19 December 2017, Geneva, Switzerland – Following the endorsement of the Declaration on Trade and Women’s Economic Empowerment on 12 December, 2017 at the 11th WTO Ministerial Conference in Buenos Aires, UNITAR’s Women Leadership Programme hosted the first of a 5-part high-level seminar series.

"With the new electoral body for the 2011 elections, there has been so much improvement including the 2015 elections and we hope that the elections of 2019 will consolidate the successes furthermore.”

11 – 13 December 2017, Addis Ababa, Ethiopia – A three-day “Symposium on Governance for Implementing the Sustainable Development Commitments in Africa” took place from 11th to 13th December 2017 in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia. This Symposium organized in partnership by UN DESA, UNITAR, UNDP and OIF featured a keynote address by Ambassador Kamau and plenary and break-out sessions with the participation of several Ministers and senior public officials from most of the African countries. The meeting has called for maintaining the high level of ambition instilled in the Agendas and rising to the challenge of implementation, for ensuring a sustained and exemplary leadership and whole-of-government approaches, and for empowering people and societies at large to actively shape policy design. It has provided a practical knowledge-sharing and showcasing space for government officers leading work on the 2030 Agenda and Agenda 2063 and international partners.

Before she participated in her first UNITAR training, Ms. Syeda Bushra Binte Amin was working at the Asian Disaster Preparedness Centre (ADPC), a regional organization focused on disaster preparedness in Bangladesh.

“It was hard to know the exact damage area from flood, drought or other disaster because they happened fairly frequently and all estimates were done manually. Now, with GIS we can show our department and ministry a clear picture of the area of disaster and other important information quickly”.

“Instead of the old method of information sharing, I now use technologically advanced tools to convert probability of precipitation to actual rainfall amounts for specific areas, and that final output is put into GIS maps with which farmers can interact and understand.” 

"The impact for peace training really opened my eyes to practical ‘learning by doing’ training techniques that I have integrated into my own money management training modules to a very powerful effect.” 

Megan Davis, an Aboriginal woman of the Cobble Cobble clan from Warra in South West Queensland was waiting at the gate of the Palais des Nations on a Saturday evening in July 2000 to board the bus to go to a small village outside Geneva to take part in the first UNITAR Training Programme to Enhance the Conflict Prevention and Peacemaking Capacities of Indigenous Peoples’ Representatives.

Ms. Christina Pita Lukudu is a legal counsel working for the Directorate of Public Prosecution in the Ministry of Justice of South Sudan, the world’s newest nation. She was among a group of Fellows who participated in the first cycle of the UNITAR South Sudan Fellowship Programme, launched in September 2015.  

"Our project has already raised SCP Awareness in almost 500 Sri Lankan students ranging from school-aged children to university staff. At the same time, I am also working to develop a model green university in Sri Lanka, where SCP practices will be developed and, I hope, adopted by other universities in the country to become more environmentally friendly.”