On 13 – 15 March 2019 Grenada has become the first country to use a newly developed web-based version of the StaTact tool during a national workshop organized by UNITAR and UN Statistics Division (UNSD) together with the Central Statistical Office of Grenada (CSO). As a result of the workshop, 6 twelve-month action plans have been developed to address a bottleneck or kickstart a process in such diverse areas as as agricultural statistics, gender-based violence and child abuse, epidemiology surveillance system, education, disaster-related data collection system and environmental statistics.

12- 14 March, 2019, Puerto Rico, USA – The International Training Centre for Authorities and Leaders in Merida (CIFAL Merida) in partnership with the International Airport of Merida, Aerostar, C-Prep Programme and the International Council of Airports in Latin America and the Caribbean (ACI-LAC) joined forces to carry out the International Seminar on Hurricane Preparedness.

13 March 2019, Curitiba, Brazil – The International Training Centre for Authorities and Leaders in Curitiba (CIFAL Curitiba) in partnership with the Federation of Industries of the State of Parana (FIEP) System hosted the first training seminar of its “Compliance and Integrity Programme”.

It is with deep sadness that we learnt yesterday of the loss of Ambassador Abiodun Oluremi Bashua of Nigeria, a longstanding friend of UNITAR. Ambassador Bashua was traveling on behalf of UNITAR on board the Ethiopian Airlines flight that crashed tragically after taking off in Addis Ababa and took lives of 157 people, including about 20 UN staff as well as other experts, consultants, partners and travellers.

The International Training Centre for Authorities and Leaders in Jeju (CIFAL Jeju) in partnership with Jeju National University conducted the course “International Cooperation”, which forms part of Jeju National University’s ‘Global Public Diplomacy Training.

Leadership is fundamental to effective and efficient diplomacy. The success of international leaders relies upon their capacities to take initiative, lead others in and through challenging circumstances, and thus maximize opportunities and strengthen the positions, objectives and achievements of parties and groups. In this regard, a workshop on Leadership Skills, which is part of the Executive Diploma in Diplomatic Practice, was organized by UNITAR’s Division for Multilateral Diplomacy.

The International Training Centre for Authorities and Leaders in Curitiba (CIFAL Curitiba) started the “Women in Science” Lecture Series to highlight the role of women in development. The Lectures started on 28 February and will be conducted throughout the month on March across SESI Schools in the State of Paraná, Brazil.

March 2019, Geneva, Switzerland – The UNOSAT Rapid Mapping Service has been supporting the humanitarian community with satellite imagery analysis for over 16 years. The service was established in 2003 to meet the demand of United Nations agencies, Member States and other humanitarian agencies for rapid mapping and satellite derived analysis in the wake of disasters and complex emergencies.

A new web-version of the StaTact tool was launched by UNITAR and UN Statistics Division (UNSD) at the side event of the 50th Session of the United Nations Statistical Commission (UNSC) on 5 March 2019 in New York. The side event show-cased experiences of the two pilot countries - Togo and Grenada.

The events took place as part of the numerous training workshops UNITAR will be delivering across 2019 for the Lebanese government. Other workshops will include topics such as negotiation skills and techniques for effective diplomacy and hosting multilateral conferences.