Displaying 911 - 920 of 1665
16 July 2013, United Nations, New York - The High Commissioner for Refugees was among the UN high level speakers who briefed the UN Security Council on the degradation of the humanitarian situation in Syria. The Chief of UNHCR said: “We have not seen a refugee flow escalate at such an alarming rate since the Rwandan genocide.” Lebanon and Jordan bear the heaviest burden, while the impact on Iraqi Kurdistan and Turkey is also very high. The total of Syrians who have fled violence in their country is now estimated at 1.7 million people, according to OCHA figures.…
14 November 2013, Bangkok, Thailand - Since October 2013 a UNOSAT office is active within the Information and Communications Technology and Disaster Reduction Division at ESCAP in Bangkok. The development comes just 7 months after UNITAR and ESCAP signed a partnership agreement committing to working together for the Asia Pacific region in the areas of satellite applications, disaster management and capacity development at national level.
The UN Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific has 53 member States and is one of the five regional commissions of the…
28 November 2013, Bangkok, Thailand - Both the Permanent Representative of the Philippines, Ambassador Ms. Jocelyn Batoon-Garcia, and Ms. Noeleen Heyzer, United Nations Under-Secretary-General and ESCAP Executive Secretary, recognized the importance of satellite imagery analysis and thanked UNOSAT for its work in support of response to typhoon Haiyan at the opening of the Third Session of the Committee on Disaster Reduction.
ESCAP played host to a week long series of meetings on disaster risk reduction and space applications starting on 26 November. The Committee on…
26 April 2012, Geneva, Switzerland - Several important media and the press have been using data produced by UNOSAT (UNITAR Operational Satellite Applications Programme) to add objectivity to their information on the evolving situation in Syria. Most recently, the BBC has posted a map built on data released by UNOSAT and OCHA (Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian affairs) concerning the localisation and number of casualties. Earlier this week the Washington Post had done the same and posted an analysis of the consequences of the clashes in the country.…
5 May 2012, Geneva, Switzerland - The selected training offer provided by UNOSAT has known an unprecedented success in the last two years. More than 30 knowledge sharing activities and training courses have been designed and delivered by UNOSAT by end 2011, reaching some 600 active professionals in more than 40 beneficiary countries worldwide. These figures reveal a different facet of UNOSAT, an applied Research Programme mainly dedicated to operational work.
UNOSAT training has become rapidly popular because it is based on the operational experience gained by UNOSAT in…
25 September 2012, Geneva, Switzerland - Following recent heavy monsoon rains in Baluchistan, Punjab and Sindh provinces in Pakistan, the UN Development Programme (UNDP) activated the UNOSAT rapid mapping service to obtain satellite derived maps of the affected regions. To carry out the work UNOSAT triggered the Space Charter to bring to the UN the advantage of fresh satellite data provided free of charge by the space agencies participating in this international mechanism. Brazil’s National Institute for Space Research (INPE) is supporting the work of UNOSAT analysts in…
The negotiation process between UNITAR, the Jeju Self Governing Province and International Peace Foundation (IPF) – started mid 2009 – has reached a major stage with the Local Development Programme (LDP) mission in Jeju Island which took place from 23 to 26 November 2009.
UNITAR delegation visited the Jeju Peace Institute (JPI), its premises; among them the large office which will host the CIFAL Jeju as well as the conference room. A series of meetings with JPI officials took place to discuss and agree the broad lines of the Partnership Agreement to set up the…
With outreach, cost-effectiveness and flexibility in mind, UNITAR will use its time-tested and innovative methodology of e-Learning (online training) to train public finance officials from Ibero-American nations.
In the coming months, UNITAR will develop and deploy four six-week e-Learning courses, on themes including negotiation skills, intellectual property and capital markets. These will be offered for free to the public sector, civil society and academic institutions, thanks to generous support from the Spanish government.
Participants taking these online courses –…
14 October 2011, New York, United States of America – On 14 October 2011, the UNITAR New York Office, jointly with the Permanent Mission of Switzerland, organized a half-day workshop on “United Nations Reform: Institutional Adaptation of UN Governing Bodies.” The workshop opened UNITAR’s four-part series on UN reform in New York that covers topics such as management reform, system-wide coherence and new approaches to mediation and preventive diplomacy.
Yvonne Lodico of UNITAR NYO introduced the four part series and briefly explained its objectives. H.E. Paul Seger,…
January 2012, Geneva, Switzerland – After over one year of positive research and experimental tests, the UNOSAT team has acquired its first Mini-UAV in late 2011 and placed orders for a second unit in 2012, while a third unit is planned for 2013.
Mini-UAV, or “unmanned aerial vehicle”, are very light and easy-to-fly electric planes carrying digital cameras and able to fly for a limited time in the vicinity of the operator to collect images over a small area. Most of these vehicles are made from lightweight, flexible plastic or foam and weighs less than a kilogram with wing…