The recent upheaval in Afghanistan has affected many people including UNITAR alumni, partners and prospective participants. UNITAR has been following the situation with utmost concern and has called for the protection of human life, humanitarian assistance and respect for the rights of all people in Afghanistan.

The Division of Prosperity has been providing learning support to the people of Afghanistan, particularly women, for more than a decade and is committed to continuing this work. However, to ensure the safety of our learners, we temporarily suspended in August our ongoing programmes in Afghanistan until a safe learning environment could be assured for all.

We were therefore pleased to resume our COVID-19 Response and Recovery Programme: Mobilizing Resilient Entrepreneurs to Address Food Insecurity, Public Health and Unemployment – For Women in Afghanistan on 8 October 2021, following a two-month hiatus. The participants were highly motivated to return to their studies, especially women who are having difficulties accessing learning opportunities in the ever-changing situation of the country.

Through the shared platforms and discussions, these budding social entrepreneurs deepened their understanding of local food insecurity, public health challenges and unemployment, as well as forged connections with each other by sharing their concerns and hopes for the future.

The Leading Inclusive 4IR: Empowering Women in Afghanistan for the Future of Work through Digital Reskilling programme similarly has plans to resume in January 2022. One of the programme’s alumnae, Hosna, a student of the American University of Afghanistan, emphasizes how indispensable these e-learning opportunities are for women in Afghanistan to not lose their hope.

Many young Afghan women have grown up believing in their right to pursue their dreams and yearn to make a positive difference, even as they fear an uncertain future. To support women like Hosna pursue their goals, UNITAR Division for Prosperity with UNITAR Association set up the #FreedomToLearn donation drive. The funds raised will be used to develop a new free online training programme for Afghan women to develop practical skills to run businesses or find work and navigate uncertainty and disinfodemics. We have raised approximately USD 7,200 to date. If you would like to contribute, please email us at: prosperity_communications@unitar.org

On 8 September 2021, UNITAR Division for Prosperity launched the Women’s Leadership in Tsunami-based Disaster Risk Reduction Programme, a three-month course on disaster prevention targeting women living in or from Pacific island countries and territories.

Through mobile lessons and interactive webinars, the programme covers topics such as the Sendai Framework, Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), gender-responsive disaster risk reduction, multi-stakeholder coalitions in disaster risk reduction, community-based disaster risk reduction, and climate change. The initial turnout was a success – over a hundred participants joined the first webinar and have gone on to develop their own disaster risk reduction plans.

The programme gives voice to people from the Pacific, who tell stories of their first-hand experiences to contextualize the importance of disaster risk reduction.

One such account is of Anzonetta Janice Joan Slaven-Schwalger and her husband Jared, who lost their children and immediate family members in the 2009 Samoa earthquake and tsunami. Anzonetta testifies how no preparations had been made before disaster struck. Her subsequent loss highlights how vital it is for participants to develop a disaster preparedness plan to minimize loss and save lives.

One of the most important takeaways for participants in past runs of the programme was to “build back better” as outlined in the Sendai Framework. “If we learn from every hazard and build back better in preparation for recurrence and/or even worse disasters, the world will eventually attain a decent disaster preparedness level,” said alumna Ankia Chia, a health professional and teacher working in Micronesia.

Everlyn Fiualakwa of the Solomon Islands, another programme alumna and now UNITAR resource person, echoes this emphasis on prevention.

UNITAR will continue to support women’s leadership in disaster risk reduction and provide them with the knowledge and skillsets to incorporate into their future work.

UNITAR will be launching the new programme Entrepreneurship, Innovation and Leadership Training for Women Entrepreneurs in Africa with Unilever’s Sunlight and Absa Bank Kenya to help women entrepreneurs in Kenya develop their social and for-profit businesses.

Unilever’s Sunlight has invested in a five-year programme to support women in business through initiatives such as financial literacy training and advertising. Absa Bank has pledged to bring its expertise on practical matters such as how to register a business, formalize operations and keep accurate records.

Conducted online, the joint programme will train 5,000 participants in social entrepreneurship, financial and digital literacy by the end of June 2022. UNITAR hopes that this partnership will help further strengthen local businesses to create a meaningful and sustainable impact in Kenyan society.

On 15 November 2021, UNITAR launched the first round of the Strategic Response to COVID-19 Crisis: Empowering the Sahel Region through Digital Reskilling and Upskilling to Enhance Productive Sources of Livelihood and Employment training programme.

To meet high demand, UNITAR accepted 500 women and youth from eight countries in the Sahel region. The programme aims to support them in transforming their entrepreneurial ideas into digital products that address critical local issues.

Conducted in French, the six-week training programme will be held online and will cover programming skills, digital literacy, application development, cybersecurity and artificial intelligence training, combined with gender leadership training. Two rounds of the programme are scheduled to be run.

UNITAR also launched the Leading Inclusive 4IR: Empowering Women in Iraq for the Future of Work through Digital Reskilling course this November, with 150 participants. Similar in content to the Sahel programme, the six-week online programme will train young women in Iraq to transform their entrepreneurial plans into concrete digital products that empower others and address social issues in their communities.