30 young South Sudanese professionals took part in a UNITAR workshop in Hiroshima last month, as a continuation of the UNITAR South Sudan Fellowship Programme: Entrepreneurship and Leadership Youth Training, a six-month specialized capacity-building training programme for select junior to mid-career level professionals. Focusing on project development and implementation, this year’s Fellowship trained 30 South Sudanese Fellows and Coaches, including 13 women, from the public sector, private sector, academic institutions, and civil society organizations. 

UNITAR is organising a learning conferences on “holistic approaches for the implementation of the 2030 Agenda” for African Least Development Countries (LDCs). This conference will specifically target government officials from the 17 English-speaking African LDCs and will take place in Abuja, Nigeria on 1-2 March 2017.

Thursday, 9 February 2017, 2 p.m. - 4.30 p.m. Conference Room XVII, Palais des Nations, Geneva, Switzerland - Join us at the Emirates Room of the Palais for an event commemorating United Nations General Assembly Resolution A65/5, sponsored by the Kingdom of Jordan and adopted unanimously in 2010. This progressive resolution enacted the World Interfaith Harmony Week, to be observed globally every year during the first week of February.

This is a unique opportunity to hear a discussion on the significance of Resolution A65/5 and on the role of faith in peacebuilding and development, in synergy with the 2030 Agenda. Speakers representing several Member States, academic organizations and UN entities, will provide insight on the Muslim and Christian perspectives in these important areas.

7 February 2017, Hiroshima, Japan - The final workshop of the 2016-2017 UNITAR Hiroshima Training Programme on Anti-Corruption for North Africa successfully concluded in Tokyo on Friday. Supported by the People of Japan, the workshop was held in Hiroshima and Tokyo between 30 January and 3 February 2017. Twenty-four (24) participants from government and civil society organizations came from Algeria, Morocco and Tunisia.

Avoiding an ‘ecological credit crunch’ requires training and education for new skills and a change in attitudes to enable countries to leapfrog towards sustainable consumption and production practices. Children in Bhutan are proving to be valuable agents in this process.

“Domestic resources can mobilise a more immediate, nationally-driven response to climate change, and when aligned with external funding sources, can gain a much greater impact.”

By Sara Tchaparian // 14 November 2016 // Climate Finance

22 December 2016, Geneva, Switzerland – Engaging stakeholders is a tremendously important step to achieve the Sustainable Development Goals. If we are to succeed in implementing them, everyone must be on board. UNITAR and United Nations Department of Economic and Social Affairs (UN DESA) partnered to develop a facilitated online course for government officials in charge of the mainstreaming and review of the SDGs. The first session of this course took place from 5 to 21 December 2016 and received enthusiastic feedback from participants throughout the world.

November and December 2016, Nay Pyi Taw, Myanmar – Joining forces and expertise, UNITAR and UNDP in Myanmar worked together with the Government of Myanmar and more specifically the Union Civil Service Board to modernize Myanmar’s civil service and enhance its professionalism, efficiency, performance, accountability and representativeness.

12 December 2016, Hiroshima, Japan – The UNITAR Hiroshima Office has successfully completed the first workshop of the UNITAR Iraq Fellowship Programme: Entrepreneurship and Leadership Youth Training, held in Amman, Jordan, from 28 November to 2 December. The Fellowship is a six-month specialized capacity-building programme, incorporating two face-to-face international workshops, implemented with the generous support of the Government of Japan, that examines entrepreneurship and youth leadership in the context of Iraq.

14 November 2016, Tokyo, Japan - The UNITAR Hiroshima Office has completed the UNITAR Hiroshima Women's Leadership in Tsunami-based Disaster Risk Reduction Training Programme for World Tsunami Awareness Day 2016. Conducted in collaboration with the Government of Japan and the United Nations Office for Disaster Risk Reduction (UNIDSR), the workshop was successfully held between 30 October to 7 November 2016 in Tokyo, Sendai and Wakayama. Twenty-six senior female participants, selected from fourteen Pacific Small Island Developing States (SIDS) including: Cook Islands, Federated States of Micronesia, Fiji, Marshall Islands, Kiribati, Nauru, Niue, Palau, Papua New Guinea, Samoa, Solomon Islands, Tonga, Tuvalu, and Vanuatu, completed the training programme. In order to encourage both the development of a Community of Practice, as well as national, regional, and supra-regional discourse, participants from each country included one representative of government, and one of civil society.