27 May 2021, Geneva, Switzerland and Beijing, China - The United Nations Institute for Training and Research (UNITAR), the Geneva School of Economics and Management of the University of Geneva and the School of Economics and Management of Tsinghua University have signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) to set global standards for SDG Education and Open Innovation.

28 May 2021, Geneva, Switzerland - The new course, entitled Harnessing Digital Financial Technologies for Sustainable Development, places two of the world’s megatrends into focus that all of us experience on a daily basis: digital revolution and sustainable development.

25 May 2021, Hong Kong, China / Hiroshima, Japan - UNITAR and ITS Education Asia will jointly launch the UNITAR Youth Ambassador Asia Pacific Programme. The 10-week programme empowers high school students to help our world build back better, greener, and stronger from the COVID-19 pandemic. The programme will debut in Hong Kong in September 2021 with the support of 20 official school partners. It will be expanded to various cities in China in 2022, followed by other Asia-Pacific countries in 2023.

The UNITAR Iraq Entrepreneurship and Leadership Youth Training Programme is a fellowship initiative that provides youth with skills in entrepreneurship and leadership to develop or strengthen local businesses that contribute to social and economic stability in their country. In this Impact Story, we review the extent to which participants have applied or transferred knowledge and skills from the programme and the challenges encountered by them and spotlight the experiences from three participants.

New technologies, products and related services have the potential to stimulate financial innovation and efficiency as well as improve financial inclusion, but they also present new risks for the financial system and regulators.

UNITAR will be offering a new training programme titled Gender Mainstreaming in Renewable Energy Trade. This offering is aimed at training policymakers with a better understanding of the gendered dimensions affecting the growth of the renewable energy sector and renewable energy trade.

The new training programme is part of UNITAR’s comprehensive Digital Finance Initiative, which aims at supporting training for emerging innovations in trade and finance.

The conference generated forward-looking and future-oriented discussions on the future of finance in the context of the latest FinTech innovations, best practices of digitalizing monetary policy and currencies from the regulatory perspective, and the potential of digital innovations in accelerating sustainable development. UNITAR partnered with such distinguished entities for this event as the Asian Development Bank, Deloitte Switzerland, Geneva Finance Research Institute of the University of Geneva, Instimatch Global, National Bank of Hungary, SIX Digital Exchange and Swiss Finance and Technology Association.

UNITAR’s Digital Finance Initiative aims to leverage the digital age by harnessing innovation and scaling financial inclusion to support the achievement of the SDGs.

May 4, 2021, New York, USA.- The Head of the UNITAR Office in New York, Mr. Marco Suazo, participated in the side event entitled “Building an Effective Way Forward for Indigenous Peoples to Participate and Contribute with their Knowledge and Experience” in the framework of the 6th Multi-Stakeholder Forum on Science, Technology and Innovation for the SDGs.