26 June 2023, Geneva, Switzerland - Advancing the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) requires innovative approaches that go beyond traditional approaches. The United Nations Institute for Training and Research (UNITAR) is particularly proactive in innovating to be one of the most important institutions to develop methods in keeping with global developments and surrounding circumstances, especially via its significant work towards the achievement of SDG 16 for peace, justice and strong institutions endorsed by its Division for Peace and its inventive work to prevent extremism and counter-terrorism.

9 Juin 2023, Genève, Suisse - L'Institut des Nations Unies pour la Formation et la Recherche (UNITAR) et le Consortium  Cohésion Sociale en RDC, constitué de Norwegian Refugee Council, de Search for Common Ground, d'International Alert et de Justice Plus, ont signé un accord pour que l'UNITAR soutienne le processus de capitalisation du Consortium pour le projet «Contribuer au renforcement de la cohésion sociale et à la stabilisation dans les provinces de l’Ituri et du Nord-Kivu» financé par l’Union Européenne.

24 May 2023, Online - UNITAR’s Division for Peace is excited to announce the signing of a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with the Centre for Peace and Justice at Brac University (CPJ) to promote peace and social cohesion in South Asia through tailored capacity building programmes empowering and elevating the voices of youth and women. The many overlaps of UNITAR’s and CPJ’s mandates create many avenues for collaboration and thus the formalisation of this partnership represents a promising opportunity to create impactful joint programming to support the peacebuilding efforts of underrepresented groups.

4 April 2023, Geneva, Switzerland - The second dedicated UNITAR Training Programme to Enhance Conflict Prevention and Peacemaking in the Central African Region began with advance work in January 2023 consisting of preliminary readings and questions to reflect upon. The intensive live and online sessions were conducted from 6 to 15 February 2023. French version below.

The sustainable energy pillar at the Division for Peace in UNITAR hosts the coordination unit for Global Platform for Action on Sustainable Energy in Displacement Settings (GPA). With a consortium of 16 United Nations and International Non-Governmental Organizations, the goal of the GPA is to ensure that the displaced people around the world have access to affordable, reliable, sustainable and modern energy.

As UNITAR contributes to the implementation of the SDGs, a delegation participated at the COP27 to organize side events, workshops, and bi-lateral meetings to bring attention on the ‘leave no one behind’ principles in climate action and sustainable energy. The impact of climate change on displaced populations is rarely brought up in climate negotiation agenda. Therefore, UNITAR’s Global Platform for Action on Sustainable Energy in Displacement Settings (GPA) made efforts to raise awareness of humanitarian energy in the climate action discussions. This included ensuring that the displaced people were physically present at the conversations and their voices were heard. Through active participation of the GPA and displaced communities, UNITAR invited the governments to include displaced people into the Nationally Determined Contributions (NDCs), National Adaptation Policies (NAPs), and energy policies.

I was thrilled to be able to write about the things that I practiced on a day-to-day basis and freely discuss the theoretical aspects without any restraints, a freedom that only academia provides us.”

"When working on human rights issues it is often not easy to find mutually beneficial solutions, especially when violators may be sitting at the negotiation table. However, the ability to carry out an interest-based approach allows me to analyze situations more comprehensively and to come up with options that were not being initially considered."

7 October 2022, Nairobi, Kenya - KCB Foundation and the United Nations Institute for Training and Research (UNITAR) have partnered to promote the use of electric motorbikes by Boda Boda riders in Kenya. This is an effort towards accelerating the transition to a low-carbon resilient economy and enable the transition of 25% of the total loan portfolio to green investments by 2025, as part of the KCB Net Zero ambition.

In an effort to promote global progress toward a more sustainable, peaceful, and prosperous world, UNITAR has been working since its founding in 1963 to bridge the capacity gaps that exist for individuals and institutions. By developing tailored learning solutions that facilitate the creation of flexible and intellectually stimulating environments for learning and collaboration and encourage participation, dialogue, local ownership, and knowledge base expansion for sustainable impact, UNITAR’s Division for Peace helps to accelerate the achievement of Sustainable Development Goal 16 of Peace, Justice, and Strong Institutions as well as the Agenda 2030.