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8 June 2022, Geneva, Switzerland - On Saturday 15th January 2022, the ongoing volcanic eruption of Hunga Tonga-Hunga Ha’apai triggered a tsunami across the Pacific. The scale of the explosion was so large, undersea communications lines were damaged, leaving the population of the Kingdom of Tonga out of reach. The dense ash clouds, added to the poor meteorological conditions, limited the flying capabilities and visual confirmation of the situation on the ground. Satellite imagery, therefore, became a key source of information to assess the extent and severity of the damages ...
When Lu’isa Uai Taunga, an officer with the National Emergency Management Office in the Kingdom of Tonga, participated in the UNITAR Disaster Risk Reduction Training which wrapped up in November 2017, she left with renewed energy and ideas for new initiatives to prepare her community in the island group of Ha’apai in the event of a disaster. “This year I changed my approach, and this is something I learned from UNITAR during my school visit where the bottom to top approach was used.” she shared with UNITAR disaster risk reduction training associate, Junko Shimazu.
She wor...
Title: Chief Operations Officer of the National Emergency Operations Center
Country: Solomon Islands
Partnership: CommonSensing Project
Tropical Cyclones are regular and disastrous occurrences for the Solomon Islands. Each year the cyclone season brings powerful wind speeds and high storm surges, threatening SIDS. George Baragamu, Chief Operations Officer of the National Emergency Operations Center (NEOC), situated in the National Disaster Management Office (NDMO), in the Solomon Islands, knows the risks of such weather events too well.
George works to protect the country...
29 December 2021, Geneva, Switzerland - On the 2nd of December 2021, UNITAR hosted the third meeting of UN SDG:Learn Steering Group entirely online. The meeting was co-organized with the UN System Staff College (UNSSC).
The main objectives of this meeting included an overview of the various accomplishments of UN SDG:Learn in 2021 and discussions regarding the future of the initiative. The various efforts, hopes and intentions of the Learning Pathways working group, the working group on Partnership, Co-creation and Programming, and of the working group on Communi...
Mele Moimoi is a disaster risk reduction trainer at Tonga National Council of Churches (TNCC).
Her preparedness habits and knowledge about disaster risk reduction helped her in the 2022 Tonga disaster.
Mele learned about gender leadership in disasters at the 2021 UNITAR Hiroshima Women’s Leadership in Tsunami-based Disaster Risk Reduction (DRR) Training Programme.
Tongan women take care of the family while men work far from home. Women need to know how to respond to disasters and lead in crises.
, April 2022 - The volcanic eruption and subsequent tsunami that hit Tong...
Jewel's passion for disaster risk management stems from personal experiences during disasters, particularly the 2009 tsunami, which highlighted the importance of community preparedness.As the Manager of the National Disaster Management Unit in Tokelau, Jewel focuses on community capacity building, emergency management planning, and training for first responders.The geographical isolation of Tokelau complicates immediate disaster responses, while the community faces vulnerabilities due to climate change and limited resources.Jewel discovered the UNITAR DRR training program t...
Name: W.A. Kumudu Sanjeewa
Title: Head of Communications and Information Management (CIMU), United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs
Country: South Sudan
Partnership: United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs
South Sudan is ranked among the five countries in the world most vulnerable to the impacts of climate change. In the past years, the country has seen wet seasons becoming wetter, and dry seasons getting even drier. As a result, devastating floods are mercilessly hitting its population with increasingly destructive pow...
Name: Pierluigi Sinibaldi
Organization: OXFAM America
Functional Title: Disaster Risk Reduction Specialist
Country: USA
Course participated in: 13th International Course on GIS for Disaster Risk Management
Pierluigi Sinibaldi is a Resilience and Disaster Risk Reduction Specialist at OXFAM America. He took a course on Geographic Information Systems (GIS) with UNITAR’s Operational Satellite Applications Programme (UNOSAT).
Pierluigi has worked in the humanitarian sector since 2002 in a variety of areas, including food security, emergency response, a...
Name: Nafissa Dia
Organization: Senegal Ministry of Economy, Finance, and Planning
Functional Title: Head of the Environmental Affairs Division
Country: Senegal
Course participated in: Private Sector Development course with PFTP
Nafissa Dia is Head of the Environmental Affairs Division at the Senegal Ministry of Economy, Finance, and Planning. She took a course on Private Sector Development organized by the Public Finance and Trade Programme (PFTP) at UNITAR.
Nafissa’s background is in International Commerce. She went to the International School o...
The Shimanami Collective comprises of three distinct yet interrelated training programmes to be implemented in more than 30 countries. These programmes will build capacity among government officials, public- and private-sector employees and individuals through specialized trainings in sea and human safety, early warning systems, and women’s leadership in disaster risk reduction. The UNITAR programme on Sea and Human Security offered invaluable insights into integrating maritime and human security strategies. It enhanced my understanding of how to address the complex in...