Dear Friends and Colleagues,

The Networklearning website has been updated after a long period of behind-the-scenes redevelopment.

It is now in a new format, Joomla!. This will allow us to be more up-to-date and interact better. (On the other hand if you find any problems using the new site let us know!)

And we have a new edition of “Interviewing and Counselling at the Grassroots” with thanks to Billy Bbosa from Uganda who came up with a new section on "Recognising & helping people with disabilities"

Since an important part of networklearning's philosophy is Keep It Simple, we have started a series of Key Information Sheets (KIS) on a number of aspects related to NGO management skills. First up are “Networking” and "Focus Group Discussions". Please give us your feedback on the usefulness of this type of information.

We have some new sections on the site: a Gender section in which you'll find many new links to the basics of gender as well as to gender aspects in various fields... a new Arabic page with links to four key manuals in Arabic of use to young NGOs in the Middle East and North Africa...

We offer examples of Behaviour Change leaflets and games to be used at the grassroots. (Does anyone else have useful, usable examples?)

We now have a Forum section where people can exchange ideas, experiences and opinions. In one are the opinions of Aly Ndione in Senegal, who has been studying Localisation, the process whereby NGOs started up by First World people and money can move into the control of Nationals – and all the difficulties that implies.

The Forum is open to all. To contribute you need to first register with networklearning. (It's also worth registering if you would like to be put on our mailing list to be kept informed of new manuals etc.)