special Issue will include Jason Hart and Jo Boyden. The aim is to produce a collection of essays that between them cover a wide age range; embrace experience in the global South as well as the UK and Europe; address both policy and practice; and offer critical reflection of a more theoretical nature.

On 6 March the International Finance Corporation (IFC), the private sector arm of the World Bank, made public its new policy and performance standards on social and environmental sustainability, and disclosure policy. Despite a number of changes made in the last round of revisions in response to comments from a variety of stakeholders, the new system is based on discretion and flexibility, rather than increased transparency, accountability and oversight. Comprehensive analysis on each performance standard submitted to the IFC by civil society was often ignored or only partially incorporated.

Britain and other European countries have been accused of misleading the public about their supposed generosity in aid by including debt relief - especially for Iraq and Nigeria - as part of their calculation of the increases in aid. DfID admitted to including debt relief of GBP 1.15bn for Nigeria and GBP 673 million to Iraq to hide the fact that otherwise development funding would have fallen in real terms.
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The past few years has seen the burgeoning of a number of initiatives aimed at opening the fields of creativity, science and knowledge in communities around the world. Practitioners from these movements currently identify themselves as falling within a particular community – 'free and open source software', 'open access', 'open content' and 'open science', amongst others – but they share key processes and values whose common elements are yet to be fully realized. This year's iCommons Summit aims to bring together, in a creative, stimulating and cooperative environment, the pioneers from these communities – to inspire and learn from one another and establish closer working relationships around a set of incubator projects.

With time fast running out, scepticism is mounting at the World Trade Organisation (WTO) that a deal on farm and industrial goods, crucial to an overall global trade pact, can be struck by the end of the month. Diplomats in Geneva say that the deadline - set by trade ministers last December in Hong Kong - looks unattainable and the big question facing the 149-state body is how to prevent a fresh failure from killing off the negotiations completely.

Uganda's Ministry of Finance controlled expenditure tightly in the first half of the 2005/6 financial year after donors cut or withheld $73 million in aid, a ministry report says. According to the semi-annual budget performance report, cuts in expenditure mitigated against the shortfall in domestic resources and grants, resulting in a budgetary deficit of Ush127.8 billion ($69 million) against a projected deficit of Ush140.9 billion ($76.1 million).