As the new United States Administration defines its foreign policy priorities and partnerships, UNITAR is revamping its collaboration with the U.S. Administration by extending its expertise in sustained capacity development, expertise which has been welcomed as a “soft power” approach to international cooperation within the region and beyond.
During his visit, UNITAR’s Executive Director, Dr. Carlos Lopes, met with Congressmen William Delahunt, James McGovern, John Lewis and Honorable Shirley Franklin, Mayor of Atlanta. The Senate Foreign Relations Committee responded positively to the call for obtaining further U.S. backing of UNITAR programmes in the areas of human rights, climate change and democratic governance. Capacity development was acknowledged as one of the surest ways towards incremental change. To cite examples, tailored projects run by the Institute in highly sensitive contexts, such as the Afghan Fellowship Programme are investments in long-term development, and can contribute to peace-building efforts in post-conflict societies.
The collaboration between UNITAR’s programme on satellite applications, UNOSAT, and the United States Department of State was recently confirmed in an exchange of letters with the Office of the US Geographer at State Department. This collaboration was launched some time ago in the framework of a set of common interests pertaining to emergency response and support to humanitarian response worldwide. UNOSAT and the Humanitarian Information Unit at the State Department, for example, share technical views and analysis of satellite imagery to improve the quality of existing remote sensing practices in support of rapid assessment and response coordination.
During his meeting with the Organization of American States, Dr. Carlos Lopes met with H.E. Ambassador Alfonso Quiñónes, Executive Secretary for Integral Development and Director General of the Inter-American Agency for Cooperation and Development (IACD). Critical areas such as public finance and debt management, international migration and development, environmental governance including climate change were ranked as top priorities for joint training activities in the Americas, which would include e-learning courses in the Spanish language.