26-28 March 2019, Merida, Mexico – UNITAR and the International Training Centre for Authorities and Leaders in Merida (CIFAL Merida) in collaboration with the Secretary of Public Safety of the State of Yucatan and the Municipality of Merida, with the support of Diageo hosted a three-day in-depth training workshop for law enforcement officers from the Dominican Republic to strengthen their capacities to implement breathalyzer campaigns in the Dominican Republic.

27 March 2019, New York, United States –The United Nations Institute for Training and Research (UNITAR) hosted a workshop with the Maryland-based organization Trees for the Future on the topic of diversifying nutrition and income sources. This was the second workshop of a three-part series on Using Agroforestry to Meet Sustainable Development Goals sponsored by the Permanent Mission of Sweden’s programme “Leveling the Playing Field”.

26 March 2019, Curitiba, Brazil – The International Training Centre for Authorities and Leaders in Curitiba (CIFAL Curitiba) jointly with SESI Parana, the Global Compact Network Brazil, and the Corporate Citizenship Council of Parana (CPCE) held a meeting aimed at promoting the inclusion of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) in business strategies.

20-23 March 2019, Jeju, Republic of Korea – The International Training Centre for Authorities and Leaders in Jeju (CIFAL Jeju) in partnership with Jeju Tourism Organization and Jeju Special Self-Governing Province conducted the workshop “Ecotourism for a Sustainable Future of Asia-Pacific”.

18-19 March 2019, Beirut, Lebanon. UNITAR hosted the third workshop of the year on negotiation strategies and techniques for the diplomats of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Emigrants of the Lebanese Republic. During the workshop, expert, Mr. Marwan Mery, founder of ADN Group, a large company of professional negotiators, provided the young diplomats the essential skills and tools needed to negotiate effectively in diplomatic settings.

15-16 March 2019, Atlanta, United States - The International Training Centre for Authorities and Leaders in Atlanta (CIFAL Atlanta) in partnership with the Embassy of the Kingdom of Morocco; Université Hassan II de Casablanca; High Atlas Foundation; Casablanca Travel & Tours; Friends of Morocco; Imperial Fez; Kennesaw State University’s Division of Global Affairs hosted the 35th Annual Country Study Program’s International Conference on Gender, Identity and Youth Empowerment.

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.

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.

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.

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.