New York. Today, the Olof Palme Memorial Fund and the United Nations Institute for Training and Research (UNITAR), with the generous support of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Sweden, jointly launch the 2009 Negotiation Training Series.
The Series consists of six workshops in 2009, and it aims to introduce young diplomats to negotiating in multilateral conferences. To maximize the outreach to the diplomatic community at the UN Headquarters, the first seminar will be offered in English (30-31 March) as well as in French,(2-3 April).

A number of substantive discussions were held with UNITAR's counterparts, including the Governor, the Mayor and President of Hiroshima University.

Since the inception of the monitoring by the UNOSAT Programme of piracy activity off the coasts of Somalia, the interest of international organizations and media has continued to grow. Today a number of maritime offices and international organisations, and national agencies, use the updated maps prepared by UNOSAT as reference material.

UNITAR and GTZ have opened a three-day workshop in Addis Ababa for focal points and negotiators from English-speaking African countries involved in the Ad Hoc Open Ended Working Group on Access and Benefit-sharing (ABSWG). The workshop is associated with the GTZ-led ABS Capacity Development Initiative for Africa, and aims to provide focal points and negotiators with an opportunity to analyze the outcomes of the recent ABS expert meetings on compliance and concepts, terms, working definitions and sectoral approaches.

UN Headquarters New York, Dag Hammarskjold Library Auditorium, Friday, 6 March, from 10 a.m. to 1 p.m.

Da Nang, Vietnam
18th to 20th February 2009


The opening session
The workshop on Climate and Disaster Resilience in Coastal Asian Cities strengthened the capacity of local authorities to reduce urban risks and to adapt to climate change. The workshop was organized by UNITAR through the CIFAL Kuala Lumpur, CityNet and the Kyoto University in cooperation with Veolia Environnement and UNISDR.

Da Nang, Vietnam
18th to 20th February 2009


The opening session
The workshop on Climate and Disaster Resilience in Coastal Asian Cities strengthened the capacity of local authorities to reduce urban risks and to adapt to climate change. The workshop was organized by UNITAR through the CIFAL Kuala Lumpur, CityNet and the Kyoto University in cooperation with Veolia Environnement and UNISDR.

Geoff Parcell, former Knowledge Management expert at BP and co-author of the best-seller Learning to Fly: Practical Knowledge Management from Leading and Learning Organizations, offered some insights into how to effectively capture and share knowledge within an organization such as UNITAR on the occasion of UNITAR’s Brown-Bag Lunch on 6th March.
 

In the framework of UNITAR’s new strategic plan, the Institute envisages to enhance its outreach to Ibero-american countries. In the perspective of widening and consolidating its training and capacity development activities, the conclusion of partnerships and cooperation arrangements with countries and regional organizations in Latin America are vital to the success of these objectives.

WIPO Coordination Office New York, 18 February 2009, 9:30am – 6pm