25 September: UNEP/GEF: A new global initiative to accelerate the uptake of low energy light bulbs and efficient lighting systems was launched by the Global Environment Facility (GEF) and the UN Environment Programme (UNEP). The close to US$20 million initiative, the Global Market Transformation for Efficient Lighting Platform that will be implemented in collaboration with the private sector companies OSRAM and Philips, is aimed at reducing the bills of electricity consumers in developing economies while delivering cuts in emissions of greenhouse gases. [More information]
28 September: ECA/UNCTAD: The United Nations Conference on Trade and Development’s (UNCTAD) Policy Handbook on Enhancing the Role of Domestic Financial Resources in Africa’s Development suggested that  “although external assistance will continue to play an essential role in Africa’s development, a focus on domestic resources to meet the medium- to- long-term development needs of African countries is justified” outlines the.  The launching of the handbook took place on Monday, 28 September 2009 in Kigali, Rwanda during a ceremony jointly organized by UNCTAD in collaboration with the ECA Sub-regional Office for Eastern Africa (UNECA/SRO-EA). [More information]
30 September: World Bank: Climate Change Adaptation: The costs of adaptation to climate change in developing countries will be in the order of US$75-100 billion per year for the period 2010 to 2050 according to preliminary findings in a new global study from the World Bank. The Economics of Adaptation to Climate Change (EACC) study, funded by the governments of the Netherlands, Switzerland, and the United Kingdom, is the most in-depth analysis of the economics of adaptation to climate change to date and uses a new methodology for assessing these costs. The new approach involves comparing a future world without climate change with a future world with climate change. [More information]
30 September: UN-HABITAT: Funding Youth Projects: The UN Human Settlements Programme (UN-HABITAT) has awarded grants from its new Opportunities Fund for Urban Youth-Led Development to 67 projects proposed by young people from around the world. The first beneficiaries of the agency’s new Opportunities Fund for Urban Youth-Led Development were drawn from a pool of 1 116 applicants from 86 countries. Kenya, India, Pakistan and Cameroon generated the greatest number of successful applicants under the programme started with funding from Norway to the tune of USD 1 million annually. The 67 winning projects from 33 countries will be feted in Washington at the global celebration of World Habitat Day on 5 October. Many of their ideas are aimed at alleviating poverty, improving employment prospects, education, the environment, health and safety. [More information]
1 October: UNEP/ Côte d'Ivoire / Liberia: Biodiversity Corridor: A plan to develop a biodiversity corridor across the border between Côte d'Ivoire and Liberia will be part of key discussions to be held in Abidjan this week in cooperation with organizations including the UN and the Wild Chimpanzee Foundation. The meeting, taking place between 5-6 October will discuss environmental conservation goals that simultaneously enhance stability, human security, sustainable development and long-term economic benefits in a region that has seen a great deal of conflict in the past two decades. [More information]
1 October: ECA: Sustainable Development: Briefing the Bureau of the fifth session of the Africa Committee on Sustainable Development, the Director of the Food and Sustainable Development Division at the Economic Commission for Africa (ECA), Josue Dione said the Commission’s work, especially in land policy, agriculture and climate change, were in line with the most serious development challenges faced by Africa. Dione said many conflicts in Africa could be traced to land issues, and that those conflicts would be aggravated with climate change in the years to come. [More information]
2 October: Agricultural Development: The Alliance for a Green Revolution in Africa (AGRA) and the Association of European Parliamentarians for Africa (AWEPA) announced today a new partnership to support African parliamentarians as they promote policies to help smallholder farmers make the transition  from subsistence to market-oriented agriculture, a change that will require a comprehensive transformation of Africa’s agricultural system. In Africa, the AWEPA-AGRA partnership will help strengthen parliamentary committees overseeing agriculture and trade.  It will foster greater debate on agriculture as an engine of pro-poor growth and support the capacity of parliamentary committees to engage on evidence-based policy dialogues, on how African countries can cope with major challenges. These include the effects of climate change on African agriculture; laws and practices biased against women in agriculture; and access of farmers to technology and markets. In Europe the partnership will encourage the EU donor community to meet their development aid commitments to Africa, especially for agriculture. [More information]

5-9 October: 2nd Ad Hoc Intergovernmental and Multi-stakeholder meeting on an Intergovernmental Science-Policy Interface on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services (IpBES), Nairobi, Kenya. [More information]
12-13 October: High-level Experts Forum on How to the Feed the World in 2050, Rome, Italy. [More information]
18-25 October: Thirteenth World Forestry Congress, Buenos Aires, Argentina. [More information]
19-22 October: Seventh World Forum of Sustainable Development: Ouagadougou 2009, Ouagadougou, Burkina Faso. [More Information]
19-23 October: The Special Summit of Heads of State and Government of the African Union (AU) on Refugees, Returnees and Internally Displaced Persons in Africa, Kampala, Uganda. [More information]
19-23 October: LDC Workshop on Implementation of National Adaptation Programmes of Action, Dar-es-Salaam. [More information]
27-30 October: Sixth Session of the Committee on Food Security and Sustainable Development (CFSSD-6),Addis Ababa, Ethiopia. [Information note]
10-11 November: Fourth International Conference of the Egyptian Society for Environmental Sciences: impacts of climate change on natural resources, Ismailia, Egypt. [More information]
11-13 November: 4th African Economic Conference, Addis Ababa, Ethiopia. [More information]
16-18 November: World Summit on Food Security, Rome, Italy. [More information]

The Africa Weekly Sustainable Development Guidance Document is a publication of the International Institute for Sustainable Development (IISD) <info@iisd.ca>, publishers of the Earth Negotiations Bulletin © <enb@iisd.org>. This issue was compiled and edited by Tallash Kantai and Richard Sherman. The Guidance Document is part of IISD Reporting Service’s African Regional Coverage (ARC) Project in partnership with South Africa’s Department of Environmental Affairs and Tourism (DEAT), the UN Environment Programme’s Regional Office for Africa (UNEP ROA) and the Secretariat of the Convention on Biological Diversity. The Director of IISD Reporting Services is Langston James “Kimo” Goree VI <kimo@iisd.org>. The Programme Manager of the African Regional Coverage Project is Richard Sherman <rsherman@iisd.org>. Funding for the Africa Weekly Sustainable Development Guidance Document has been provided by Germany’s Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development and the International Development Research Centre, Canada, through the African Regional Coverage Project for IISD Reporting Service’s coverage of African regional meetings. IISD can be contacted at 161 Portage Avenue East, 6th Floor, Winnipeg, Manitoba R3B 0Y4, Canada; tel: +1-204-958-7700; fax: +1-204-958-7710. The opinions expressed in the Guidance Document are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the views of IISD. Electronic versions of the Guidance Document are sent to the electronic distribution list (in HTML format) and can be found on the Linkages WWW-server at <http://enb.iisd.org/africa/>. For information on the ARC, including requests to provide reporting services, contact the Director of IISD Reporting Services at <kimo@iisd.org>, +1-646-536-7556 or 300 East 56th St., 11A, New York, New York 10022, United States of America.