19 August 2011, Geneva, Switzerland - As the international community and the public celebrate today the World Humanitarian Day the crisis in the Horn of Africa continues to unfold as humanitarian agencies step up their response. A catastrophic combination of conflict, high food prices and drought is gripping much of the Horn of Africa and Somalia in particular.

Arusha/Geneva-Trade Policy Training Centre in Africa (TRAPCA) and UNITAR have agreed to launch the pilot phase of a joint e-Learning project, and specifically to develop and conduct an online course on “Key issues of international trade” for the benefit of African media professionals.

16 August 2011, Geneva, Switzerland - In yet another practical development of the recent UNOSAT-ADPC partnership , the well-known GIS training course offered by Asian Disaster Preparedness Centre will include as of this year new UNOSAT modules on post-disaster impact and damage analysis in emergency response mapping. The course will be held in Bangkok from 17-28 October 2011.

12 August 2011, Geneva, Switzerland – UNOSAT announced today the completion of one essential step forward in its plan to secure long-term efficient and rapid access to satellite imagery to derive accurate and timely information in support of humanitarian relief and human security.

4 and 8 July, Hiroshima, Japan. The 2011 Session of the UNITAR Series on the Management and Conservation of World Heritage Sites was held in Hiroshima, Japan between July 4 and 8. The Session saw some 30 heritage experts representing 19 countries visit Hiroshima to engage in capacity building in regards to UNESCO's recently released Preparing World Heritage Nominations Manual. Resource Persons included those from UNESCO, ICOMOS, the IUCN and UNITAR.

22 and 29 of July, Abu Dhabi. Workshops II and III of the highly successful UNITAR Fellowship for Afghanistan Programme were recently successfully concluded in Abu Dhabi. Taking place between 22 and 29 of July, the Workshops saw the 54 Fellows and 15 Coaches and Resource Persons examine concepts of leadership and organisational change management.
Workshops II and III

From 4 July to 5 August 2011 UNITAR’s Public Finance and Trade Programme successfully conducted the e-Learning course on “Fundamentals of Central Banking and Monetary Policy”. The course combined self-study, mentored online discussions, and self-assessments with the aim of providing participants high quality training, knowledge sharing and networking in a flexible and cost-effective way.

09 August 2011, Geneva, Switzerland – UNOSAT 3-week intensive training on geospatial information for disaster response will be offered also in 2012. The course is part of the  Master Course on Disaster Management of the Universities of Copenhagen and Lund, worth 6 ECTS credits. UNOSAT and the University of Copenhagen have agreed to make the course available again in March 2012 after the success of the 2011 edition.

How can UN agencies support country-driven, results-based and sustainable climate change learning in Member States to address climate change, through One UN collaboration? This question was at the center of the discussion at the 2nd Meeting of UN CC:Learn Steering Group, 7-8 July 2011, Geneva, Switzerland.