The United Nations agencies on Monday 8th December 2008, presented to an audience of more than 100 participants their capacity building and development activities to address climate change.

The side  event which was hosted by UNITAR at the ongoing United Nations Climate Change Conference in Poznan, Poland, was  in collaboration with UNEP and UNDP and included presentations from: UN-HABITAT, WFP and UNFPA as well as remarks from Adnan Amin of the UN system Chief Executives Board for coordination, Sudhir Sharma of the UNFCCC and Achim Halpaap of UNITAR.   Setting the tone for the side event, Phillip Gwage of Uganda and also speaking on behalf of the LDCs said that: “Institutional capacity building is crucial for developing countries, as well as building negotiating capacity.” He emphasized that current training initiatives should go beyond workshops to hands-on approaches insisting that” Knowledge without skills is not useful:”   The panelists apart from showcasing their current activities also highlighted their practical on the ground training challenges and the future needs expressed by the countries.   Summarizing the key messages from the event Janos Pasztor, UN Secretary-General Climate Change support team and also moderator for the day, said that the UN agencies need to build upon their current work to enhance their cooperation on capacity building and development which already exists, but can be improved.”   For further information please see the links below.   http://copportal1.man.poznan.pl/Archive.aspx?EventID=84&Lang=floor   http://www.iisd.ca/climate/cop14/enbots/pdf/enbots1256e.pdf