UNITAR has joined the Global Alliance for Social Entrepreneurship, a World Economic Forum initiative hosted by the Schwab Foundation. The Global Alliance, formerly known as the COVID Response Alliance was launched in April 2020 to mobilise support for social entrepreneurs on the frontlines of the COVID-19 pandemic. The Alliance was launched at the WEF Annual Meeting (22-26 May 2022, Davos, Switzerland), with 100 leading global organizations and an estimated 100,000+ social entrepreneurs. The Alliance collaborates on several key areas with direct relevance to UNITAR, including expanding and streamlining access to high-quality non-financial resources for social enterprises across the world. UNITAR brings to the collaboration our expertise in supporting social entrepreneurs. Our network of alumni and learners will be able to connect with like-minded contributors from around the world.

Participants of the UNITAR Division for Prosperity COVID-19 Response and Recovery Programme: Mobilizing Resilient Entrepreneurs to Address Food Insecurity, Public Health, and Unemployment – For Youth in Iraq, which concluded in March 2022, enjoyed the first “hybrid” in-person training to be held in a UNITAR programme since the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic. The workshop, in Baghdad, marks the beginning of a new hybrid training model that will combine online training sessions with in-person group learning.

UNITAR has been training young innovators in Iraq since 2016. In the 2021-2022 programme, more than 180 entrepreneurs were equipped with the tools to unlock solutions to today’s complex challenges through startups and small and medium-sized businesses. The latest round of the programme ended on 25 March 2022 with an online public webinar “Empower the Youth: Fostering Inclusive Entrepreneurship in Iraq,” commemorating UNITAR’s trainings in Iraq over the past six years. The panellists in the webinar discussed the most pressing problems among Iraqi youth entrepreneurs and potential solutions that would encourage accessibility and growth for youth.

On 28 March 2022, UNITAR and Columbia Business School Executive Education signed an agreement to start a new partnership on digital health and technologies. The collaboration was launched with the training course UNITAR Social Entrepreneurship with Digital Health, offering the opportunity to learners in Africa and the Middle East to build their skills on social entrepreneurship and digital technologies in the health industry.

Taught by Carri Chan, professor of business and faculty director of the Healthcare and Pharmaceutical Management Program at the Columbia Business School, the course introduced participants to key trends in health-related digital technologies, including artificial intelligence and analytics. Participants completed self-paced online courses and quizzes and joined webinars and online discussions to learn about the challenges and opportunities for entrepreneurship in digital health technologies. “UNITAR Division of Prosperity is excited to collaborate with one of the most innovative and advanced institutions in the world to equip women and young people with the tools to change their communities,” said Mihoko Kumamoto, Director, UNITAR Division for Prosperity. UNITAR is looking forward to creating a positive impact through this unified vision.

The second phase of UNITAR Division for Prosperity’s Gender Empowerment Now! Project was launched on 5 April 2022. Funded by the Cypriot Government, this project aims to build policymaking skills and knowledge on gender equality and female empowerment among government officials in Jordan and Lebanon.

Nearly 50 government officials working on gender equality and women’s empowerment were nominated to join the project by their national councils of women and are enhancing their knowledge and skills in policymaking for gender empowerment. Over 10 weeks, participants will work in country teams to learn how to act on existing gender-mainstreaming initiatives in their ministry and country. Participants will complete self-paced online courses and join expert webinars, group discussions and peer reviews, alongside mentoring and networking sessions.

UNITAR signed an agreement with the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) to deliver a 4-week joint online course for officials from Eastern and Southern Africa. Running from 23 May to 17 June 2022, this course is updated version of a similar 2019 training on trade, food security and nutrition. It is for government representatives who are directly involved in developing agricultural policies.

With the pressing need to support trade-related development in the region, there is an increasing demand to expand the technical capacity of national and regional institutions to map out national, subregional and regional trade priorities and constraints. This course seeks to strengthen officials’ skills to carry out evidence-based trade policies, formulate and negotiate trade agreements, and manage needs for economic growth, food security and structural transformation.

Read the impact stories of our course on Agriculture in International Trade Agreements (2019) and on Trade, Food Security and Nutrition (2020). The stories were published late 2021.

On 24 March 2022, UNITAR Division for Prosperity held a virtual conference “Closing the Digital Divide: Strengthening Digital Literacy and Infrastructure” to address the widening digital divide between advanced and developing economies. Over 200 participants listened to a diverse panel of digital-infrastructure developers, service providers, regulators, and facilitators of digital skills programmes who discussed digitization initiatives in Afghanistan, Iraq and the Sahel region.

Panellists talked about approaches to developing digital infrastructures that would create entrepreneurial opportunities to bridge the digital divide. A key takeaway was that such a digital infrastructure could only be effectively developed if users have the necessary skillset. Therefore, digital skills training for youth, women and marginalized communities will be essential to boosting their chances to secure jobs and engage with the digital economy. Beyond digital education, collaborative partnerships in public and private sectors and international actors can create opportunities for digitalization. Regional and local implementation and grass-roots initiatives will all be key to closing the digital divide.