South Africa’s Diplomatic Academy and the United Nations Institute for Training and Research (UNITAR) recently held a six‐day regional training course on Conference Diplomacy and Multilateral Negotiation for diplomats from Southern African Development Community countries (SADC). The course, attended by 29 representatives, took place in Pretoria, South Africa, from 15‐20 June 2009 and was run by a team of international and regional experts specializing in multilateral conference diplomacy training.

The course increased the knowledge, awareness and skills base of government officials to prepare for and perform effectively in global and regional conferences. Whether convened within the United Nations system or within regional institutions such as SADC or the AU, multilateral conferences have increasingly become key instruments in building regional and global consensus on important political, security, development, environmental and social issues.   This annual course is part of a vibrant collaboration between UNITAR and the Diplomatic Academy of the Department of International Relations and Cooperation of South Africa. The Institute has been collaborating closely with the Department since 2004 with the objective of developing capacities in the field of multilateral diplomacy, primarily through the organization of professional, executive-type courses and other training related activities. In the initial stages of this collaboration, UNITAR worked closely with the Multilateral Branch in organizing a first course in 2005 for junior and mid-career diplomats of the Department’s various branches.   In 2006, this collaboration continued with the organization of a second course. On this occasion, the Department and UNITAR decided that it was not only important to continue developing knowledge and skills of diplomats in this field, but that it was also important to develop the training capacities of South African diplomatic staff. A strategy and work plan were then elaborated for 2007, which included training-of-trainers, individualized coaching and a study visit to Geneva for four South African diplomatic staff/trainers, with each trainer being assigned specific topics in which to specialize. Two workshops were then scheduled for 2007, and the South African trainers were integrated into the development and delivery of the two courses. This strategy enabled the partnership to evolve from one where UNITAR assumed sole responsibility for training content and delivery, to one where both organizations are now jointly developing, delivering and evaluating training.             

  Participants' comments “The workshop composed of an excellent combination of case studies, real life situations and various exercises and presentations that made it possible of contextualization.”   “Trainers were extremely helpful in terms of understanding key issues.”  

  New Developments:

The Diplomatic Academy recently obtained registration from the South African Qualifications Authority for its Diplomatic and Cadet training courses. In both courses the UNITAR conference diplomacy and multilateral negotiation module is evaluated with a National Qualifications Framework level of 7 and is awarded 20 credits, equivalent to 200 notional hours of training. As part of the Institute’s ongoing partnership with South Africa, Diplomatic Academy trainers deliver this module to South African trainees in the Diplomacy and Cadet courses, and the with the international’ courses (i.e. SADC and e-Learning), UNITAR and South Africa deliver the training jointly. Our South African colleagues who took part in the 2006 training-of-trainers are now registered as Education and Training Quality Assurance (ETQA) assessors for this module.