23 March 2012 - On Friday, UNITAR Executive Director Mr. Carlos Lopes was appointed by the UN Secretary-General to be the next Executive Secretary of the United Nations Economic Commission for Africa (ECA).

UNITAR has made available through its institutional website summaries of six e-discussions in English and in French on regional integration and trade in Sub-Saharan Africa organized jointly by United Nations Development Programme, Regional Bureau for Africa (UNDP RBA) and UNITAR from October to December 2011, as well as a case study on negotiation of financial transactions.

22 March, 2012 - A Memorandum of Understanding was signed at the United Nations Institute for Training and Research (UNITAR) headquarters in Geneva between UNITAR and UNOPS – the United Nations Office for Project Services, marking the beginning of an exciting partnership. The memorandum was signed by Mr.

23 March 2012, Geneva, Switzerland - United Nations Assistant Secretary-General Choi Soon-hong visited the UNOSAT operational site at CERN and held discussions with UNOSAT Manager Francesco Pisano and his staff on Friday 23 March as part of his visit to several Geneva-based UN offices and agencies.

15 March 2012, Antwerp, Belgium - A one-day seminar on ethics and social responsibility was held at the Antwerp's City Hall, in Belgium.
Organized by UNITAR through the Antwerp-ITCCO, the on-day seminar brought together 30 post-graduate students and professors from the 'Group T International Educating Classes (IEC)', a subsidiary of the Catholic University of Leuven.

The GIS for the United Nations and the International Community Conference will take place April 3–5, 2012, at the World Meteorological Organization headquarters in Geneva, Switzerland.
Esri and UNITAR through its UNOSAT Programme organized the conference to demonstrate and discuss the role of GIS in global challenges. Attendees will consider how GIS can provide the analytic knowledge required to make better decisions on issues that are critical for the planet.

The Asian Disaster Preparedness Center (ADPC) has opened enrolment to the “8th International Training Course on GIS for Disaster Risk Management (GIS4DRM-8)” that will take place in Bangkok from 07th-18th May 2012.

UNITAR has issued the 2012 Guidance Document for “Preparing a National Profile to Assess Infrastructure and Capacity Needs for Chemicals Management”. This guidance document, initially issued in 1996 and now revised as a second edition, has been developed to assist countries in preparing National Profiles through a process which involves all interested parties at the country level.
A National Profile:

19 April 2012, Paris, France - UNITAR Board Chair and Executive Director will discuss the challenges of regional integration in Africa within the framework of one of the round tables organized by the journal Géopolitique africaine as part of the “Books and Authors of the Congo Basin region” booth at the 2012 Paris Book Fair.

Within its Geneva-based training offer, UNOSAT has completed in February 2012 a professional training for 6 Officers of the UN Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR). UNOSAT training modules on rapid mapping and satellite analysis are well known both in Geneva and in several countries, but this was the first time that Human Rights Officers were hosted in the UNOSAT training facility based at CERN.