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This webpage provides background information on a special themed meeting on the use of information and communication technologies for disaster relief. It includes links to relevant international conventions, useful documents and organisations working in this area

This article proposes a revision of the relevance of the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs), as well as the incidence of ICT use in the achievement of those goals, and argues that some different priorities should be considered to make most effective use of the opportunities that new technology affords. It examines the potential for ICTs in achieving the MDGs and provides a background for a later article on the possibilities for a multi-sectoral approach

The Chennai Statement is intended to serve as an input into the on-going global debate on the role of ICTs for development, particularly in view of the poverty reduction oriented agenda for the implementation of the WSIS Principles and Action Plan in the context of the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs)

This editorial briefly reviews the series of events that led to the publication, dissemination and eventual retraction of a flawed Cochrane systematic review on interactive health communication applications (IHCAs), which was widely reported in the media with headlines such as 'Internet Makes Us Sick', 'Knowledge May Be Hazardous to Web Consumers' Health', 'Too Much Advice Can Be Bad for Your Health', 'Click to Get Sick?' and even 'Is Cybermedicine Killing You?'. The authors show that while the media attention helped to speed up the identification of errors, leading to a retraction of the review after only 13 days, a paper subsequently published by Rada shows that the retraction, in contrast to the original review, remained largely unnoticed by the public. The authors examine the three flaws of the review and then discuss 'retraction ethics' for researchers, editors/publishers and journalists, making recommendations for the future

This publication is aims to help all stakeholders in ICT pilot projects to gather the rigorous evidence needed to make forward looking judgments and decisions about ICT for development projects. It explores both the need of pilot projects to implement a Monitoring and Evaluation (M&E) system that will ensure the pilot fulfils its developmental purpose for its clients and beneficiaries, and the need of pilot projects to put in place evidence based research for proof of concept (how the pilot could contribute to development priorities and how it might be taken to scale from a forward looking perspective). It then presents steps that a project manager should undertake to ensure an effective evaluation process

This brief article reports on a new global system to detect public health and bioterrorism threats, developed in Canada. The system will be used to track high-profile threats, as well as lesser problems such as contamination to food and water sources, natural disasters, and unsafe medical products, drugs and medical devices. WHO is a key recipient of the alerts, and is using the information to develop plans of action to control outbreaks