With five months to go until the start of PCF5, we have now had more than 550 proposals, the vast majority of which have been accepted or returned with suggestions as to how to make them fit better with the Forum's key themes. As Programme Chair, I have been in regular touch with the Commonwealth of Learning (COL) - especially its Education Specialists, some of whom are also acting as Theme Leaders. With their support and the support of the Programme Committee, we are trying to devise a programme that will involve all participants in addressing some of the main questions that will guide the work of COL and others over the next two years.

The PCF5 programme will allocate much time to focused sessions that bring together scholars and practitioners with a shared interest (instead of placing the emphasis on individual presentations). That way, we hope to ensure that everyone can contribute to addressing the main issues facing distance education and development work today.

It is useful to remind ourselves of the content and purpose of the Fifth Pan-Commonwealth Forum on Open Learning: we will explore how open and distance learning can help achieve international development goals and education for all. This newsletter will keep you updated about our progress on the 'road to London', and we'd be delighted if you joined us in this endeavour.

Best wishes,
Roger Mills

There are a substantial number of proposals on all the major themes as well as several proposals that are of forum-wide interest. A full list of accepted proposals will be available on our website (which we will update regularly). To wet your appetite, here is a small sample:

Governance, Conflict and Social Justice

• Is distance learning effective in preventing conflict in developing countries?
• Distance education as a strategy for eliminating gender disparity in Pakistan
• Strengthening the capacity of African civil society organisations through distance education
• Distance learning and human rights: a contribution to the discussion

• ICT and skills development in an HIV and AIDS context
• Where there is no surgeon: upscaling surgical skills transfer for healthcare professionals in developing countries
• Training medical technologists in the Caribbean
• Bridging the gap between the community and the cardiologist

• African women as key economic agents for sustainable development
• Constraints faced in introducing technology to suit rural livelihoods
• Lifelong learning for farmers in Sri Lanka
• Inception of novel aquacultures through public awareness programmes, India
• Local teachers talking about ICT and with ICT in rural Africa
• Open education and training in the travel and tourism industry

• Quality school education through open and distance learning
• Mobile technologies for students with hearing disabilities
• The role of Open Schooling in improving the lives of young Namibians
• Erasing the margins: a case study of alternative opportunities for schools in Vanuatu

By now you should be:
- Booking your place at PCF5
- Booking your accommodation
- Taking a look at the programme so far
- Telling all of your colleagues about PCF5 - forward this newsletter to a friend

The PCF5 team have launched a special site on WikiEducator, the COL-supported collaborative web space providing 'free and open educational content for the world'. WikiEducator enables contributors to post their abstracts/papers and to edit their outlines as part of an open community of interested parties.

All those who proposed contributions for PCF5 will have received feedback from the Programme Committee by now. As contributors are now busy drafting their papers, the Theme Leaders have provided some guidance on the particular issues within each thematic section of PCF5.
- Governance, Conflict and Social Justice
- Health
- Livelihoods
- Children and Young People

We are delighted to announce that two more keynote speakers have confirmed their participation in PCF5: Dr Nicholas Burnett, Assistant Director-General for Education, UNESCO and Professor Barney Pityana, Vice-Chancellor of the University of South Africa, will address delegates on some of the forum-wide themes.

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