“In previous years, we fumbled our way along. But, after the course, we realized it is possible to proceed in a very precise way."

Far from bragging about it, 25 years old Hasan might be too modest to acknowledge he's part of Iraq's best chances for a brighter future. Born in Baghdad one year after the end of the first Gulf War, he grew up in a family of engineers that definitely nurtured his own interest for science.

The United Nations Institute for Training and Research (UNITAR) has agreed to an unprecedented partnership with the Arab Gulf Program for Development (AGFUND), which will be concluded today as part of the Fifth AGFUND Development Forum. Both organizations, represented by Mr. Nikhil Seth, United Nations Assistant Secretary-General and Executive Director of UNITAR, and by Mr. Nasser B. Al-Kahtani, Executive Director of the AGFUND, will sign a Memorandum of Understanding based on mutual trust and in spirit of cooperation. The official signing will be the preamble of the “Symposium on the Role of Financial Inclusion in Achieving the 2030 Agenda of Sustainable Development”, organized by the AGFUND and taking place today at the Hotel President Wilson in Geneva.

The United Nations Institute for Training and Research (UNITAR) Hiroshima Office has successfully completed the second workshop of the UNITAR Iraq Fellowship Programme: Entrepreneurship and Leadership Youth Training, held in Tokyo and Hiroshima, Japan, from 5 – 11 March 2017. The Fellowship is a six-month specialized capacity-building programme examining entrepreneurship and youth leadership in the context of Iraq and incorporating two face-to-face international workshops, blending online and asynchronous learning, and participant-led real-world projects. The Fellowship is implemented with the generous support of the Government of Japan.

7 February 2017, Hiroshima, Japan - The final workshop of the 2016-2017 UNITAR Hiroshima Training Programme on Anti-Corruption for North Africa successfully concluded in Tokyo on Friday. Supported by the People of Japan, the workshop was held in Hiroshima and Tokyo between 30 January and 3 February 2017. Twenty-four (24) participants from government and civil society organizations came from Algeria, Morocco and Tunisia.

12 December 2016, Hiroshima, Japan – The UNITAR Hiroshima Office has successfully completed the first workshop of the UNITAR Iraq Fellowship Programme: Entrepreneurship and Leadership Youth Training, held in Amman, Jordan, from 28 November to 2 December. The Fellowship is a six-month specialized capacity-building programme, incorporating two face-to-face international workshops, implemented with the generous support of the Government of Japan, that examines entrepreneurship and youth leadership in the context of Iraq.

14 November 2016, Tokyo, Japan - The UNITAR Hiroshima Office has completed the UNITAR Hiroshima Women's Leadership in Tsunami-based Disaster Risk Reduction Training Programme for World Tsunami Awareness Day 2016. Conducted in collaboration with the Government of Japan and the United Nations Office for Disaster Risk Reduction (UNIDSR), the workshop was successfully held between 30 October to 7 November 2016 in Tokyo, Sendai and Wakayama. Twenty-six senior female participants, selected from fourteen Pacific Small Island Developing States (SIDS) including: Cook Islands, Federated States of Micronesia, Fiji, Marshall Islands, Kiribati, Nauru, Niue, Palau, Papua New Guinea, Samoa, Solomon Islands, Tonga, Tuvalu, and Vanuatu, completed the training programme. In order to encourage both the development of a Community of Practice, as well as national, regional, and supra-regional discourse, participants from each country included one representative of government, and one of civil society.

1 November 2016, Casablanca, Morocco - The UNITAR Hiroshima Office has successfully completed the first workshop of the UNITAR Hiroshima Training Programme on Anti-Corruption for North Africa. Supported by the People of Japan, the workshop was held in Casablanca, Morocco on 24-27 October 2016 and delivered in French. The workshop brought together 25 participants, including 7 from Algeria, 8 from Morocco and 10 from Tunisia, representing government institutions and civil society organizations.

10 March 2016, New York, USA - Mr. Nikhil Seth, UNITAR Executive Director, met today with the United Nations Secretary-General , Mr. Ban Ki-moon at the United Nations Headquarters in New York.

19 January 2016, Geneva, Switzerland - It is with great sadness that we learned that our highly respected and beloved colleague, Mr. Jean Gazarian, UNITAR full-time Senior Fellow, passed away yesterday at the Mount Sinai Hospital in New York, United States.  Our heartfelt condolences go out to his family.