Nkiru recognized that an important factor that contributed to foster application of knowledge in her organization is the existence of a large network of women with the capabilities to utilize the new knowledge without the need for extra personnel.

Les participants, tous originaires d’Afrique sub-saharienne, étaient pour la plupart des représentant de gouvernements et d’autres autorités impliquées dans la formulation de politique agricole, de programme et mesures.

"We developed a management model for an entrepreneurship promotion center, which took into account the elements mentioned in the course."

With the hackathon, Enas became more inspired to continue promoting healthier lifestyles and cities’ renaturalization with her students. She has replicated some of the methodologies from the hackathon in her classes.

As part of the AGFUND and UNITAR Global Learning Platform on Financial Inclusion initiative, two e-workshops were organized to enhance the capacities of professionals in the areas of financial inclusion and sustainable development. The e-workshops "Financial inclusion and sustainable development" and "Training of Trainers for financial inclusion" were delivered in November and December 2020, over four weeks each. The e-workshops targeted professionals working in microfinance or financial institutions from the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) and Sub-Saharan Africa (SSA).

Over the past decade or two, increasing efforts have been directed to promote gender equality and empowerment of women in all sectors of society, including women’s participation in leadership and decision-making positions. To contribute to this common objective, the International Organisation of Employers (IOE) and UNITAR organised a series of three e-workshops on gender, women’s leadership and mentoring in November and December 2020. The series aimed to strengthen female leaders’ confidence, resilience and leadership capacities, and targeted women and men in leadership positions, with special attention to those working in employers’ and business organisations.

The Arab Gulf Programme for Development (AGFUND) and UNITAR launched the Global Learning Platform on Financial Inclusion in October 2019. The initiative aims to enhance capacities on financial management and financial inclusion. It is oriented towards finance practitioners, particularly in micro-credit financial institutions and in government entities fostering financial inclusion of women and young entrepreneurs, as well as officers in governments, NGOs and other civil society organizations. Since its launch, AGFUND and UNITAR have delivered eight online courses and two e-workshops on the platform, all free of charge, targeting participants from least developed countries, landlocked developing countries and small island development states; especially from Sub-Saharan Africa, the Middle East and North Africa. To increase the likelihood of reaching the intended beneficiaries, a selection process was carried out for each learning event and the platform was made available in desktop version and through a mobile app.

The programme’s coaching component has helped those selected as coaches to enhance their hard skills and improve their soft skills, which they can sometimes implement in their workplaces.

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.

Natallia noted that more and more officials and experts in the field are completing FAO-UNITAR courses, which is also conducive for the promotion of new ideas at the national level.