Amid the ongoing conflict in Ukraine, professionals like Serhii are expanding their skill set to adapt to new challenges. Serhii, a dedicated architect and a member of the UNESCO country team in Ukraine, shared his insights into his evolving role and the impact of recent training programmes on his work.

May 2024, Hiroshima, Japan - Agnes Chiu, a high school student in Hong Kong, leads a global youth initiative called “Design Your Life at 25” to help teenagers envision their life and career paths and make informed decisions to reach their dreams. In immersive three-hour workshops, Agnes and her team guide teenagers through self-discovery journeys to envision their lives at age 25. To date, the initiative has already trained 300 young people from 14 countries. Inspired by the UNITAR Asia Pacific Ambassador Programme, Agnes and her team are now developing an app driven by artificial intelligence (AI) to enhance engagement and accessibility for her workshops.

23 May 2024, Hiroshima, Japan – In the heart of Baghdad Medical City is a woman dedicated to improving Iraqi health care: Dr. Mawadah Arif Hammadi. As a junior resident physician, Mawadah works in the emergency room, where she cares for the many frightened people who come through the door. Doing what she can to ensure that every Iraqi person gets accessible, quality health care, Mawadah is developing a project to raise breast cancer awareness among Iraqi women.

23 May 2024, Hiroshima, Japan - Gloria Loishiye is one of over 2,000 alumni of the 2023 UNITAR Advancing Gender Equality and Women Empowerment Entrepreneurship and Financial Literacy Training Programme. She is a Tanzanian entrepreneur whose ventures span landscaping, gardening and environmental conservation.

22 May 2024, Hiroshima, Japan – Witnessing the devastating effects of disasters in his hometown of Zamboanga City, the Philippines, Guiane Paul Pena, a 17-year-old student at Regional Science High School, became determined to help youth respond effectively to such crises. With his country’s vulnerability to a wide range of disasters, including floods, cyclones, droughts, earthquakes, tsunamis and landslides, exacerbated by climate change, Guiane’s efforts to strengthen local resilience, emergency response and preparedness are both timely and crucial.

15 May 2024, Hiroshima, Japan – Kuena James Dak, a dedicated South Sudanese entrepreneur, is driven by a passion to uplift the agricultural sector and empower local farmers. His vision is to bridge the gap between technology and agriculture. James works through his agritech venture to empower small- and medium-scale farmers so they can boost their productivity and raise their incomes.

Branson Pitakia, Information Technology Officer at the Solomon Islands National Disaster Management Office, illustrates the potential of knowledge and innovation in disaster management. His story shows how geospatial technology can help in disaster preparedness and response, and ultimately protect communities.

At the Fiji Meteorological Service (FMS), Rovil Kumar, a scientific officer specialising in Geographic Information Systems (GIS), coordinates the development of maps and geospatial portals that contribute to Fiji's resilience to extreme weather events. As part of his role, he compiles various maps for climate monitoring, flood mapping, and forecasting of heavy rainfall and tropical cyclones. By doing so, Rovil and his team contribute significantly to Fiji's preparedness and response strategies. To harness the skills to develop these products, Rovil Kumar participated in many trainings conducted by the United Nations Satellite Centre (UNOSAT) over the years, more recently attending the course "Geospatial Training on Flood Susceptibility and Cyclone Exposure Modelling". This training covered fundamentals of QGIS, cyclone mapping, hydrological mapping, and flood modelling using the Height Above Nearest Drainage (HAND) method. The training focused on using this HAND modelling method to perform flash flood vulnerability mapping and tropical cyclone risk mapping.  

The United Nations Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) 13 calls to take urgent action to combat climate change and its impacts with strong emphasis on further implementation of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC). While climate change is a global phenomenon, some countries are more vulnerable to a warming planet. Given this, the Climate Vulnerable Forum (CVF) was created in 2009 as a South-South cooperation platform for collective action to address global climate change. In 2021, UNITAR partnered with the CVF to implement the CVF capacity-building fellowship.

Fiona Meke, an Assistant Lecturer in the Department of Fisheries Studies at the Solomon Islands National University, is actively engaged in environmental research and conservation efforts in the Solomon Islands and the Pacific region.