Since October 2023, the Gaza Strip has been living through one of the most severe and prolonged displacement crises of recent decades. Families who fled bombardment lost not only their homes but any prospect of returning to them. More than a million people came to settle in makeshift sites along the coastline, in public spaces, on school grounds, and on the edges of urban areas, sheltering in manufactured tents that offered little protection from the elements. With almost no intact housing available, families in tents on low-lying, near-sea-level ground faced acute exposure when winter arrived.

Higher Education Institutions (HEIs) play a critical role in advancing sustainable development by shaping the knowledge, skills, and mindsets of present and future generations. Developed by UNITAR, UNESCO, and a collective of HEIs, the Leaders in Higher Education Alliance and Programme - for Accelerating Sustainability Transformations (LEAP-FAST) aimed to strengthen this role by fostering a global movement of sustainability leaders in higher education. The initiative comprises four components: a Leadership Dialogue, a Certificate Programme, an SDG Ambassadors' Programme, and Regional and National Spin-offs.

April 2026 - Small Island Developing States (SIDS) such as Saint Lucia face a persistent challenge: producing timely, accurate, and granular data to inform decision-making. Rapidly changing informal settlements, combined with limited statistical resources, make it difficult to maintain up-to-date population estimates and vulnerability assessments.
For Saint Lucia’s Central Statistics Office (CSO), the challenge became particularly visible when the 2022 population and household census was estimated to have a 23.3 per cent undercount rate. Based on listings and field experience, the CSO suspected that much of this undercount was concentrated in informal settlement areas, where housing patterns can change quickly between census cycles. These gaps are not only technical. They affect how services are planned, how risks are assessed, and how resources are allocated.

Over the past years, the Tanzania Peacekeeping Training Centre (TPTC) has undergone a significant transformation: from a relatively low-profile national training institution to an increasingly recognized centre of reference for peacekeeping training in Africa. UNITAR’s support in 2025 contributed to accelerating this trajectory by reinforcing the centre’s institutional capacity, training methodologies, and ability to adapt to evolving operational demands.

Electronics are the world’s fastest-growing waste stream, and yet most countries still lack the data, systems, and institutional capacities required for effective management. UNITAR’s Sustainable Cycles (SCYCLE) Programme has not only built the world’s most comprehensive multi-level monitoring architecture—spanning global, regional, and national e-waste and material-flow analyses—but also develops the expert networks, methodological leadership, and practical system knowledge needed to support real-world transition processes.

Limited awareness and understanding of Human Rights trigger a number of challenges, including discrimination, access to fair and independent justice, and conflicts. In this regard, fostering knowledge, skills, and attitudes in this field enables more inclusive, prosperous, resilient, and peaceful societies. As a contribution to this end, the Saudi Human Rights Commission, UNITAR, and Majmaah University developed and implemented the Expert in Human Rights Programme in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia.

10 February 2026, Hiroshima, Japan - Andre Magpantay is a university instructor of art studies from the Philippines, whose work focuses on art and ecology and on how art engages with memory. In 2025, he joined the UNITAR programme SDGs and Digital Futures: Changemaking Through AI and Digital Storytelling, where he explored how digital tools could be used to capture memories and tell stories that help people recover, prevent future disasters and foster peace.

30 January 2026, Hiroshima, Japan - Paolo Zurita is Assistant Director for the Peace and Security Division at the Office of the United Nations and International Organizations, Philippine Department of Foreign Affairs. In this role, he is responsible for handling peace and security matters, especially nuclear non-proliferation and disarmament. He joined the UNITAR Hiroshima Nuclear Disarmament and Non-Proliferation Training in February 2025 to build his technical skills in this highly specialized field.

28 January 2026, Hiroshima, Japan - Kiana Dominique Cezar is a supply chain data analyst from the Philippines, working in a global energy and petrochemicals company, and previously volunteered with a Europe–Asia youth think tank. In 2025, she joined the United Nations Institute for Training and Research (UNITAR) programme “SDGs and Digital Futures: Changemaking Through AI and Digital Storytelling”, where she explored how AI and digital technologies can be used to tell stories that connect sustainable development, history and peacebuilding.

22 January 2026, Hiroshima, Japan - Jinto Kanazawa is a high school student in Hiroshima. In 2025, he joined the United Nations Institute for Training and Research (UNITAR) “SDGs and Digital Futures: Changemaking Through AI and Digital Storytelling” where he learned how digital tools can be used to share personal stories connected to peace and the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).