UNITAR Welcomes Graduates from Around the World Studying Sustainable Development
7 March 2018, Geneva, Switzerland – UNITAR hosted a group of Executive Master students from around the world at the Palais des Nations, the European Headquarters of the United Nations, in order to deliver a short seminar on the holistic implementation of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development. Mr. Alex Mejia, Head of UNITAR’s Social Development Programme, spoke to students undertaking an Executive Master in Development Policies and Practices (DPP) at the Graduate Institute for International and Development Studies in Geneva. The programme is designed for professionals working in the field of development, and this particular group of students hailed from nations as diverse as Benin, Burkina Faso, Burundi, Colombia, Cuba, El Salvador, Haïti, Honduras, Nicaragua, Niger, Madagascar, Mexico, Mali, Peru, Spain, and Switzerland. Mr. Mejia discussed practical tools for implementation of the Sustainable Development Goals from a UN perspective, focusing especially on how governments mainstream the 2030 Agenda into national planning and national budgets, how to implement review mechanisms, and how to engage stakeholders from civil society.
The Graduate Institute’s Executive Master in DPP was established more than ten years ago, and includes a network of more than 700 graduates. The programme is accessible in five regions of the globe, with study options in three languages. It includes a year of academic activities, complemented with study-visits to government entities and international agencies such as UNITAR. Delivered in three modules, it includes five intensive weeks in a city located in one of the five regional hubs, four months of applied practice in-country at students’ places of work, and three weeks of full-time immersion in Geneva before graduation. UNITAR is pleased to offer its expertise to these visiting students as a part of that immersion.
In recent years, UNITAR has partnered with the Graduate Institute and the Ministry of Finance of the Islamic Republic of Afghanistan to implement a special regional edition of the DPP Master. Lasting from 2013 to 2016, that programme trained Afghan civil servants in the areas of effective governance and sustainable development. UNITAR supports the Graduate Institute in its mission to train policy-makers and practitioners, thereby helping to strengthen public institutions for the implementation of sound and sustainable development policies.
Photo: Mr. Alex Mejia from UNITAR, and Dr. Alexandre Freire Dormeier and Mr. Bruno Medroa from the Graduate Institute, alongside students from the Executive Master in Development Policies and Practices, at the Palais des Nations on 24 January 2018.