This week — COP27, Nelson Mandela Annual Lecture and talk on volunteering trends in South Africa

On Monday, 7 November, the second day of COP27 — being the 27th session of the Conference of the Parties of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change — kicked off at the Sharm el-Sheikh International Convention Centre in Egypt. The conference will run until 18 November.

COP27 is a “defining moment in the fight against climate change”, according to the conference website. Science indicates that the window for action against climate change is closing rapidly.

The goals of the conference include mitigation, adaptation, finance and collaboration.

“We seek to accelerate global climate action through emissions reduction, scaled-up adaptation efforts and enhanced flows of appropriate finance. We recognise that ‘just transition’ remains a priority for developing countries worldwide,” according to the event description.

On Tuesday, 8 November, the midterm elections take place in the United States (US). 

Although these elections feel far away, if the Republican Party regains control of the Senate and/or Congress, the result will have implications for the whole world, in particular for how the US responds to the climate crisis and women’s sexual and reproductive health rights. 

It is not an exaggeration to say that in the US, democracy and the rule of law itself are at stake, particularly the ability of black and marginalised people to vote. For these reasons, despite many reservations about the Democratic Party and the Presidency of Joe Biden, civil society activists in organisations across the US are working flat out to try and persuade people to vote.



On Tuesday at 1pm, the Institute for Poverty, Land and Agrarian Studies is hosting a webinar titled, “Governing Land Investments: Global norms, customary land tenure and chieftaincy in Sierra Leone”.

“Following the outcry and fierce debates around ‘land grabbing’ in relation to the rise of foreign transnational large-scale land investments in the Global South since 2007, many international regulatory initiatives have emerged with the aim to make such investments more responsible and social and environmentally sustainable,” according to the event description.

“In Sierra Leone, chieftaincy institutions on customary land play a particularly pertinent role in land politics and the governance of large-scale investments in mining, agriculture and forestry.”

The chair of the talk is Professor Ruth Hall, while the speaker is Dr Carolin Dieterie. 

Register here.

Wednesday, 9 November, is the first day of the International Week of Science and Peace.

• Storytelling and artivism;


• Feeding ourselves through food sovereignty;


• Anti-waste and alternative energy; and


• The environment and early childhood education.