The Arab Gulf Programme for Development (AGFUND) and UNITAR launched the Global Learning Platform on Financial Inclusion in October 2019. The initiative aims to enhance capacities on financial management and financial inclusion. It is oriented towards finance practitioners, particularly in micro-credit financial institutions and in government entities fostering financial inclusion of women and young entrepreneurs, as well as officers in governments, NGOs and other civil society organizations. Since its launch, AGFUND and UNITAR have delivered eight online courses and two e-workshops on the platform, all free of charge, targeting participants from least developed countries, landlocked developing countries and small island development states; especially from Sub-Saharan Africa, the Middle East and North Africa. To increase the likelihood of reaching the intended beneficiaries, a selection process was carried out for each learning event and the platform was made available in desktop version and through a mobile app.

Lavinia Latu shares her experience and Preparedness Tips as a leader in Disaster Planning in Tonga, an area prone to annual cyclones, storm surges, and flooding – made worse with rising sea levels – and droughts induced by El Niño.

The Cook Islands have had long-standing self-reliant communities in the face of natural disasters. An alumna of UNITARPs Disaster Risk Reduction Training Programme, Sonath Abdul Sattar shares her story and preparedness tips and options.

The Cook Islands have had long-standing self-reliant communities in the face of natural disasters. An alumna of UNITARPs Disaster Risk Reduction Training Programme, Lydia Sijp shares her story and preparedness tips and options.

The programme’s coaching component has helped those selected as coaches to enhance their hard skills and improve their soft skills, which they can sometimes implement in their workplaces.

The UNITAR Iraq Entrepreneurship and Leadership Youth Training Programme is a fellowship initiative that provides youth with skills in entrepreneurship and leadership to develop or strengthen local businesses that contribute to social and economic stability in their country. In this Impact Story, we review the extent to which participants have applied or transferred knowledge and skills from the programme and the challenges encountered by them and spotlight the experiences from three participants.

For the world to build back from the socioeconomic havoc wrought by the COVID-19 pandemic, women’s leadership is more necessary than ever before. This International Women’s Day, UNITAR celebrates alumna who are leading to improve their lives and societies in fragile and developing states.

“My world drastically expanded when I gathered the courage to take this step. It was definitely worth it,” says second-year Takeda High School student Sakura OMURA, who became a 2020 UNITAR Youth Ambassador. UNITAR Hiroshima Office/Division for Prosperity, in collaboration with the UNITAR Association, annually runs the UNITAR Youth Ambassador programme for high school students in Hiroshima. UNITAR seeks to nurture these young people, who are expected to play an important role in the international community, by providing opportunities for exposure to the global community. Sakura was one of the 24 youth selected for the 2020 programme, which was held online due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

Natallia noted that more and more officials and experts in the field are completing FAO-UNITAR courses, which is also conducive for the promotion of new ideas at the national level.

“When you are equipped with knowledge you don’t remain the same. You talk with confidence because you have really learned, and know it is clearer and you talk based on evidence and at the point of knowledge”.