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Diego Caicedo - General Secretariat of the Andean Community (SGCAN) The commitment of the General Secretariat of the Andean Community (SGCAN in Spanish) to the well-being of its 115 million inhabitants is more than just a mission - it's a driving force for positive change. In 2023, a pivotal partnership between UNITAR and SGCAN emerged, dedicated to enhancing road safety throughout the Andean Community (CAN in Spanish). This collaboration led to the introduction of the Virtual Road Safety Dashboard, a groundbreaking tool empowering road safety experts and Mi...
Title: Auxiliary Police Officer
Country: Canada
Course: Management Practices for Safer Roads: Toolkit
In 2002, the town of Drachten, in the Netherlands, removed nearly all traffic lights and road marks in the name of road safety. The aim was to reduce accidents and improve the town’s quality. The paradoxical experiment worked, and despite increases in traffic volumes, accident numbers fell from 8.3 per year between 1994 and 2002 to an average of just one per year in 2005.
If traffic signs are supposed to make traffic flow safer, how did the experiment work? The answer lie...
Dr. Alba Ávila is an Associate Professor at the University of the Andes in Colombia, who specializes in teaching and research in nanotechnologies. She was one of the experts in nanotechnologies, who helped organize and chair sessions at the Nanosafety Regional Workshop for the Latin America and Caribbean Region, which was held in Bogotá, Colombia in 2015.
Nanotechnology is a growing industry poised to create an array of economic and social benefits worldwide, while potential risks to…
Partner: Regional Municipality of York, Canada
Focal Point: Lisa Gonsalves
Title: Director, Strategies and Partnerships Branch, Regional Municipality of York, Canada (on Social Inclusion)
More than ever, immigration and ethnic diversity are at the top of the global political agenda and have been subjects of heated debates. Nativism is driving populism and some people are reluctant to welcome foreigners, thinking that immigration will negatively change their communities, their countries and the economy at large. Studies show that when migrants move from one c...
10 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...
The communities of the Cook Islands have had to be self-reliant when it comes to natural disasters.
“We’ve had a fortnight of heavy, heavy rain. Just last week, a coconut tree fell across the road on my driveway. So [the community], we got out there and cleaned it up,” says Lydia Sijp, member of the Tupapa/Maraeranga disaster management committee on Rarotonga, the country’s largest and most populous island, and 2016 UNITAR training alumna.
We call for help from the government. But if the government doesn’t turn up, we just get out there and do it ourselves.
The Co...
Born in 1961, Ziad Obeidat has lived most of his life in Jordan, where he now holds the position of Director of Development Plans & Programs at the Ministry of Planning & International Cooperation. He first began working for the government of Jordan in 1993, less than four years after the country’s first free elections. Since that time, his political career has continued to rise, while his country has gone through many changes.
In the first ten years of the new millennium Jordan's economy grew steadily, but the country was later faced with a number of challenges…
10 August 2023, Port Vila, Vanuatu - Vanuatu faces many threats because of climate change – the most visible of which is sea-level rise. While coastal inundation poses great risks to infrastructure, damage can be mitigated through evidence-based planning geospatial information technologies (GIT). Leveraging GIT with new and innovative technologies like drones can assist decision-makers in targeting their country’s most vulnerable sectors and communities, thereby ensuring future resilience.
One key entry point in boosting Vanuatu’s climate resilience has been in supporting ...
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...
The increase in disaster occurrences and the high numbers of victims resulting from conflicts are urgent issues that require effective and rapid action. Satellite imagery analysis is a vital tool essential in this response, as it can cover large areas and provide accurate information in near real time. The Emergency Mapping Service (EMS) at the United Nations Satellite Centre (UNOSAT) supported by funding from the Norwegian Ministry of Foreign Affairs (NMFA), delivers satellite image analysis during humanitarian emergencies/crises that stem from disasters, complex emer...