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The mandate of UNITAR is to enhance the effectiveness of the United Nations in achieving the major objectives of the Organization through appropriate training and research, in particular in the fields of maintenance of peace and security and the promotion of economic and social development. UNITAR carries out training programmes mainly for government officials, scholars and representatives of civil society from developing countries.

Since its restructuring and renewal in the early 1990s UNITAR has seen a rapid expansion of both the number of its programmes (from roughly 40 in 1991 to 150 in 2003) and participants (from roughly 2,000 in 1991 to nearly 10000 in 2004). The Institute has maintained a steady and progressive development policy and in August 1996 opened its New York Office to conduct training programmes for delegates working at the United Nations Headquarters. The UNITAR Hiroshima Office for Asia and the Pacific was established in July 2003.

A UNITAR Office for the Asia-Pacific Region

The Asia-Pacific region comprises some 50 countries representing over 60 per cent (3.5 billion people) of the world population. The importance of this region, its vitality and its influence in the world – in political, economic, cultural and social fields – is fully recognized by UNITAR. Capacity building is a key factor in the future developments of Asia-Pacific and a regional UNITAR Office devoted to training and research has therefore a natural "raison d’être".

Since the creation of UNITAR in 1965, the share of the Asia-Pacific region in terms of the programmes provided by the Institute (number of persons by country benefiting from UNITAR's training) is roughly at about 15 per cent . It is expected that through the opening of a regional office in Hiroshima, UNITAR will increase and intensify its capacity-building activities in this region exponentially, so as to strike a balance with the region’s population and its potential. Additionally, it is important that UNITAR’s training programmes be tailored according to the needs and realities of each region and the Institute’s presence in the Asia-Pacific region will surely improve its own capabilities, allowing for training activities that are more effective since they will be coordinated and harmonized from within the region.

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