22 January 2025, Hiroshima, Japan - As part of the “International Civil Society Forum to Abolish Nuclear Weapons: 80 Years Since the Atomic Bombing,” UNITAR partners with the Japan Campaign to Abolish Nuclear Weapons (JANA) to host a public event on 9 February 2025. The event will be conducted at the University of the Sacred Heart, Tokyo, in English and Japanese. Prior registration and ticket purchase are necessary for in person attendance. Livestreaming is available for Part I and is free of charge.

17 January 2025, Hiroshima, Japan - Sara El Koussa, an entrepreneur from Lebanon and alumna of the Great Ideas Space 2023: Entrepreneurship and Innovation programme is helping cancer patients and their caregivers and promoting health security in her country.

22 January 2025, Geneva, Switzerland – In a landmark step towards promoting sustainable development and global prosperity, the United Nations Institute for Training and Research (UNITAR) and the University of Wolverhampton have formalized their collaboration by signing an agreement to establish the Prosperity Alliance Wolverhampton, a joint sustainability research knowledge exchange center . This partnership aims to advance the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) by fostering innovation, driving education and research and supporting economic growth and capacity-building.

22 December 2024, Hiroshima, Japan – Eight Hiroshima Youth Ambassadors took their first steps as next-generation leaders aiming to abolish nuclear weapons and realize lasting peace as they completed the 2024 United Nations Institute for Training and Research (UNITAR) Hiroshima Youth Ambassador Programme. The Youth Ambassadors presented their action plans for peace at the closing ceremony, held on 22 December 2024 in Hiroshima City.

16 December 2024, New York, USA - United Nations Secretary-General António Guterres announced today the appointment of Michelle Gyles-McDonnough of Jamaica as the new Executive Director of the United Nations Institute for Training and Research (UNITAR). She will officially assume her duties on 22 February 2025, succeeding Nikhil Seth of India, to whom the Secretary-General expressed profound gratitude for his dedication and contributions to the United Nations.

Until 08 October 2024, Poland had received 981,335 refugees[1] from Ukraine fleeing the war in the country, most of whom are women and children (UNHCR, 2024a, 2024b). Efforts to assist refugees’ economic integration are underway, including job training and language classes, with support from international and local organizations (UNHCR, 2024b). As part of these efforts, the UNITAR Division for Prosperity, with financial support from the Government and the People of Japan, organized the programme “Emergency assistance for Ukrainian women refugees in Poland with digital 4IR training: Bolstering livelihoods” between October 2023 and March 2024. 
The programme targeted Ukrainian women refugees in Poland and aimed at enhancing their employability by providing them the opportunity to acquire new digital skills for the modern job market that either reinforced their previous professional experience to adapt to their new environment or opened ways for exploring new career paths. The programme intended to develop IT and entrepreneurial skills and mindsets to bolster participants’ livelihoods, with emphasis on refugees with more disadvantaged backgrounds. 
Five hundred women out of 1,000 applicants were selected to take part in the programme, seventy-five per cent of whom are between 30 and 46 years old. Participants have diverse professional backgrounds as illustrated in Figure 1. It is also worth noting that eighty per cent of them hold a high educational degree including a bachelor’s, master’s and even PhD. 
[1] The Ukrainian Embassies in Poland and Japan prefer to use the term “evacuees” instead of “refugees” in specific contexts.

During the 50th Financial Action Task Force of Latin America (GAFILAT) Working Groups and Plenary Meetings, UNITAR and UIAF presented the AML/CFT/CFP initiative to more than 100 delegates from 18 GAFILAT member states and observers. This innovative project holds the potential to serve as a model for other countries.

11 December 2024 – The 2024 Youth Ambassador Asia-Pacific Programme concluded on 30 November 2024 with participants showcasing their creative proposals for projects that address local issues and create global impact. Guided by UNITAR and partner ITS Education Asia, 26 young changemakers from Afghanistan, Hong Kong, India, Japan and the Philippines completed the 8-week training programme.

11 December 2024, Riyadh, Saudi Arabia – On 7 December 2024, the United Nations Institute for Training and Research (UNITAR) and the Islamic Development Bank (IsDB) hosted a high-level side event to the sixteenth session of the Conference of the Parties (COP16) of the United Nations Convention to Combat Desertification (UNCCD) , focusing on transformative agricultural partnerships and innovative financial solutions.

6 December 2024, Hiroshima, Japan – On 27 November 2024, the online phase of the UNITAR “Women’s Leadership in Tsunami-based Disaster Risk Reduction” training programme was brought to a successful close. Over three months, participants from the Pacific Islands and Asia learned about climate and disaster resilience, risks management and challenges in the Asian and Pacific regions. Around 130 participants joined the closing webinar of the online training phase.