16 July 2020, Geneva, Switzerland – UNITAR is pleased to present the Emoji Campaign “Stand Up for Road Safety” developed with the support of British Petroleum (BP) and the Royal Automobile Club of Spain (RACE) to promote respect of traffic rules and good road safety behavior by all road users.

On 14 July 2020, UNICEF, UNECA and UNITAR organized an online side event “Strengthening National Capacities for the World We Want – Embedding Evaluation in Voluntary National Reviews” during the virtual 2020 High-Level Political Forum on Sustainable Development (HLPF). The event aimed to explore and promote the use of evaluative thinking and evidence within Voluntary National Reviews (VNRs). Representatives from UNICEF, UNECA and UNITAR were joined by panelists from several African countries to share their experiences and the challenges and opportunities they have faced in their VNR and evaluation processes.

Curitiba, Brazil, 9 July 2020 - New technologies have had unprecedented impacts on industries and on the performance of professionals. The so-called fourth industrial revolution provided the citizens of the 21st century with a set of technologies with unprecedented historical impacts, materialized in the wide digitalization and technological convergence of the most diverse aspects.

7 July 2020, Geneva, Switzerland - 30 diplomats and embassy personnel from the Republic of Kenya, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, the Republic of Burundi, and the Republic of Rwanda gathered virtually in order to reinforce their skillset in two key areas: Cybersecurity and Security Awareness, and Digital Diplomacy.

3 July 2020 - UNITAR-UNOSAT and the University of Copenhagen co-organized and delivered a 3-week Masters level course entitled “Geo-information in disaster situations” ending on 3 July 2020. The beneficiaries were University of Copenhagen students registered in the Master of Disaster Management programme. Instruction during the first week focused on introductory concepts and essential software applications as well as data analysis and cartographic modelling; it was delivered by the Geography Section of the Department of Geosciences and Natural Resources Management at the University of Copenhagen.

On 11 June 2020, UNITAR participated in the launch of a new system for university ranking, the World’s Universities with Real Impact (WURI).

22 June 2020, Geneva, Switzerland – UNITAR’s Division for People launched the “Webinar Series Management Practices for Safer Roads” to raise awareness about practical interventions and best practices that contribute to improve road safety. Mr. Nikhil Seth, Executive Director of UNITAR, kicked off the series and highlighted the importance of remaining focused on issues like road safety during these unprecedented times. “Let’s continue to take bold steps to reduce road traffic crashes and let’s further collaborate so that when the COVID-19 pandemic is behind us, we stand ready to bring new learnings and best practices to the next decade of action for road safety”, stressed Mr. Seth.

Collegium Civitas has become the first Polish university to sign a Memorandum of Understanding with the United Nations Institute for Training and Research (UNITAR), Division for Peace. The MoU outlines the scope of prospective collaboration that includes: training and degree programmes in various thematic fields such as sustainable development, international security and the rule of law.

Strong demand for the online course on Trade and Food Security has prompted UNITAR and the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) to relaunch the course in French for Sub-Saharan African countries. It was initially offered for Sub-Saharan African countries in French in 2018 and in English in 2019.

15 June 2020, Geneva, Switzerland – UNITAR’s Division for Prosperity successfully completed a SIDA-funded pilot programme on “Frontier Technologies for Sustainable Development: Unlocking Women’s Entrepreneurship through Artificial Intelligence (AI) in Afghanistan and Iraq” which benefitted 32 women entrepreneurs from various sectors in the 2 countries.