31 October 2022, Cape Town, South Africa – In the framework of the 7th Regional Conference for Africa under the theme Connecting Africa through Smart, Safe and Resilient Roads: Stimulating Growth and Trade on the Continent, UNITAR and CIFAL Durban in collaboration with the South African Roads Federation (SARF), the International Road Federation (IRF), the World Road Association (PIARC), offered a training session on innovative practices to optimize road networks, and a training workshop on the Management Practices for Safer Roads Toolkit, gathering more than 500 delegates from 33 countries, including provincial and local government officials, experts from road agencies, and road authorities and decision makers. The activities provided useful tools and learnings to regional challenges of road safety and brought ideas for improving road networks in Africa.

28 October 2022, Johannesburg, South Africa – Screening and Brief Interventions (SBI) for hazardous and harmful drinking are considered as a preventative approach which measures an individual’s drinking pattern during outpatient or wellness visits and provides interventions to those at risk of harmful use of alcohol. In addition, web-based information, self-testing and self-help guidance, using simple advice and education materials are some of the channels of information that can be further utilized to advance this objective.

The first years of life of infants are crucial for their development. Exclusive breastfeeding is one of the most effective ways to ensure child health and it is particularly important due to its role in lowering morbidity and mortality, reducing the risk of chronic diseases, respiratory infections, and certain noncommunicable diseases, amongst other benefits. Studies also show that exclusive breastfeeding practices between 0-23 months can contribute to save 804,000 children every year and 20,000 annual deaths from breast cancer.

21 October 2022, Geneva, Switzerland - UNITAR’s Division for People and Social Inclusion has partnered with Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) and Total Energies Nigeria to create a recycling plant in Port Harcourt, Nigeria, empowering members of the Elelenwo community in the process.

14 October 2022, New York, USA - The United Nations Institute for Training and Research (UNITAR) New York Office held a closed Security Council Training session for the Permanent Mission of Switzerland to the United Nations.

As part of their well-established partnership, UNITAR) and Takeda, a global pharmaceutical leader and an active member of the United Nations Global Compact, are pleased to announce a new joint initiative focused on strengthening countries’ healthcare systems to meet patients’ needs for plasma and plasma-derived therapies.

27 September 2022, Plock, Poland – The International Training Centre for Authorities and Leaders (CIFAL) in Plock hosted the “City Coders Hackathon Plock” on 25-26 September, bringing together 81 participants, mostly high schoolers and university students to develop an application that would respond to the needs of the city residents.

"Even though we have traffic lights, cameras, signs and enough space for everyone, there is always an element of surprise. We can redesign things to predict those risks, but everything comes back to outreach and education. This course focuses on that."

For the Division for People and Social Inclusion, multilingualism is key for the expansive outreach of our activities and events. Mr. Alex Mejia, Director of UNITAR’s People’s Division and Social Inclusion explains, “it is fundamental to embrace multilingualism for two main reasons. One because we are the United Nations, we are supposed to be multilingual, and two, we cannot teach other people to embrace multilingualism if we do not embrace it ourselves.”

Quito, Ecuador, 20 September 2022 - UNITAR in close collaboration with CIFAL Ecuador have continued to rollout the Autosobriety Training Programme to Prevent Drink Driving to expand its reach across different Provinces in Ecuador. Over 800 individuals working in different areas in the field of road safety were trained throughout 5 workshops that took place in the Provinces of Santo Domingo, Cotopaxi, Cuenca, Loja, and Portoviejo between June and July 2022.