A word from the editors

The articles in this issue explore the future of ICTs for rural development in ACP countries. http://ictupdate.cta.int/index.php/article/articleview/314/1/59/ Carl Greenidge, Director CTA, argues that ICTs are shaping the future of ACP agriculture, but that the development of appropriate and effective ICT applications must be guided by the users rather than by focus groups of technology pundits. http://ictupdate.cta.int/index.php/article/articleview/316/1/59/ Kevin Painting, CTA´s ICT Programme Coordinator, discusses the issues related to Mainstreaming ICTs and explores the challenges that CTA will have to meet. http://ictupdate.cta.int/index.php/article/articleview/315/1/59/ Rutger Engelhard, ICT Update´s coordinating editor, gazes into a crystal ball and speculates on how the working day of an extension worker might look in 2015 - using innovative ICTs applications identified in ICT Update over the past year. Finally, http://ictupdate.cta.int/index.php/article/articleview/323/ Mike Jensen, ICT for Development policy adviser from South Africa, argues that government officials and NGO leaders must become much more proactively involved in the national telecom policy dialogue. In particular, they must emphasize the need for adequate, affordable access to the Internet in rural areas as a precondition for exploiting the development potential of ICTs. In the spirit of ICT Update, this issue also contains two reports on innovative ICT initiatives that are of immediate relevance for ACP agriculture. http://ictupdate.cta.int/index.php/article/articleview/313/1/59/ Shaun Ferris, coordinator of FOODNET Uganda, describes how the project´s information and communication strategy is based on the integrated use of FM radio, mobile pones, WorldSpace radio and the Internet in order to ensure the timely delivery of accurate market information to 7 million people. http://ictupdate.cta.int/index.php/article/articleview/322/ Gesa Wesseler, CTA´s programme coordinator for gender issues, reports on the enormous worldwide response to the GenARDIS project, a small grant fund established in 2002 to promote attention to gender issues in ICT-supported development projects. This special issue includes a CD-ROM containing all 17 previous issues of the web magazine, including their substantial information resources of over 1200 annotated as to relevant projects, articles, websites, databases and documents.The editors of ICT Update congratulate CTA on its 20th anniversary. This special issue is different from the regular ICT Update in that it focuses on the forward-looking theme Mainstreaming ICTs, digital futures in ACP agriculture. T