From the 29th to 31th of March, Carlos Lopes, Executive Director of UNITAR, visited the Republic of Korea for a series of meetings to enhance cooperation with Korean institutions.
He started with a meeting with KIGEPE (Korean Institute for Gender Equality Promotion and Education) to discuss planned future collaborations. The gathering was co-hosted by Ms. Sookyoung Moon, KIGEPE President and Ms. Hyunjoo Song, KIGEPE Director. As a result of the meeting, the two institutions agreed to co-organize a biannual KIGEPE Symposium, beginning in September 2010, which will help expand official development assistance (ODA) to women-related fields. UNITAR and KIGEPE also agreed to initiate e-learning courses on gender equality for developing countries, with a particular focus on Africa.
Mr. Lopes, also met with representatives from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade (MOFAT). The meeting was hosted by Mr. Dong-Ik Shin, Director, Policy Planning and Coordination Division, Bureau for Policy Planning, Mr. Myung-Yul Lee, Director General, International Organizations Bureau, and Mr. Hyeo-Kyeong Lee, Second Secretary, United Nations Division. It allowed MOFAT to take note of the vast array of UNITAR programmes supported by the Republic of Korea and also proposed new fields for cooperation, particularly in Green Growth. UNITAR offered its support to the future activities of the Global Green Growth Institute (GGGI), a research institute set to be established in mid 2010 that will serve as a think tank for global green growth plans. GGGI will be the first institute established by the Republic of Korea which will allow for worldwide participation from both advanced as well as developing countries.
The third in a set of three UNITAR meetings in the Republic of Korea took place with the Korea International Cooperation Agency (KOICA). It was hosted by Mr. Ji Eun Yu, Vice President of KOICA, and Mr. Hyun-Gue Joe, Assistant Director, Policy Planning Team. In the meeting, UNITAR proposed a new basis for cooperation with KOICA that would allow the two institutions to coordinate on various different training courses and programmes.
The first of these is an online training course on green growth designed to build the capacity of various interested participants, including diplomats. The course would better address existing and emerging environmental issues, while also translating the various United Nations international environmental conventions and protocols into e-learning format. UNITAR also suggested that the two coordinate on face-to-face trainings for accredited diplomats on United Nations international environmental conventions and protocols. Lastly, a tripartite cooperation between UNITAR, KIGEPE, and KOICA aimed at launching an innovate three-year e-learning training programme on ‘Gender Equality’ for developing countries (including countries in Africa and Asia Pacific) was proposed.
During the meeting, KOICA also expressed an interest in closely following-up with and supporting CIFAL Jeju activities. Given that this support still needs to be defined, UNITAR will make some concrete suggestions to them in the near future.