20 April 2021, New York, USA – Mr. Nikhil Seth, Executive Director of UNITAR, is visiting New York to discuss strategic matters with officials from the United Nations. During his first day, he had a meeting with Mr. Abdel Abdellatif, Director of the UN Office for South-South Cooperation. The two discussed the cooperation between both offices through the Operational Satellite Applications Programme (UNOSAT) focusing on the use of maps, reports, and data from satellite images to assess the impact of flooding as the most frequent type of disaster. This initiative is to better support and provide technical assistance to Least Developed Countries (LDCs) and Small Island Developing States (SIDS) with the cooperation of the Government of India, South Africa, and possibly China.

19 April 2021, Geneva, Switzerland – 111 senior business executives from AB InBev’s corporate affairs teams across the world joined the inaugural presentation of the Toolkit 2.0 “Designing and implementing campaigns in support of vaccination efforts to prevent and reduce the spread of COVID-19: Strategies for Companies” on 15 April 2021 at 9:00 EST.

13 April 2021, Geneva, Switzerland – In collaboration with the Rule of Law and Anticorruption Center (ROLACC), UNITAR successfully concluded the 2nd iteration of the e-learning course on “Anticorruption and Sustainable Development: Building Inclusive and Transparent Societies for All” offered between 24 February and 7 April 2021.

7-8 April 2021, New York, USA (Virtual) - The United Nations Institute for Training and Research (UNITAR) successfully delivered its skills-building workshop “Elections to UN Organs: Workshop for Election Officers” from 7-8 April 2021. With sponsorship by the Swedish contribution under the programme “Levelling the Playing Field”, the two day-long workshop consisted of five sessions. It included UN staff and elections officers with the aim to help delegates better understand the election processes and procedures of various United Nations organs.

12 avril 2021, Brazzaville, République du Congo – Du 25 février au 31 mars 2021, UNITAR-UNOSAT a livré une formation en ligne au bénéfice de la République du Congo. Cette formation, animée par des facilitateurs, avait pour but de transmettre aux participants les concepts et la terminologie de la technologie de l'information géospatiale (TIG) ainsi que des méthodologies géospatiales pour soutenir les opérations de réponse d'urgence et le processus de décision lors de catastrophes humanitaires.

13 April 2021, Geneva, Switzerland - When a natural disaster hits, rapid responses are essential to assess the damage quickly and to direct humanitarian relief efforts where they are needed the most. Experts and data scientists from UNITAR-UNOSAT and UN Global Pulse applied Artificial Intelligence (AI) to satellite imagery to quickly map flooded areas and assess the damage that was caused in various operational settings. In this blog, we describe the approach and how we’re using it to inform decision-making on the ground.

8 April 2021, Georgetown, Guyana & Geneva, Switzerland – Between 18 January and 02 February 2021 UNOSAT and CIMA in partnership with UNDP, Guyana delivered a 12-day technical course entitled “Operational Flood Forecasting System”. The course focused on the operational use of the hydrologic/hydraulic models and flood forecasting chain implemented at Hydrometeorological Service, Ministry of Agriculture, Guyana. Due to travel restrictions resulting from the COVID-19 pandemic, the training was delivered remotely in a moderated e-learning format.

6 April 2021, Bangkok, Thailand - UNOSAT delivered an advanced training on the Operational Application of Geospatial Information Technology (GIT) for Disaster Risk Reduction (DRR) for Fiji, Vanuatu, and the Solomon Islands using blended learning formats to ensure maximum engagement of participants despite the challenges of the COVID-19 pandemic. This training was offered as part of the capacity development activities of the CommonSensing project that aims to improve climate resilience in the Pacific small island states.

31 March 2021, Copenhagen, Denmark - UNITAR-UNOSAT and the University of Copenhagen co-organized and delivered a 3-week Masters level course entitled “Geo-information in disaster situations” from 8 to 26 March 2021. The beneficiaries were fourteen University of Copenhagen students registered in the Master of Disaster Management programme. Instruction during the first week focused on an introduction to remote sensing, data analysis, cartographic modelling and essential software applications and was delivered by the University of Copenhagen.

30 March 2021, Geneva, Switzerland - The BLC and UNITAR presented a joint webinar series, the first of which airing on 22 March 2021, to announce the initiative and ensure that both organizations’ audiences, especially from the Latin American region, may be introduced to further opportunities to advance their skills, networks, and careers.